How about a large array of colored button-lights with a moving "cursor" light along the bottom. When a column of buttons is activated in time with the cursor's arrival any activated button (lit) will play a specific sound. The kids can toggle the various sounds by pressing the corresponding buttons in the array.
I like this proposal and would modify it with a very robust interface I saw at a music exhibit at a children's museum (it might have been Exploris in Raleigh, NC), but I'm not sure). Instead of buttons or any moving part that kids are almost certain to break quickly, use beanbags with RFID chips. Different colored beanbags might represent different sounds, and you could distribute them along a long rubberized pad (representing a time axis). Little hands have no difficulty picking up and dropping soft beanbags. If the long pad matched a long display, then the placement of a beanbag would correspond to the sound and light emitted from the display at that point in time. Lots of kids could place lots of colored beanbags along the pad and interact with the resulting sound loops very easily, and at very low risk of breaking the UI.
I was struggling to remember my login so that I could post the same info from Cool Tools - I'm glad you did! I highly trust the recommendations that are made on that site.
Robert Cringely pointed out the benefits of this tradeoff (pure speed vs. low heat/hihg maintainability), pointing to Google's use of Pentium III-s for their server farms.
The Neo 2200 features a 20GB USB hard drive with a multi-line display that's easier to use than the Archos. I was considering either the Archos 20G model or the similarly priced Neo 2200 because both are MP3 Players that also double as USB hard drives for data storage. The Neo is larger in size, and a little more cumbersome as a result. On the other hand, they've placed the hard-drive under an easy to open panel so upgrading to 30+GB drives later is easy. Upgrading the Archos yourself involves voiding the warranty.
I've been using the Neo for over a month now, and it's working great for me.
TROSA stands for Triangle Rehabilitation Options for Substance Abusers and is a fabulous model of how drug rehab programs can work. Founded around 1995, they're based in the Research Triangle area of NC, and currently have over 300 participants in their residential program.
Here's the idea. Participants, after qualifying for the program, live on site, dorm-style, for the 2-2.5 years that they are in the program. Discipline and scheduling are tight (not much idle time for them to fall back into old habits) and contact with old friends and family are limited. During their time in program, they learn trades by working in the 7 different businesses that TROSA runs.
TROSA gets only a small portion of its funding from governmental sources. The majority of its funding is raised by running businesses owned and operated by TROSA: masonry, moving company, laundry, painting, catering, landscaping, and others. While the participants work, their "salary" goes into a savings account that is given to the participant upon his/her graduation from the program, along with a car, a shared apartment, and job placement services. This way, not only are the participants rehabilitated, but they're actually given a head-start on their new life!
Having volunteered with TROSA in the past, and having seen the enormous progress made in their 6 years of operation, I'm convinced this is a worthwhile model for other programs to follow and that job skills training needs to be a part of any program that seeks to help people get on with their new lives so they don't lapse into recidivism.
For those that don't mind actually walking, researchers at UNC have created a solution of sorts. They can allow you to actually walk through a rendered virtual environment by tracking your movements with a head tracker and projecting updated images to your goggles. The system uses infrared LEDs embedded in ceiling tiles to synchronize your position with the computer environment. The use of inexpensive tiles allows them to create room environments of almost any size for realistic simulations. The realism is further enhanced by placing real objects throughout the space (a styrofoam block in place of a cabinet) which prevents you from walking through things that you perceive to be solid. While not as high-tech as some of you might like, I find it a wonderfully elegant (and feasible) solution to the problem of immersive VR. The research is funded by DARPA and NSF.
Slashdot Mirror
How about a large array of colored button-lights with a moving "cursor" light along the bottom. When a column of buttons is activated in time with the cursor's arrival any activated button (lit) will play a specific sound. The kids can toggle the various sounds by pressing the corresponding buttons in the array.
I like this proposal and would modify it with a very robust interface I saw at a music exhibit at a children's museum (it might have been Exploris in Raleigh, NC), but I'm not sure). Instead of buttons or any moving part that kids are almost certain to break quickly, use beanbags with RFID chips. Different colored beanbags might represent different sounds, and you could distribute them along a long rubberized pad (representing a time axis). Little hands have no difficulty picking up and dropping soft beanbags. If the long pad matched a long display, then the placement of a beanbag would correspond to the sound and light emitted from the display at that point in time. Lots of kids could place lots of colored beanbags along the pad and interact with the resulting sound loops very easily, and at very low risk of breaking the UI.
I was struggling to remember my login so that I could post the same info from Cool Tools - I'm glad you did! I highly trust the recommendations that are made on that site.
Robert Cringely pointed out the benefits of this tradeoff (pure speed vs. low heat/hihg maintainability), pointing to Google's use of Pentium III-s for their server farms.
The Neo 2200 features a 20GB USB hard drive with a multi-line display that's easier to use than the Archos. I was considering either the Archos 20G model or the similarly priced Neo 2200 because both are MP3 Players that also double as USB hard drives for data storage. The Neo is larger in size, and a little more cumbersome as a result. On the other hand, they've placed the hard-drive under an easy to open panel so upgrading to 30+GB drives later is easy. Upgrading the Archos yourself involves voiding the warranty.
I've been using the Neo for over a month now, and it's working great for me.
TROSA stands for Triangle Rehabilitation Options for Substance Abusers and is a fabulous model of how drug rehab programs can work. Founded around 1995, they're based in the Research Triangle area of NC, and currently have over 300 participants in their residential program.
Here's the idea. Participants, after qualifying for the program, live on site, dorm-style, for the 2-2.5 years that they are in the program. Discipline and scheduling are tight (not much idle time for them to fall back into old habits) and contact with old friends and family are limited. During their time in program, they learn trades by working in the 7 different businesses that TROSA runs.
TROSA gets only a small portion of its funding from governmental sources. The majority of its funding is raised by running businesses owned and operated by TROSA: masonry, moving company, laundry, painting, catering, landscaping, and others. While the participants work, their "salary" goes into a savings account that is given to the participant upon his/her graduation from the program, along with a car, a shared apartment, and job placement services. This way, not only are the participants rehabilitated, but they're actually given a head-start on their new life!
Having volunteered with TROSA in the past, and having seen the enormous progress made in their 6 years of operation, I'm convinced this is a worthwhile model for other programs to follow and that job skills training needs to be a part of any program that seeks to help people get on with their new lives so they don't lapse into recidivism.
For those that don't mind actually walking, researchers at UNC have created a solution of sorts. They can allow you to actually walk through a rendered virtual environment by tracking your movements with a head tracker and projecting updated images to your goggles. The system uses infrared LEDs embedded in ceiling tiles to synchronize your position with the computer environment. The use of inexpensive tiles allows them to create room environments of almost any size for realistic simulations. The realism is further enhanced by placing real objects throughout the space (a styrofoam block in place of a cabinet) which prevents you from walking through things that you perceive to be solid. While not as high-tech as some of you might like, I find it a wonderfully elegant (and feasible) solution to the problem of immersive VR. The research is funded by DARPA and NSF.