The Interactive Slide (UPF Patent Pending) is a large inflatable slide that is augmented with interactive technology. The current configuration has a sliding surface 4 meters wide and 3 meters long, which acts also as an image projection screen. A computer vision system detects the movements, actions and attitudes of children to allow them to play with an interactive experience on the sliding surface of the slide.

Myriad games and educational experiences may be designed and developed for the surface of the slide without having to change the underlying infrastructure.

This project is more than a fun generating experience. It is an ongoing research within the field of interactive communication for children with special needs. Specifically, the Interactive Slide addresses important issues concerning children in Europe, namely those related to children obessity and lack of socialisation. The Interactive Slide wishes to become a tool to encourage children to do more physical exercise while socialising with other children. This project also contributes to international efforts in this area within the notion of Interactive Playgrounds.

Applications

The Virtual Mosaic

This is an expressive and fun application especially conceived for children 4 to 8 years old, which nonetheless may appeal to all ages. The application is based on graphical black and white squares that slide from the top to the bottom of the screen. On reaching the bottom they accumulate forming an irregular black and white mosaic. This mosaic, upon reaching a certain height, will lose its lower row hence moving the rest of its rows one level down. This way, the mosaic is ever changing and never fills the whole image. From the top of the slide, children may tint the squares in a certain colour by placing their hands on the surface and "touch" the squares. If they wish to change the colour they only have to take their hands away for a moment and place them back on the surface. In this manner, the coloured falling squares provide colour to the mosaic below. At any one moment, children may plunge down the slide and on arriving to the mosaic they cause a splash of squares that reconfigures the mosaic! Finally, at the lower part of the slide, children may play with the squares to change their position as if it were an abstract and malleable structure.

Robot Factory

This application that part of a Master Thesis project of the student Joan Soler-Adillon of the Interdisciplinary Master on Cognitive Systems and Interactie Media (CSIM). This application is being used to analyse the control of tempo of the application and how the users adapt or not to this tempo. In comparison to the previous experience, this one has been conceived for older children, with an age ranging from 10 to 14. The game is based on a robot factory since the mechanical components of a chain of construction provide a clear context in which tempo is easily defined. We are currently gathering user data by the system in order to obtain results from the analysis.

Click on the image or on the following link to see the
instructions of the game: Robot Factory.