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Awesome Interactive

Ghostwriter AI Typewriter

Ghostwriter AI Typewriter

AI tools like ChatGPT are incredibly powerful. Backed by large language models, these systems can create convincingly detailed text, write code, and answer questions. Interaction designer Arvind Sanjeev turned a Brother electric typewriter into an interface to GPT-3. Users can type a prompt, and the AI types its response on the same sheet of paper.

FLUX 2023 LED Installation

FLUX 2023 LED Installation

This interactive installation reminds us of the Master Control Program in TRON. But instead of displaying the face of some omniscient computer, the pixels of FLUX 2023 display images of whoever stands in front of its cameras. The 20-foot-tall display was created by Ksawery Kirklewski, with sound by Arkadiusz Krupiński and tech mgmt. by Jakub Kirklewski.

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Recursive Gear Racks

Recursive Gear Racks

Mathematician and maker Henry Segerman shows off more of his fascinating interactive mechanisms. This series of interlocking straight gears uses a rack-and-pinion mechanism to transmit motion. Henry posted the models to 3D print your own recursive racks on Printables.

Harmonitree Inflatable Harmonica Instrument

Harmonitree Inflatable Harmonica Instrument

Composer and artist Sky Macklay shows off her Harmonitree, a wonderfully inventive musical instrument that plays harmonicas. It uses a tree-shaped inflatable airbag to push air through its harmonicas and can be left to make music on its own, but it is best when given a big hug for interactive sounds. She’s also built one that triggers with motion sensors.

DIY LED Interactive Coffee Table

DIY LED Interactive Coffee Table

This brief, time-lapse video shows an artist creating an incredible modern coffee table with built-in LED lighting that reacts to motion. He created its hexagonal cutouts using a CNC milling machine and filled them with resin. We couldn’t find the builder’s name but found a similar design from Axes: Garage.

A Trail Tale

A Trail Tale

Taking a hike through the great outdoors can be a relaxing and serene experience. But if you’re squeamish about bugs and other wildlife, you’re better off staying indoors. Thanks to the Molski Brothers’ A Trail Tale, you can experience a hike along the Appalachian Trail without leaving the comfort of your web browser. (Thanks Rob!)

Super Slide Brain Puzzle

Super Slide Brain Puzzle
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GiiKER’s interactive puzzle game combines the digital and tactile worlds by displaying a puzzle arrangement on its LED screen, then asking you to solve it by sliding the pieces into the proper positions. It comes loaded with more than 500 challenges. Great for kids and adults and an excellent alternative to playing on phones.

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Grasp It Structural Engineering Training System

Grasp It Structural Engineering Training System

This interactive educational system helps students learn about the physical properties of structures. It combines a set of beams, levers, pivot points, and other parts that attach to a backboard which work in concert with augmented reality projections to show the physics at play when forces are applied.

Pantone’s Interactive Color Wheels

Pantone’s Interactive Color Wheels

Argentina artist Felipe Pantone is known for eye-catching artworks that play with shades of color. His Subtractive Variability series is especially fascinating with its layered gradient color discs that reveal different color schemes as they’re rotated. He’s made other variants which are similarly awesome to watch.

Silhouettes

Silhouettes

NYC design collective Breakfast shows off another one of their amazing kinetic artworks. As its clock-like hand rotates, it uses electromagnets to push and pull steel pins into place, displaying silhouetted images of those who have stood in front of its camera.

Different But the Same: City in the Forest

Different But the Same: City in the Forest

NY firm Breakfast has carved out a niche, building interactive displays that use electromechanical flipping discs to display images. Among their installations is this ultrawide variant with woodgrain and mirrored surfaces that reflect people’s silhouettes as they walk by, revealing similarities in human behavior.

Flux Light Show

Flux Light Show

French art collective Scale created this hypnotic mechanical light show that uses computer-controlled motors to rotate 48 individual light bars. The installation, designed for the Constellations festival at Cloître des Récollets is interactive, allowing the public to control the display’s movements, light, and sound.

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Wall-Mounted Marble Coaster

Wall-Mounted Marble Coaster

JBV Creative designed this interactive marble coaster that can be wall-mounted. To build the maze, he created 3D models in Solidworks, then rendered the components on a 3D printer. Once it’s loaded up with marbles, it continuously recirculates with the turn of its crank. You can buy the STL files to make your own on JBL’s website.

HyperCube Infinity Lamp

HyperCube Infinity Lamp

This amazing and colorful accent light has a structure made up of full-color LED light strips, set into a cube of one-way mirrored acrylic panels. The result is the coolest infinity lamp we’ve ever seen. It works with a companion mobile app to adjust its lighting effects and has a sound-reactive mode. Comes in 10″ and 15″ sizes.

Shashibo Cubes

Shashibo Cubes

Artist Andreas Hönigschmid designed these wonderful interactive playthings which can each flex and fold into more than 70 different shapes thanks to their hidden magnets. The 3″ cubes come in six color schemes, and you can connect multiples to create more complex shapes.

MCP Cassette Player

MCP Cassette Player

Artist Love Hultén is a master at creating interactive electronic works inspired by retro technology. While the MCP Cassette Player isn’t as complex as say, his VOC-25 synthesizer, it’s still a fun piece. It’s basically a tape player that looks like a wind-up toy and lets its user control the tape’s playback speed with analog control.

Kitty vs. Sandbot

Kitty vs. Sandbot

Sand plotters are machines that moves a magnet and a ball bearing to draw geometric patterns in the sand. These machines usually move pretty slowly. On the other hand, Mark Rehorst’s large version draws very quickly, hypnotizing the cat who sits on the glass above it.

Magenta Lo-Fi Player

Magenta Lo-Fi Player

This interactive online plaything uses a recurrent neural network to produce loops of music that you can influence by moving around and clicking on objects in its scene. Once you’ve created a sound you like, you can share a link to your tune. Find out more details about the project here.

ROW

ROW

Russian art collective TUNDRA teamed up with display company HOLO ONE to create this hypnotic artwork. It features a series of modular, scalable persistence of vision screens which display moving patterns that highlight and reflect the space in which they are installed. The piece made its debut in Shanghai, China in July 2020.

The Factory Concrete Marble Maze

The Factory Concrete Marble Maze

Material Immaterial Studio presents a unique piece of interactive tabletop art. Cast from concrete, the diminutive Factory features design elements of Brutalist industrial architecture and incorporates a rolling ball maze. Just roll the tiny steel bearings from its tower, and enjoy the show! Measures 8.07″ W x 4.33″ D x 6.29″ H.

The True Size of…

The True Size of…

When looking at a 2D map of the world, it’s really hard to understand how big countries really are. For instance, the U.S., Australia, and Europe are similarly sized. Developed by James Talmage and Damon Maneice, The True Size Of… lets you drag countries on top of each other to better visualize their relative sizes.

Lollipopter Fidget Toy

Lollipopter Fidget Toy

This playful interactive desktop artwork transforms between a pine cone shape and a helix structure depending on the direction you spin it. There’s also a wooden “executive version” because bosses don’t like colors, and like to spend twice as much money.

Magnetic Letterpress

Magnetic Letterpress

Designers Graham Plumb and Stephen Braitsch collaborated on this amazing mechanical display that uses a series of 180 magnets to write text in a pool of ferrofluid. They built 10 custom machines which are programmed to raise and lower magnets, creating the segmented letters in the oily fluid.

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