Image courtesy of MIT
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On the group's website, researchers describe how they are exploring new applications for the inFORM shape display. One area where they see much promise is in mapping, especially urban landscapes. "Urban planners and architects can view 3D designs physically and better understand, share and discuss their designs," they write. "We are collaborating with the urban planners in the Changing Places group) at MIT on this. In addition, inFORM would allow 3D modelers and designers to prototype their 3D designs physically without 3D printing (at a low resolution)."The Tangible Media Group also believes there could be applications in the medical field for what they are calling their Material User Interface (MUI). They want to be able to manipulate objects in hospitals, as well as explore the boundaries of surgical simulations. Imagine a surgeon appearing on inFORM from halfway across the world, their movements rendered in physical pixels. It would be mind-bending to behold, and maybe even a little freaky.Follmer thinks that this technology could have wider applications in entertainment and gaming. Take table-top games, for example. InFORM would allow these games to change physical states. "It's more of a platform for us to think about what the future could be when you can change the physical form of the computing device to match what you want it to," added Follmer. "It's like when people looked at the first Macintosh or Xerox computer with the bitmap screen and asked, 'What is the application?' Well, the application is everything with the computer. We think this is an open platform onto which you can output anything you want.""We think this is an open platform onto which you can output anything you want."
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