Just what are siftables?

Siftables are cool. They’re small, block-like, wireless, and interactive computers.  They look like this:

And you can do many things with them beyond playing games… like sequencing music, or creating interactive stories.

I introduced my grade 6  students to siftables during my InfoTech classes recently, and they were very impressed by the cool things they can do.  So impressed, in fact, that many of them chose to write David Merrill, the inventor of Siftables, a short email note letting him know as well.

Many of my students received a response from David Merrill, including David B, in grade 6.  Here’s his response:

Hi David,
Thanks for your message. I have been hearing from many of your classmates
also — it seems like my video was a bit hit.

I invented Siftables because I thought that the world needed a more
physical, hands-on way to use computers. It took a few days to come up with
the specific idea, but I have been thinking about this kind of thing for a
long time. Here is a longer answer, that I wrote in response to an email
interview request:
http://tinyurl.com/dh4oog

We are working to make them available to the world, so please stay tuned!
I’m not sure yet how much they will cost.
Take care,
-David

Hey…  technology works.  I it when stuff works!

Tweenbots

A social experiment:  in big, bad New York City, will the average person on the street help a little robot find its way across the park?  Kacie Kinzer aimed to find out:

In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Go visit the site:  there’s video!

Robot gardeners

A class of undergraduate students at MIT has created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants.

Small, custom built, $3,000 robots,  move through the garden on a base similar to a Roomba vacuum, and are networked to the plants. When the tomatoes indicate that they need water, the robots can water them using an onboard pump. When the robots identify a  ripe tomato, it uses a mechanical arm to pluck the fruit.

Read more courtesy of Ecosalon.

Mr. B says…