TEDxGreenville Open Blog post by Jake Knight.

Polish off your senses ‘cause those crazy kids at MIT have done it again.

Everyday of our modern lives, we interact with relatively static technology. While we push around our ergonomic desktop mice or swipe, pinch, and tap away at our fancy new mobile phones, our devices generally define what movements and behaviors are acceptable.

Independently the devices themselves are largely unaware of their surroundings. One iPhone set next to another, doesn’t generally create a stage of interactivity or an exchange of mood, color or storyboarding.

Introducing Siftables, an product idea that combines complicated communication, gyroscopic technology and the simple notion that technology can be reduced to the most basic element — the building block.

Remember back to a younger, more simplistic time when your imagination could run wild with a set of simple blocks. You might have stacked them, sorted them, built cities for yourself, or even smashed them together as warriors in battle. Your blocks were the characters in your story.

The Siftables project from MIT Labs brings its latest BREAKTHROUGH to the TED stage in the corresponding video. They show how these interactive cubes are fully in tune, not only with each other, but with the behaviors and input of us as the end user.

Combine our own input and creativity, with the self aware nature of these little smart blocks, and suddenly our creativity can once again run wild. We build stories, lay down electronic beats, and create dynamic interactions.

In a day where over sized screens, complex options, and data management rule our vernacular, the sophisticated simplicity of these little blocks can take us back to our own. childhood creativity.

This is Jake Knight’s favorite TED or TEDx video of the moment. What’s yours? Click here to find out how to share it on the TEDxGreenville Open Blog!