Watch!

I made a 3 minute video for the first concept presentation. It was called illuminate for the presentation though i dont think it's the name i'll use at the end.

User flow

Umm.. My first attempt at making the user flow...

Physical setup of equipment

These may not be what will actually be used but it is what i have in mind as of now.
With the camera and projector behind the screen:


With the camera and projector ceiling mounted in front of the screen:

Testing light painting

I did a round of light painting with a few people to see what people would do with the light. These are two drawings they made:

Concept

My initial idea was to make a toy to draw with light on the ceiling while lying on the bed at night before sleeping. However the idea did not work out because of the expense such an object would run into. The idea then expanded itself to become a large scale art installation that would allow users to draw with light.

Below is a short description of the concept and its interactions that i wrote for a presentation:

CONCEPT:
Illuminate is an interactive installation that allows you to play with light. Find out what happens when you draw with different sources of light and watch the drawings come alive and interact with each other!

Interactions:
* Creates magic by drawing with light.
* Different sources of light let you explore its differnt properties and create different effects.
* The drawings come alive and interact with each other encouraging story-telling and sparking imagination.
* The large scale allows free body movement and encourages activity.

Magic

'Magic' was a term the kids we met during research often used to describe toys they found fascinating. A leaf with a waterproof surface became 'magic' as water quivered and whirled on it. An strong magnet was 'magic' when it was used to make sculptures out of metal balls or caused pins to swivel and dance on a lid.







Inspired by the 'magic' the kids had found, i decided to look for phenomena that i found magic. I decided to work on light painting, a form of photography i had previously worked with and found fascinating.

Initial research

Before we started the actual ideation we went through two weeks of field research. In essence, this means we spent two weeks observing, playing and generally spending time with kids.
It was a throughly enjoyable experience.

The Beginnings...

What IS this blog?
This blog is a documentation of my work in a 6 month long lab, The Interactive Toys lab, that i am part of. The goal of this lab is to create a toy, or rather, a play experience. Over here, "create" does not just refer to coming up with an idea, it involves the complete process of conceptualizing, producing and marketing our "toy". On this blog you can keep up with my attempt and progress at being a toy maker.
And with this introduction done, i am going to start at the very beginning..