Shapely is a new kind of drawing experience for young children that uses physical blocks to create and modify shapes on an interactive table top. Fundamental Shape Blocks create squares, triangles, circles, etc., while Size and Color Blocks will modify these shapes. Using the blocks in combination allows users to create simple, colorful geometric compositions.
I designed, developed, and fabricated an interactive tabletop that displays shapes when special blocks are placed on its surface. These physical blocks serve as tangible controllers, removing the need for a mouse and/or keyboard to create colorful digital compositions, allowing for even younger children to have access to this type of creative exploration and design experience. Clicking and dragging is replaced by a more developmentally-appropriate action of manipulating physical blocks. By embedding the experience into a table, young children are able to see the shapes they’re creating appear directly underneath the blocks, eliminating many spatial reasoning problems between controller (mouse) and output (screen).
Using an IR video camera and projector underneath the table, I developed a Processing (Java) application that used the reacTIVision computer-vision framework to track special fiducial markers on the bottom of the blocks. These specially designed patterns work similarly to QR codes. The reacTIVision can recognize the fiducial’s unique pattern, track its location and rotation, and pass that data to a variety of applications. The application then sends projection-mapped visuals to the table surface. I also designed and fabricated the blocks, as well as the table itself.
