As young children we all had our building blocks and enjoyed the tactile interaction with the objects. Now scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab have created a set of smart blocks they call Siftables. "I wanted to build a new human-computer interface that would take advantage of our abilities to grasp objects, move them around and understand the spatial relationships between them," David Merrill, one of the inventors, said. Each Siftable is 5 cm square and has an LCD screen, battery, memory, a motion detector, Bluetooth, and infrared to detect the presence and orientation of neighbouring siftables. They can be programmed to solve problems independently or linked to a PC. Initially it’s thought they will be used for games but developers are interested in more work and learning applications.

biginterative.com.au a division of CDW intends to develop interactive learning aids for children.