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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) often presents unusual projects and makes discoveries related to 3D printing technology. Its latest development is Materiable, a shape-shifting 3D printed block interface that mimics physical properties such as flexibility, elasticity and toughness.
The Materiable interface was developed by the Tangible Media Group at MIT. It is a follow-up to the Inform project, a reshaping interface, introduced in 2013. The Inform platform looked like a display connected to a Microsoft Kinect. Using 3D pixels, she simulated the movements of people located at a distance from each other. The Materiable interface partly borrowed the Inform technology, but also added something from itself, for example, it can simulate the dynamics and other properties associated with changing the form.
Materiable 3D Printed Platform reacts in different ways to touch and light. She also knows how to imitate the properties of water, sand and rubber. This unique platform can find its application in various fields, for example, it can become a tool for making 3D models (which can then be saved in a digital file format and printed on a 3D printer), a medical instrument on which students can hone artificial respiration or finding pain points, and even a tool for geologists, simulating the effects of an earthquake.
The essence of the interface technology is that each 3D-printed unit or "pixel" is connected to a sensor that transmits physical information to the computer, which in turn sends instructions to the pixel about the necessary physical reaction through its actuator.
Unfortunately, at the moment the Materiable project is suitable only for research purposes, because it is at an early stage of development.
