First presented to the public during a TED conference by David Merrill from the MIT Media Lab, Siftables are interactive computers in a nutshell. These cookie-sized computers have motion sensing, neighbor detection, a graphical display and wireless communication. They interact with the user and respond to each other when piling, grouping or sorting them.

Each siftable consists of a screen, four infrared communication modules, an accelerometer, bluetooth radio, battery, memory and the housing itself. This architecture gives it a gaming-like character and simple math and word games are easy to program in these little fellas. Great to carry around during the holidays!
Besides interacting with each other, they can also interact with external screens and can therefore serve as control devices. Think Nintendo Wii style in this setup.

I think this is computer interaction how it should be. Human beings simply like to interact with their physical context. However, with most computers nowadays basic human skills like grasping and manipulating objects remain unused. With Siftables you can finally forget about your mouse and keyboard and start playing around.

When it comes down to the field of Meta Products, I think the nice thing about Siftables is that they are so generic, that they can operate as both a class 1 Meta Product and a class 3 Meta Product. In order words, you can either control web content by manipulating the Siftables themselves (from physical product to online interface), or you can control how the Siftables behave by downloading web content into their built-in cpu (from online interface to physical product). This makes Siftables the ultra flexible Meta Product. I expect great added features in 2010.

SmartUs products remind us of all those oldskool games you did on the school yard. With SmartUs several devices are added, such as a grid, RFID scan device and info poles by which many different games can be played.
During the game statistics of all players are uploaded to the web. Afterwards the players can review the game online by means of a score board and their personal performances. They can also connect with each other and expand their network of players.

Despite problems like vandalism and wearing, I still think this concept works. Leisure during school breaks and education through the analysis of statistics go hand-in-hand with SmartUs. Not to mention the fact it lets children work on their condition in a playful way.

Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique secret code. With this code, you can enter Webkinz World where you care for your virtual pet and go on adventure with it!
We like the fact of having a real plush pet together with its virtual alter ego on the web. This combination works great for kids. The real pet serves as an everlasting friend, whereas the web takes on the educational aspect.

Webkinz proves meta products don’t come solely in consumer electronics, but can be as soft and heart warming as plush pets. And sometimes meta can be as simple as an entry code that comes with the product and which can be used to enter the online world. However, it would be nice though if ON-OFF could merge a little bit more than just by an entry code. Our search for meta products continues…

Searching the web for meta, we found Olinda, which is a web connected radio. It’s still in protoype, but the general idea speaks loud and clear: with its built in social network, it shows you the stations your friends are listening to, making listening to radio a highly social experience. Lights on Olinda indicate when a close friend is listening to the radio, using wifi and Radio Pop, the BBC’s website for sharing ‘now playing’ information. Each light is also a button: you can tune in to listen along with them. In this way you can easily discover new stations via your social network.

Olinda shows how consumer products can learn from the web. Features already familiar on the web, such as customizing, adding profiles and auto-complete functionalities, are creatively copied to the offline world with Olinda. For example, Olinda offers a tune dial that scrolls only the stations you most listen to, instead of scrolling all available stations.

We think this is a nice example of how physical products can become more than just the product, when connected to the web.