Super Cilia Skin is a tactile and visual system inspired by the beauty of grass blowing in the wind. It consists of an array of computer-controlled actuators (cilia) that are anchored to an elastic membrane. These actuators represent information by changing their physical orientation. The current prototype of Super Cilia Skin developed by MIT's Tangible Interfaces functions as an output device capable of visual and tactile expression.
Most existing computational tools rely on visual output devices. While such devices are invaluable, influential studies in neurophysiology have shown that physical experience creates especially strong neural pathways in the brain. When people participate in tactile/kinesthetic activity, the two hemispheres of the brain are simultaneously engaged. This type of learning experience helps assure that new information will be retained in long-term memory.
Super Cilia Skin is essentially a tactile and visual system. Its ability to replay dynamic gestures over time and to communicate remote gestures makes it a potentially valuable tool for education and haptic communication. The Tangible Interfaces team envisions Super Cilia Skin as an I/O membrane with a variety of applications in education and haptic communication.
On an architectural scale, a facade covered with Super Cilia Skin could represent the "wake" of a local wind pattern billowing up and down the surface during the day generating energy. As a more general display surface, a Super Cilia Skinned floor could trace movement over one's house or weather patterns over the entire state of Massachusetts. This sensibility is intended to pervade a sense of relationships between local and global conditions. [via MIT Tangible Interfaces; suggested by Braulio Agnese, New York.]
Developed by the innovative Tokyo-based company Material House, Linelight maximizes the illumination potential of artificial lighting by channeling the illumination of a single light source along a line. Linelight is comprised by a highly-reflective mirror housing fronted by an acrylic lens designed for even dispersion, which is contained within an aluminum frame.
Linelight accepts lamps from 35 to 150 Watts in power, and will carry bright light 30 feet using only a single lamp. Not only are fewer fixtures required compared with conventional point-source installations, but maintenance is also simplified, as only a single fixture must be changed. [via Material House; suggested by Hideo Arai, Tokyo.]
Vinyl billboards are used nationwide as temporary banner advertisements and are usually discarded into landfills where they create toxic pollution. Upset by this wasteful practice, Nicola Freegard and Robin Janson founded Vy & Elle in 2002 in order to transform this landfill-bound material into durable and vibrant products.
The strength of PVC vinyl makes it an ideal material for reuse, and because of the different images printed on the vinyl, it's even more interesting as a fabric. The material offers colorful graphics that take urban art into everyday living. Each bag and accessory item Vy & Elle makes is unique: with random colors and designs, every product made is different, offering a chance to carry a piece of art on a shoulder, in a pocketbook or in the home.
In 2006, Vy & Elle entered into an exclusive supplier licensing agreement with MMT for the supply of its billboard needs. MMT is the undisputed leader in the development of large, photographic digital graphics, and they emerged in 1987 with an innovative computer technology that replaced slower, less exact conventional methods. MMT's national reach has enhanced vinyl pick-up and deliveries, and their relationships with well-known brands have broadened Vy & Elle's palette of products. [via Vy & Elle; suggested by Charles Renfro, New York.]
Developed by Sachin Anshuman, Principal Organizer for the Intelligent Building Laboratory at GCU Glasgow and creator of Orange Void, Pixel Skin is a heterogeneous smart surface designed to regulate light, solar radiation and views, as well as display dynamic signage. Anshuman's prototype uses shape memory alloys (SMA) to actuate each of four triangular panels residing within a single module, and each surface acts as a "pixel" with 255 increments between open and closed states.
Pixel Skin is designed to create dynamic windows which allow views or control internal lighting conditions across the building membrane in response to particular subject states and their positions. The surface may also simultaneously be used to generate low resolution images, low refresh-rate videos, or abstract patterns.
A response to common conflicts encountered with daylighting and signage in contemporary architectural surfaces, Pixel Skin is a multi-layered electrographic surface which allows the integration of illumination and view controls with real-time communications media. [via Orange Void; suggested by Dieter Janssen, Toronto.]
