Consumer-friendly makers
Entrepreneurship can sometimes take people down unexpected paths. Just ask the two co-founders of MIT Media Lab spinout Sifteo: Their success in rapidly commercializing their popular “smart” gaming blocks recently led to an acquisition by 3D Robotics (3DR) to help build the company’s newest consumer drones. In 2011, alumni David Merrill SM ’04, PhD ’09 and Jeevan Kalanithi SM ’07 had turned a Media Lab project into a popular gaming platform, Sifteo Cubes: plastic blocks, about an inch and a half on each side, equipped with color touch displays. Sensors detect the blocks’ movements and nearby blocks, and wireless technology allows them to communicate with each other to enable games and educational experiences. People can pile, group, sort, tilt, and knock the cubes together to play various games, developed by Sifteo and a community of developers. Some games are simple, such as bouncing a ball across multiple displays, or educational, such as unscrambling words...