Startling as it sounds, powering a display with air can be more mesmerizing than the best LED panel—and it all hinges on a surprising twist: sometimes, what you need to flow isn’t electricity but a carefully controlled vacuum. Here’s a beginner-friendly tour of how that works, why fluids (air in particular) can rival silicon in novelty, and what makes this setup both fascinating and a little controversial.
Electricity is often taught using a water-like analogy: voltage is pressure, current is flow, wires are hoses. This mental model helps beginners feel their way through circuits and logic gates. But how far can we push that comparison before it breaks? The short, exciting answer is: yes, you can build logic systems with fluids, not just with wires and semiconductors. A water-powered computer created by YouTuber and science educator Steve Mould demonstrates the concept, and long ago in the Soviet Union, engineers used a water integrator to solve partial differential equations. Water and other fluids can perform computing-like tasks, though they come with tradeoffs.
Water isn’t the only fluid in town, and it isn’t always practical. Its non-compressibility introduces risks like water hammer, and leaks can ruin the experiment (or your floor). That’s before you consider that a DIY water cooling disaster can fry components, just like overheating hardware. So what about air? Gas is a great alternative, and it opens up new possibilities in soft robotics and microfluidics. A recent project from Soiboi Soft explores this path by building an air-powered display using inflatable, individually controlled units.
In Soiboi Soft’s latest video, the show centers on a grid of silicone “pixels” that can be inflated or deflated by connected solenoid valves. The basic pixel starts with an open-faced shell covered by a soft silicone membrane. Unlike a light that shines on or off, this pixel’s “on” state is the absence of air: when it’s inactive, the membrane stays flat. Activating the pixel means pulling a vacuum, which sucks the membrane into the cell and creates a hemispherical indentation.
To scale up from a single pixel to a full display, you need a way to control many pixels in coordination. The setup places pixels on a grid, with each row and column hooked to its own vacuum pump. A pixel lights up only if both its row and its column lines are active, which is a simple AND operation implemented with two vacuum-controlled “transistors.” The design echoes silicon-chip logic in a tactile, airy form, hence the playful idea of a “silicone chip.”
By the end of the video, a 4×4 array of silicone pixels is talking back with text and faces. It even hints at playful futures, like a hydraulic version of the classic Snake game. The whole display is oddly hypnotic—the soft clacking of valves, the membranes puckering into and out of their cells, and the calm, slightly German-accented narration that adds a cinematic layer to the experiment. Is this ASMR? Many viewers might feel a tingle just watching the slow, deliberate motions of air and silicone in a quiet, repetitive rhythm.
Why does this matter? It broadens our intuition about how information can be encoded and controlled. It also invites a bigger conversation about materials, reliability, and the boundaries between traditional electronics and fluid-powered computation. If you’re curious about the physics, the engineering trade-offs, or the aesthetic chill of high-precision soft robotics, this project is a compelling entry point. What do you think—are fluid-based displays a quirky curiosity or a stepping stone toward practical, air-driven devices? Would you prefer to see more air-powered demonstrations or more conventional electronic approaches, and why?
