I&#x27;ve been working on something similar for several years. (Alas, I don&#x27;t have MIT&#x27;s PR budget.) I call it &quot;PinThing&quot; and implement the pins as DC motor powered, 3D printable linear actuators. I use limit switches to detect end-of-travel, and a shaft encoder to measure distance traveled. Current goal is to make an array of four 3x5 pin blocks to make a digital clock display. One of these days I really need to finish and formally publish this project! One big challenge in the project is driving down the cost per pin to make a large array affordable -- that&#x27;s why I focus on using 3D printable parts and cheap motors.<p>Here&#x27;s a demo of one pin powered by Arduino and an H-bridge motor driver circuit: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;pLzDHLm01wM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;pLzDHLm01wM</a><p>Three.js software demo: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pinthing.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pinthing.com</a>