Idea 1: Sequence Sculptor
A tangible platform for music creation and playback in three dimensions.
One way we propose to make music is by using a music sequencer: a way to place notes in time. We are interested in being able to touch sound and manipulate sound by touching it in real time.
The basic idea is to arrange musical notes in time on a grid. A cursor sweeps left to right.
Our system would have 2 modes: Compose and Playback modes.
Compose mode: the shape display becomes a canvas to create music. In the upper half, the surface becomes a touchable, sculptable music creation section. Vertically the shape display turns into a musical staff. Think of the grooves on a music box. In the bottom section, the shape display turns into a beat creation section.
Playback mode: the patterns will move across the display. There could also be a waveform that allows the user to tangibly manipulate pitch.
Idea 2: Tactile Education
An adaptable play surface that mimics traditional toddler block games. Using the shape display to teach toddlers and help them develop their hand/eye coordination. “Adaptable” is the key word, it allows for multiple games without taking up more space. More compact than having several separate games, easy clean up. Vision of eventually being able to download games, like a tactile tablet
Potential games:
Simon Game – Instead of lights flashing, pins bounce, and toddler has to push down pins in same order
2-player – getting parents or siblings/friends to interact with the toddler using the table.
Shapes – teaching basic shapes, like squares, circles, triangles. It could be expanded to showing letters, or with projection, could teach color.
Sorting – like the shape in holes game, except outlines instead of holes
Recognition – the pins could form several shapes and an audio file could announce the name of one, then the toddler should push down all the pins in that shape. We could also combine projection with this to add color recognition
Matching – Create a shape that matches a computer formed shape, either from scratch, or from a shape that’s almost there, like the “Find the Differences” game
Our slides can be found here.
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Sequencer can be an interesting exploration. Considering using the actual sound shape displays make would be interesting. It could be interesting if you can make a music which can be made only with your approach. Here is a cool related work POCOPOCO.
Not sure about the education tools. Just having several different games is weak. I will recommend to focus on one compelling scenario.