Interactive foam house reacts to light and sound

This is a surprisingly easy-to-build project for kids, and the end result is a small toy house that can be made to react to light or sound (or pretty much any sensor input). We adapt wearable technologies like conductive thread and sewable electronics into a foam structure.

I guess the idea is adaptable to other kinds of toy/doll houses or even tree houses. The screen based, schemer programming environment also encourages children to learn some simple programming as they learn to customize the behavior of their projects.

- youtube video link

Step 1 Ingredients

The pieces are a result of my PhD  research in ambient programming. My objective is to give novices  to programming and electronics, ultra-easy and robust tools to start making craft projects and to learn from.

What's really cool about working with these components is that (1) they have been designed to be very easy to hookup (most parts have only two wires), and programming them is done directly from a webpage, with now extra software or hardware to get.

In this picture, you just have to connect all the top holes together with conductive thread or wire, and do the same with all the bottom holes. All the components have an ID that tells them their roles, when to turn on, and when to send data. This greatly simplifies wiring, since you only need two wires going to everything.

These pieces, also available on our website, Aniomagic.com are:

 

• schemer - web programmable button
• sound sensor board - easy to use sensor
• lightboards - simple led boards that fade and blink
• plastic battery holder and battery
• conductive thread

Of course, you'll also need a house to decorate :-)

Comments

[PixelatedPoindextress]

Very cool!