Snoil - A Physical display

Martin Frey, a german interface designer has developped a display: Snoil,wich use an electro magnetic system to create images, animations, text . He use a ferrofluid which has similar magnetic properties as iron.

The ferrofluid consists of oil. SnOil consists of two main parts: An approx. 25 by 25 cm sized basin that is filled with ferrofluid up to a height of a few millimeters. Directly underneath there is a grid of 144 (12 by 12) electromagnets that are arranged closely to each other. The magnets are arranged in four structurally identical blocks with 36 pieces each. The electronics for triggering the separate magnets are located on several layers of printed circuit boards directly underneath the layer of magnets. This makes the system highly scaleable in size and its footprint.

Source: freymartin.deAdded: 1 March 2007