System Overview

As mentioned before, the mediablocks do not act as a medium of storage, but rather as a mechanism for physical references and exchanges. Thus, the entire system can be thought of as a physical version of the well-known copy/paste mechanism. Indeed, one can use a Source, say a video camera to copy data to the token and a Display, say a laser printer, to paste it. As a result, after inserting the token into the slot of the printer, the previously captured picture will be printed.
It is crucial to understand that the picture is never actually recorded on the block instead, the system will identify the token as standing for a file recorded somewhere within the networks. Thus, when the block is inserted into the printer's slot, the software will download the media from where it is actually stored and print it.
Furthermore, the mediaBlock system provides a so called ``media sequencer'' as an instance of the Manipulators. It allows the user to actively manipulate (primarily sequence and position) the blocks' content. Using this device, Ullmer, Ishii and Glas explore the new possibilities introduced by the physical tokens.
In essence, physically moving the tokens (chute, stacking, racking, padding) on the media sequencer triggers actions on the contained media. For instance, making a token chute will delete (or unbind, to be more precise) its content.