This workshop was held at Nottingham's Mixed Reality Lab (MRL) over 3 days. The technology and props setup was followed by a pilot session with a pair of children to test out the upgrades of the various bases. We then carried out a number of snark exploration session with children from a local school.
Information about the technology behind the snark follows, with related movies and clips in each section. Select a link below to jump to a section:
The 'Snooper' space was configured as in our last
installation, with four ultrasonic transducers spaced two metres apart
forming a square on the ceiling of the MRL. After calibration the
pre-programmed positional information of the virtual clues was found, and
a number of passes made to ensure the repeatability of the system.
The snooper device (shown below) provides a method by which virtual clues
are found. A trigger is generated when the user's position matches the
position of a virtual object. In our scenario five virtual spaces are to
be found, these relate to tokens as follows: Three food groups displaying
a representative picture and notification sound; one three-note tune held
as a wav file; one picture of a key and a notification sound.
The well was arranged in a similar way to the
previous workshop. At the MRL we built a makeshift e-table that enabled a
projected computer image to be mirror reflected on to the back of a
translucent surface. This meant that the well could be viewed from above
without sight of the image projection equipment being visible. Speakers
were also hidden underneath the table so that the twig fence could be used
to hide cables and equipment. The e-table idea was developed within the
Interact lab, here some users are interacting with a web site using a
mimio pen.
The well animations were updated to include a sound and visual of food
items falling into the well when detected by the tag reader. A generic
animation was created of a brown coloured item falling in. The new
animation showed the circular waves around the food's entry point getting
larger and then disappearing before the snark's reaction appears.
In the last workshop we discovered that categorising the snark's tastes
as vegetarian or carniverous was not useful or used by the children. This
time the tagged food items were changed to two items each of meat /
vegetable / sweet foods. The movie clip below shows children feeding the
snark at the well.
Feeding the snark:
The cave has had significant changes made since the last workshop. The interaction model this time meant children were required to be collaborative and determine aspects about the snark by solving a task involving their standing positions on the 3 by 3 floor grid. The floor area has now been marked out. The snark does not move around anymore. Different types of sounds were used to create an ambient background noise rather than stark interruptions to quietness. Speakers that delivered snark noises and ambient environment sounds were arranged such that two speakers were high and issued the snark sounds, and two speakers were low and issued environment sounds. This provides some distinction between the sounds, in addition to the sound types. When children were successful in their task they were presented with some snark reactions on the back window of the cave.
A magic flying jacket was designed to enable the user to interact with a visual dynamic representation of the Snark in the air. The equipment used was made from two separate systems. The first system was a Bristol CyberJacket, this is a wearable computer which is located within a normal jacket. This jacket contains no visible hardware or wiring. The components are stitched into the jacket lining. There are no external wires for power as the jacket uses a long-life Lithium Nicad battery. Communication from the jacket to the outside world is via a wireless network system. The second system was a visualisation server. This is responsible for providing feedback to the user. The feedback presented is in visual form via a large data projector and in audio form via a 3D sound rig.
The download movie was updated to include the new cave sounds and snark reactions and some of the flying animations. The old wardrobe sounds and snark movement snapshots were removed. Some of the children were suspicious that the animations and sounds they saw were not the same ones they took. A more realistic review session would be useful and we would need to get the equip and pinger technology working for this. This would allow for repeats and omissions in what the children captured.
A movie of children reviewing snapshots:
Contributions to this workshop came from Henk, Cliff, Amoss, Ian, Claire, Danae, Mike, Yvonne, Sara, Eric, Hilary, Ted and everyone in the MRL who helped us set it all up. We must also include the children that came in to participate and share their thoughts about the snark. The children found a moment to prepare some plasticine pizza for the snark, we haven't heard whether he liked it.
Page last updated by Hilary, 16th January 2002.