You’ve got a lot of stuff on your desk. Some of its got a sentimental value, some of it just sits there. But what if it could do more than just sit there? What if your clutter could actually help you and your computer work faster?

credits: MIT Media Lab

Objects and their actions.

'Select Flamethrower'

Tangible Interface allows us to manipulate digital information by interacting with our physical environment. Not just moving your mouse around your table, its more than that.

A great example is Marble Answering Machine, a project from Durrel Bishop in 1992. Marbles represent messages left on your phone throughout the day. Drop a marble into a special dish, and the message linked to that marble will play.

Marble Answering Machine

They're inventors, not artists. Can you tell?

It’s like Superman’s crystals. But let’s get back to all that STUFF on your desk.

With Amphibian, an application from the MIT Media Lab, you can link the weight of everything on your desk to an action on your computer. Just grab a USB scale, and start assigning actions to objects. Now all the stuff on your desk actually means something:

Drop your keys on the scale and your computer signs into gmail, put your camera on the scale and crop a photo, a marker to email your mom, a quarter to switch to hand grenades.

Things could really get interesting by assigning actions to the different levels of your morning cup of coffee. Sort of a morning roulette, take a few sips, weigh your cup, and see what comes up. Youporn.com? A spreadsheet?

Amphibian is currently available for Windows machines. So grab a scale and hop to it! Get it?

Those are the jokes, people. Those. Are. The. Jokes.

From Kevin Kelly.