MIT's Materiable is a Shape-Shifting Block Interface That Can Mimic Water, Sand and More

MIT’s Tangible Media Group has created a shape-shifting block interface, called “Materiable”, that can mimic water, sand, rubber and more. By integrating the multi-modal sensation techniques of haptics, the team was able to build a perceptive model for those materials in response to direct manipulation without precise force feedback. “The system can create computationally variable properties of deformable materials that are visually and physically perceivable. In our experiments, users identify three deformable material properties (flexibility, elasticity and viscosity) through direct touch interaction with the shape display and its dynamic movements,” said the team. Click here to view the first image in today’s viral picture gallery. Continue reading for the five most popular viral videos today, including one that shows how to make a liquid nitrogen-propelled rocket launcher.