This video demonstrates a new system that combines computers, a projector, and special “pens” to create an intellectual sandbox.

Being a drone in a corporate environment, when I first saw this video, I imagined how cool it would be to have an electronic whiteboard like that. From a nerd perspective, it’s just a pretty cool use of a projects and fancy input system to duplicate the functionality of the time-tested pen and drawing surface that costs 1/1000th as much.

However, several seconds into the video, you see that the MIT system is much more than just a fancy whiteboard. The computer software that reads the pen positions is capable of interpreting the lines you draw and turning them into logical objects such as boxes, wheels, and axles. Once the system has a collection of these objects, it can manipulate them and use them in simulations.

Overall, I think this is a great demonstration of what you can do by combining normal, existing technologies with a bit of creativity. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of something like this when it’s used for more than simple carts rolling down hills.