Siftables, the Amazing Computerized Toy Blocks, Are Coming To a Store Near You (Hopefully Soon)

By Stuart Fox Posted 01.19.2010 at 5:00 pm 12 Comments

Sifteo Blocks: via Sifteo

Sifteo, makers of Siftables, the ingenious cookie-sized computer blocks that play together in infinitely interesting ways, has today officially gone from MIT Media Lab research project to actual company. They're now open for business, but you'll have to wait a bit longer to actually get your hands on some. Nonetheless, we're excited.

Siftables, which you may have already seen featured on PopSci's Future Of on the Science Channel), are computerized blocks that can communicate wirelessly, sense their orientation and proximity to other blocks, and display an image. Those seemingly simple attributes enable a nearly endless range of gaming and other interactive possibilities.

Siftables blocks can transmit music cues to each other to become musical instruments, display letters or numbers for educational games, or interact with a console to become the controllers for a larger gaming system. By giving physical form to abstract data, the blocks bridge the gap between physical and virtual. It's best explained and demonstrated by creator David Merrill himself at last year's TED conference:

You can follow Sifteo's developments at their newly launched site, but frankly, there are only two questions I need answered: where can I get them, and how soon?

[Sifteo]

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12 Comments

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dmerrill

01/19/10 at 5:42 pm

Hi Stuart,

Nice post, but you spelled Siftables wrong in the title!

Best regards,
-David Merrill

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burnto

01/19/10 at 5:42 pm

Great post, but there's a typo in the title. It's "Siftables" not Shiftables. The rest of the article spells it correctly.

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John Mahoney

01/19/10 at 6:18 pm

Thanks guys! My fault. -Ed.

By the way, you're sending some over to PopSci HQ, right?

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Unintended

01/19/10 at 6:24 pm

Absolutely Beautiful! I hope Ill be good enough for TED one day. Ah man, beautiful.

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skillet

01/19/10 at 6:30 pm

This sounds like one of those innovations that there is a use for, but not great enough for it to catch on. Nonetheless, I find these types of things an interesting read. One question though, How do you feasibly recharge all of these blocks? Wireless induction?

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burnto

01/19/10 at 7:33 pm

Thanks for the fix! Oh, and the link in the article seems to not be working either. You can fix it by changing the link's "hef" attribute to "href".

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xlndr

01/20/10 at 1:02 am

My guess is that they recharge from the USB minipin ports in the picture.

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ford2go

01/20/10 at 2:18 am

Would be nice to have some kind of a price estimate. I mean, they're cute, but they are toys.

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popular scientist

01/20/10 at 1:26 pm

Let's remember that to a small child, the ideal playthings are anything you can pick up, or move, or get underneath of. Save your money! Infants don't need computers! They need YOU! But YOU are too busy shopping! Go home and PLAY WITH YOUR CHILD!!!

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