"Transform" Dynamic Furniture Transforms Its Shape

Furniture of the future could have a shapeshifting feature that allows it to change shape based on the owner's mood. The work on this was performed by MIT, with the resulting device being aptly called the Transform. We've got a couple videos of it in action after the jump.

The work was performed by MIT's Tangible Media Group and Professor Hiroshi Ishii, with the final project being showcased at the Lexus Design Amazing 2014 in Milan this month. The design, as you may notice after watching the videos, are inspired by the movement of water, sand, and wind.

"The simplicity of motion emerging from the complexity of the computational world" is one of its chief demonstrations. Modern furniture is a static object, but with MIT's work, pins move up and down to generate the wave-like motion seen with the Transform. More than a thousand motors are controlled via a computer.

Movement is captured by a sensor, which allows the computer to control the motion of the pins. The idea of this is intriguing, and can be taken further in the future, perhaps allowing one type of furniture to transform into an entirely different one — a seat transforming into a lounge, for example.

SOURCE: MIT