Phoxelspace: tangible exploration of voxel data

Phoxelspace is a project by Dr. Carlo Ratti, Ben Piper, Yao Wang, and Professor Hiroshi Ishii from the Tangible Media Group at MIT.

Phoxel-Space is an interface to enable the exploration of voxel data through the use of physical models and materials. Our goal is to improve the means to intuitively navigate and understand complex 3-dimensional datasets. The system works by allowing the user to define a free form geometry that can be utilized as a cutting surface with which to intersect a voxel dataset. The intersected voxel values are projected back onto the surface of the physical material. The paper describes how the interface approach builds on previous graphical, virtual and tangible interface approaches and how Phoxel-Space can be used as a representational aid in the example application domains of biomedicine, geophysics and fluid dynamics simulation.

Why do I blog this? one of the curious project I ran across while scouting for projects about tangible interactions and information retrieval/data manipulation.