Flipboards, those hypnotic relics of an analog age, are making a coming back. The latest example, now on Kickstarter, conveys anything from your Twitter followers to your company's beta countdown as a clicking susurrus of flipping cards.
The Miot is a wooden box that emulates the old departure boards in railway stations. And it works basically the same way: with six cards, each of which tumbles over itself to reveal a given character or number. The main distinction is the information it displays.
One of the central ideas behind Miot is that you should be able to use it to display any information you want. For example, the Miot can let you know you received an email, show you the temperature of your home town, show today's weather forecast, let you know how many Facebook "likes" you have, Kickstarter pledges you've raised, or even just show you the time. You can add hack any service you can think of into the Miot, and add new cards to the device so that, in addition to numbers and letters, the Miot can show the icons of your favorite Internet services.
We've seen throwback analog signage before. A couple years back, Berg tried to reinvent the message board by harnessing the technology behind old bus terminal signs. Essentially flipping analog pixels around using electromagnets, that tech is actually a lot more sophisticated than what Miot is doing. Perhaps that's why Berg never brought its sign to market, while Miot looks like it will ship by the end of the year.
Made in Valencia, Spain, the Miot Kickstarter is currently taking pre-orders. A miniature Miot which can only display one digit goes for around $167, while a full-featured Miot with up to six digits costs $300. They ship in December, and you can order one here.