David Merrill demos Siftables, the smart blocks | Video on TED.com.

Siftables are really interesting, very similar to Reactables which I blogged about while talking about more multi-touch UI last year.

Siftables are generic blocks, each has a wireless connection to a nearby computer, a proximity sensor so it can identify other siftables nearby and a small screen. The manipulation of the blocks at this stage seems a little bit slow, but the work shown with kids gives a really clear indication of the advantages of this kind of tactile interface.

I want some.