Mechanical fireflies could help create a new kind of 3-D display, say researchers at MIT. The project, called Flyfire, a project initiated by the SENSEable City Laboratory in collaboration with ARES Lab aims to transform any ordinary space into a highly immersive and interactive display environment. Each helicopter contains small LEDs, and acts as a smart pixel, the motion of the pixels is adaptable in real time. The Flyfire canvas can transform itself from one shape to another or morph a two-dimensional photographic image into an articulated shape. “Each of the helicopters then acts as what we call a smart pixel,” E Roon Kang, the MIT research fellow who is leading the project, told Wired.com. “By controlling their movement, we can have the pixels flying through the air.” |