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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Create a Shape-Shifting Smart Surface That Can Feel, Move and Communicate Like Human Skin

Imagine a surface that does not just display information but can physically change its shape, respond to your touch, sense its own movements, and show what it is doing in real time. A new breakthrough from researchers at Rice University and Kyung Hee University is bringing this idea closer to reality with the development of a soft, shape-changing mechanical surface that behaves almost like an artificial skin.

Published in Science Advances, the research introduces a magnetically levitated mechanical metasurface that can rapidly transform into thousands of different shapes while remaining flexible, soft and durable. The technology combines movement, sensing and visual feedback into a single intelligent platform, creating a new type of interface between humans and machines.

Unlike traditional electronic displays and touchscreens that mainly provide visual information, this new surface can physically interact with users. It can move, deform and communicate changes through both touch and sight, creating a much more natural way for people to interact with technology.

Building Machines That Communicate Like Humans

Modern technology has focused heavily on making computers faster and more powerful, but many human interactions with the world are based on physical experiences. People understand objects not only by looking at them but also by touching, pressing and feeling them.

Raudel Avila, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Rice University and co-corresponding author of the study, explained that humans naturally communicate with their surroundings through movement and touch.

The researchers wanted to create machines that could communicate in a similar way — not as rigid devices, but as flexible systems capable of responding physically.

Avila compared the technology to choosing an avocado at a grocery store. A person does not simply look at an avocado to determine whether it is ripe. They touch it, feel its softness and use that physical interaction to gather information.

The goal of the new metasurface is to create technology that can also provide this type of physical feedback.

A Soft Surface With Thousands of Possible Shapes

The newly developed metasurface consists of a 6-by-6 grid of soft elastomeric pixels. Each tiny section can move independently using electromagnets placed underneath the surface.

By controlling magnetic attraction and repulsion, researchers can push individual pixels upward or pull them downward with millimeter-level accuracy. This allows the surface to create more than 10³⁰ possible configurations, meaning it can form an enormous variety of shapes and patterns.

During experiments, the researchers demonstrated several impressive movements. The surface produced wave-like motions, ripple effects and changing geometric patterns. It was also able to imitate biological movements, including the rhythmic expansion and contraction of a beating human heart.

In another demonstration, the surface was used to control water movement. By changing its shape dynamically, it guided water droplets into different patterns and letters.

These demonstrations show that the technology is not simply a display — it is an active, programmable physical environment.

Giving the Surface a Sense of Touch

One of the most important features of the system is its ability to understand its own movements.

Traditional systems often rely on external cameras to track changes in shape, but cameras can be expensive, bulky and limited in certain environments. Instead, the researchers integrated tiny inertial measurement unit sensors directly into the soft surface.

These sensors continuously measure movement, angle changes and deformation. Using this information, the system can reconstruct its own shape in real time without needing external tracking equipment.

This gives the metasurface a kind of artificial sense of touch, similar to how nerves in the human body detect movement and pressure.

A Display That Moves and Shows Information

The researchers also added a 7-by-7 RGB LED array to the surface. These lights change color depending on the shape and movement of the device, turning the mechanical surface into a dynamic three-dimensional display.

In one experiment, the system created the visual effect of ocean waves beneath a small paper boat. The surface physically moved like water, while synchronized LED lighting enhanced the illusion.

This combination of physical movement and visual feedback could create more immersive experiences in future technologies.

Design Inspired by the Human Body

For lead author Pei Liu, a doctoral student in Avila’s laboratory, the project represents a completely different approach to designing electronics.

Instead of building rigid electronic devices, the researchers created a soft mechanical system inspired by the human body.

The surface’s soft outer layer acts like human skin, the stronger supporting layer works like bones, the embedded magnets function like muscles that create movement, and the sensors behave like nerves that collect information.

This design approach could lead to a new generation of soft machines that interact with people in a more natural way.

Solving the Challenge of Magnetic Control

Developing the technology was not easy. One major challenge was controlling powerful magnetic forces with enough precision.

When magnets move close together, their forces increase dramatically, making accurate movement difficult. A small mistake could create unwanted deformation or unstable motion.

To solve this problem, the researchers developed a mathematical model that predicts the amount of electrical power needed to create specific shapes.

This improved control system reduced calculation times from several minutes to only a few seconds, allowing the surface to change shape almost instantly.

Future Possibilities for Smart Surfaces

The researchers believe this technology could have applications across many fields, including wearable devices, soft robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, education tools and assistive technologies.

For people with visual impairments, shape-changing surfaces could provide information through touch rather than relying only on screens. In education, students could interact with physical models that change shape dynamically. In virtual and augmented reality, these surfaces could create more realistic experiences by adding physical feedback.

The team’s long-term vision is to move beyond passive technologies that only show information.

Instead, they want to create systems that can actively communicate with humans through movement, touch and visual signals.

This shape-shifting metasurface represents an important step toward a future where machines no longer feel like separate tools, but become more responsive, flexible and human-like partners in everyday life.

Reference: 

  • Gooyoon Chung et al.
,
Magnetically levitated metasurface enabling tangible and bidirectional human-machine interaction.Sci. Adv.12,eaeg0480(2026).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aeg0480

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