Awesome Interactive

Engineers from the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology developed a robotic marimba player who “listens” to live music then provides improvised accompaniment via artificial intelligence algorithms. Listen to more smooth robojams here and here.

Oliver Wilshen and Niall Quinn aka Signal-to-Noise modded an old Roland DXY pen plotter, covering its bed with strips of magnetic tape, and replacing its pen with a playback head. The result – a strange device that can play back bits of audio based on x/y coordinates.

teamLab’s interactive installation features a roomful of Murano glass pendant lamps, each of which can detect when a person stands near it, and triggers a gradual spread of color to the lamps around it. This looks so relaxing.

A 23.6″ full HD Android computer designed specifically for playing board games. It works with finger touches, game pieces and cards, and can store digital versions of physical board games. A $99 reservation gets you an early bird system for $250 off the MSRP.

Engineers from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group developed a unique tangible interface – a modular system which can change shape and color, and detect inputs anywhere along its surfaces. If we ever need a robotic pet snake or caterpillar, we know who we’re calling.

Interactive design firm Eness developed these modular LUMES light-emitting wall panels. They can be veneered with various materials including fabric, acrylic, and even blended into wood walls. This particular piece is installed at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, Australia.

We won’t let the irritating audio take away from Mitchell F. Chan’s Something Something National Conversation (In 2 Characters or Less), which features one of the most satisfying elements we’ve seen in an art installation – two puffy white clouds colliding endlessly in mid-air.

Recards makes unique greeting cards which include a vinyl record and a platform, spindle, and stylus you pop out and fold together to actually play the record. It’s a bit involved to assemble, and the audio sounds awful, but it’s still a cool conversation piece.

Lexus and Vevo collaborated to build this awesome version of its IS sports sedan, wrapped in 41,999 colorful LEDs. It can display images and animations, and can respond to gestures or music. It appears in the music video for Be the One from UK musician Dua Lipa.

MIT scientists have developed an amazing technology which allows users to interact with seemingly static objects in videos. Their algorithm looks for vibrations in footage to identify physical properties of the object, then manipulates a simulated version in real time.

Engineers from MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research have developed a method to produce temporary tattoos using thin layers of gold leaf to transform the wearer’s skin into touch-based input devices for controlling devices, a color-changing display, or as an NFC tag.

A simplified version of Mogees Pro for a wider audience and educational use. Mogees Play works with three musical apps that help you turn everyday objects into instruments while learning about musical concepts.

A tiny robot designed to kill you with cuteness, from the guys behind Anki Overdrive. Cozmo uses AI and computer vision to learn to recognize people, interact with its environment, and emote. Plus, its movements were designed by former Pixar animators. Your move, BB-8.

Google’s Project Bloks uses simple, modular blocks to help teach kids the principles of programming – letting them create logic using tangible controls, rather than having to write code. As an open hardware platform, developers can create their own variants.

Toon Welling and David Menting designed this plaything which encourages face-to-face interaction, with one person controlling an analog synthesizer, and the other controlling a sequencer on the other side. Its simple enough for kids, but awesome enough for all ages.

Performance artists U-Machine created this work in which a pole dancer interacts with the geometric images projected on the screen behind her. The result is a live performance that could pass as the opening credit sequence for the next James Bond movie (if it had guns.)