Why the cubes, if the app already works?
People ask this first. The honest answer opens with the app, which is the right order. A phone or tablet is capable hardware that most people already know how to use, and that fact has to come before any case for four cubes on a table.
What an app does well
A phone or tablet is capable hardware. Most people already know how to use one; there is nothing to unpack, nothing extra to pair. For some of the work Tusi asks (watching a sequence light up, then tapping it back on the same glass) a screen version works about as well as the physical original. That is no small thing. Familiarity and reach belong to the app, and a well-made one earns both.
Where a flat screen falls short
Were these ever screen tasks?
They were objects. The methods Tusi draws on were built around colored cubes arranged by hand to match a pattern, and around blocks tapped in sequence on a table, so the reasoning lived in the action (which piece moved first; how the pattern grew) rather than on a pane of glass. A flat rendering does not capture that the same way. The cubes stay closer to the original form of these tasks; the screen version was the compromise made for convenience.
The older versions sit on the science page.
Physical object tasks still have no automated counterpart
Automated, self-administered versions exist for tasks that were already flat. Pattern work never quite got there. Nobody could watch the objects; a kitchen table full of cubes had no way to say which one moved, or when it was set down. Connected cubes reduce the gap between the task and the person: the objects themselves can report what happened.
Four cubes can say which one moved.
Fingertips in the measurement
Pinching, dragging, double-tapping, and hitting small targets are learned, precision motions. Difficulty with them is common; it does not necessarily reflect thinking. When a mis-drag lands in the data (a finger slipping off a small target on glass), it is hard to separate the mind from the fingertips, because the device asked for a motion most people never practiced until they owned a phone. The slip is a miss on glass.
Picking up a cube and setting it down is a motion people have made their whole lives, so less of the measurement is about operating the device.
Between the first pickup and the last set-down
A screen task typically yields a final answer and a reaction time. Physical work shows the route. You can see which of the four cubes got picked up first, which one got turned over in the hand, which one was set down and reconsidered, and where the pauses fell while the pattern was still unfinished. Tusi's data-rich promise is that process: more of how someone works, and what they answer.
In development Motion and orientation sensing during handling, plus movement and steadiness signals, will add to this picture.
App-only vs. the Ezzle
Look at familiar hardware and cost first; those rows belong to the phone.
| App-only | The Ezzle | |
|---|---|---|
| Familiar hardware | Already in most pockets. | A new object to learn. |
| Sequence-recall tasks | Works about as well. | Comparable. |
| Cost and setup | Nothing to ship. | Physical hardware. |
| Pattern and arrangement | Flattened to one screen. | Objects in real space. |
| Precision demands | Pinch, drag, small targets. | Pick up and place. |
| Visible at a glance | One small screen, crowded. | Stimuli spread across a real surface. |
| How the work unfolds | Mostly the final answer. | Handling and sequence of actions. In development Motion and steadiness sensing during handling. |
| Shared at a table | A private screen. | Something two people can sit around. |
What the cubes do today
Four cubes on a kitchen table are easier to judge than a paragraph. Start a conversation → · Continue exploring
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