Tangible Media Group

Modern children’s entertainment has shifted increasingly into the digital realm. Growing up during this transition, our team draws on our own childhood experiences of physical, social play to design systems that preserve an essential human experience: playing face-to-face with friends. We chose card games, particularly Collectible Card Games, because they nurture strategic thinking, shape personal identity, and foster in-person connection through tangible gestures like holding, trading, and slamming cards onto the table. These moments, built on touch, eye contact, shared anticipation, and the unspoken language of play, are foundational to empathy, cooperation, and emotional resilience. Yet in an era of smartphones, social media, and online gaming, such human moments are disappearing. We believe children’s entertainment is not trivial; it is a cultural and developmental foundation that shapes who we become. Technology should extend physical interactions, not replace them. With the emergence of AI, we can now infuse the dynamism of computation into embodied, tangible forms. Motivated by this, we developed Pocket Ink, a card game platform that merges AI’s adaptability and personalization with the tactile richness of traditional play. Using flexible e-ink displays, each card can dynamically change its content, allowing a single deck to host countless games and stories. While traditional cards are simple and affordable, they cannot match the customization and interactivity of modern digital media. Without innovation, physical play risks losing children’s attention entirely. Pocket Ink counters this by embedding advanced technology into a tangible, socially engaging form—retaining the presence, haptics, and social rituals of cardboard cards while adding AI-powered personalization, evolving narratives, and adaptive play styles. By re-centering play in the physical world, we aim to preserve the face-to-face interactions, shared emotions, and cultural bonds that keep us human. We envision a generation that is not only digitally connected, but deeply connected to one another through moments of real, present, human play