Interfaces in human life are very important, be it an old-fashioned bulky switch or a touch screen with buttons depicted on it - but without such elements of interaction with machines and computers, we generally cannot. Engineers and designers are constantly improving the interfaces, trying to make them more understandable, responsive and efficient. MIT's Tangible Media Group, for example, figured out how to create a tactile Materiable interface that reshapes and responds to touch.
The main idea of the project was an attempt to visualize human-interface interaction. Materiable is a matrix of separate blocks (24 by 24 pieces), called "pixels" by the developers, that react to external influences. The system operates under the control of software that simulates various physical processes. For example, an interface can behave like water or it can become a solid substance. You can press on the surface of the interface with your palm, and it will react to this touch according to its current state. In this case, the blocks are able to exert a reciprocal pressure on the operator's palm.
The UI design team see great educational potential in it, especially when teaching children. Together with the projector, Materiable can simulate the shape of various animals, buildings and other objects. People who have tried this interface on themselves claim that such tactile interaction with a computer allowed them to get more useful information than the usual visual one. At the moment, the developers are working to improve the characteristics of the system, including the speed of its operation and the resolution of the matrix. And who knows, maybe in the future they will be able to create a prototype monitor based on Materiable.
SERGEY GRAY