LINKX

LINKX is a toy based on TUI technology, created to stimulate the language development of autistic children.



LINKX aims to learn autistic children the words of objects in their own environment. This helps them learn the meaning of words. This is done by means of speech-o-grams (pictograms with speech). Parents record words inside them and attach them to objects before play starts. Children can link blocks to these speech-o-gram. Each link results in lights that go on and a sound that is played. The sound moves into the block. You can link blocks and speech-o-grams over and over and this will eventually make them remember the word. You can also link blocks together. When one block owns a sound, it will move to the other block. Again doing this again and again will stimulate language learning.



Author: Helma van Rijn

Affiliation: ID-StudioLab, University of Delft (The Netherlands).

Project website: http://www.helmavanrijn.nl/Projects/linkx-for-autistic-toddlers

Marble Tracks

An electronically enhanced construction kits for marble tracks that act as music sequencers for music education of young children. Marbles rolling along the tracks trigger sound events to produce the playback of musical notes and songs. Re-arrangeable tangible elements correspond to timing, durations and pitches of notes and thus allow electronic music sequencing by means of haptic programming.

Authors: Thomas Fischer, Wing Lau

Affiliation: Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Design

Video Link: http://modin.yuri.at/tangibles/data/FischerLau_MarbleTracks.mp4

TANGIBLE MUSIC (Link)

This is a very interesting and exhaustive collection of Tangible Music Interfaces provided by Martin Kaltenbrunner, one of the developers of the Reactable.

http://modin.yuri.at/tangibles/

You can find the link to this page also in the right sidebar.

Sound Mites

The work consists of a set of small tangible nodes that alter their behavior according to the nearby nodes, in an asynchronous fashion. Nodes have magnets on the bottom and are deployed on a flat metallic surface. Each node is equipped with a small speaker that generates a musical tone according to the state of its immediate neighbors and a simple set of rules. Nodes also provide visual feedback on their current state by means of colored lighting. Finally, the nodes sense touch through a thin metal rim and can toggle their state to reflect the interventions of viewers.

SoundMites from David Bouchard on Vimeo.

Authors: David Bouchard

Affiliation: MIT MediaLab

Project Page: http://www.deadpixel.ca/projects/soundmites/

SMALLab

SMALLab is an extensible platform for semi-immersive, mixed-reality learning. By semi-immersive, we mean that the mediated space of SMALLab is physically open on all sides to the larger environment. Participants can freely enter and exit the space without the need for wearing specialized display or sensing devices such as head-mounted displays (HMD) or motion capture markers. Participants seated or standing around SMALLab can see and hear the dynamic media, and they can directly communicate with their peers that are interacting in the space.

SMALLab @ Arizona State University - 2009 from aisling kelliher on Vimeo.

Project Website: http://ame2.asu.edu/projects/emlearning/index.php

Drawdio: A Pencil that Lets You Draw Music

Imagine you could draw musical instruments on normal paper with any pencil (cheap circuit thumb-tacked on) and then play them with your finger. The Drawdio circuit-craft lets you MacGuyver your everyday objects into musical instruments: paintbrushes, macaroni, trees, grandpa, even the kitchen sink...



Authors: Jay Silver and Mitchel Resnick

Affiliation: MIT MediaLab – Lifelong Kindergarten

Project page: http://web.media.mit.edu/~silver/drawdio/

The Skoog

Skoog is an exciting new musical instrument for children of all ages and abilities. Expressive, tactile and intuitive, The Skoog is a universally accessible platform for creating and exploring musical sound. Skoog uses state-of-the-art software to deliver the quality and expressive character of real musical instruments. Flexible and simple to use, it offers not only the opportunity for learning, creativity and expressive musicianship, but also a fun and engaging audio resource.

Offical page: http://www.skoogmusic.com/

Lightspace Play

Lightspace Play includes an interactive floor surface comprised of 16”x16” programmable LED lit and pressure sensitive tiles constructed to fit a 10 foot square space. Each tile consists of sixteen 4” x 4” pixels that can display any color, pattern or image. The surface is able to detect location, movement and density of players to give a realistic gaming experience. Reactions to player movements are displayed on the surface and are accompanied by sound effects.



Affiliation: Exergame Fitness USA

Project page: http://www.exergamefitness.com/lightspaceplay.htm

Freqtric Drums

Freqtric Drums is a device that turns audiences surrounding a performer into drums so that the performer, as a drummer, can communicate with audience members as if they were a set of drums.



Authors: Tetusaki Baba, Taketoshi Ushiama, Kiyoshi Tomimatsu

Affiliation: Graduate Schood of Design, Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan

Project Page: http://bell.sd.tmu.ac.jp/~baba/project/FreqtricProject/

Mü

MÜ is an installation with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. The table contains a square screen, with which one can interact either with fingers or with specific tangible objects. The application reacts with animated images and sounds.

mü project demo from mü project on Vimeo.

Authors: Beatrice Lartigue at al.

Affiliation: Various, see website

Project page: http://www.mu-project.com/

Soundgarten

The Soundgarten is a tangible interface that enables children to create their own sound environment by manipulating physical toy objects. They can use predefined sound samples, record sound samples of their environment and modify and arrange the different elements in sound scenarios, choose volume pitch and apply sound effects.




Authors: Michael Wolff

Affiliation: University of Applied Sciences, Cologne and Exploratory Media Lab at Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication, 
St-Augustin, Germany

Project page: http://www.soundgarten.com/

Jabberstamp

Jabberstamp is the the first tool that allows children to synthesize their drawings and voices. To use Jabberstamp, children create drawings, collages or paintings on normal paper. They press a special rubber stamp onto the page to record sounds into their drawings. When children touch the marks of the stamp with a small trumpet, they can hear the sounds playback, retelling the stories they have created.


Authors: Hayes Raffle, Cati Vaucelle and Ruibing Wang

Affiliation: MIT MediaLab – Tangible Interfaces Group

Project page: http://www.rafelandia.com/jabberstamp/index.html

Video link: http://www.rafelandia.com/jabberstamp/video.html