I don’t even know what to say here, I can’t come up with something witty. I have no idea what the actual application of this is, but it’s one of the niftiest things I’ve seen in quite a while. Researchers at MIT’s Tangible Media Group have developed what they call the INform system, that can, as they explain it, ‘render 3-D content physically.’ Similar to those pin-things you could get at science stores that would make the shape of your hand when you pressed your hand against it (as seen above), this allows someone remotely-located to have a 3-D presence by causing a similar pin-esque area to morph and flex to represent the persons hands, or anything else for that matter. Plus, they light up! If you’re familiar with gaming technology, it’s using 2 Kinect devices to interpret the movement of the person’s hands.

I know this doesn’t make any sense, I honestly could’t think of any other way to describe it, so I am just linking the video from the project page itself. You can see how someone remotely located is manipulating the pins as though their hands were right there. Watch it, and be amazed. A more detailed behind-the-scenes video and writeup is available at CNN.