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MIT Invention Lets You Reach Through Computer Screen & Play With Stuff
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 14, 2013
Modified Nov 15, 2013
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 14, 2013
Modified Nov 15, 2013
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In case it wasn't already clear we're headed for a WALL-E-esque future populated by robot bakers and oblong humanoids who communicate solely via iPad 7s, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have apparently invented a screen that allows you TO VIRTUALLY REACH OUT AND TOUCH THINGS on the other side.
Unveiled by the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group and dubbed the "inFORM," the screen uses something called a Dynamic Shape Display that can create 3-D objects out of digital information, allowing users on one side of a video screen to move around and otherwise interact physically with objects sitting on the other side. It's not quite Wonka Vision, but it comes pretty close:
No word on when this first descent into the Matrix is ready to make its way into the homes and hearts of everyday Americans, but we're looking forward to the day in which we can touch-screen punch that dude who Tweet-dumped us. Progress is a beautiful thing.
Tagged
boston
madness
mit
technology
Rebecca Fishbein
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