Update

I finished my proposal this morning and just handed it up. I also just had a meeting with mikael to refine some of the technologies i will use. I have to e-mail Nora and ask her about the demonstration she showed the class before where a webcam can detect shadows and come to a conclusion what i should use for the horizontal plain.

I have also added more pictures.

Will keep you updated

Proposal Presentation

On Monday morning i had a presentation for my proposal report, which went pretty well.

It was suggested that i should make mathematical tasks for the children as it wasn't clear how i was going to tech maths with this product. I came up with the following scenario

Scenario
A is asked some simple fraction question - how many of the ½ circles are in the 2 circle. They are told to press the 2 circle and then the beat of that circle will loop and A should try and see how many of the ½ circles can fit while the 2 beat is playing. More questions will be asked in a similar way using different integers. Once these tasks have been completed A is told that they can play with the product and is shown how to operate the piece they have the freedom to play around with it and create their own song.

I am currently working on my proposal report which i hope to finish by the end of the week.

Refined idea

Well last night i did some sketching (as can be seen in the column ->) and realized that my floor section should only be one row as it would be difficult to interact with the wall piece if a user was a few rows away.

I think a dance mat type of technology would be used on this floor as it will probably be easier to use then using a webcam and the technology is easily available.

I am gonna work on my proposal at the weekend and will keep you posted...

Brainstorming and Change of Idea

After an e-mail from my supervisor, i realized that boxing can be seen as violent.

After some brainstorming myself once more i decided that the basis of my project would be teaching maths through music (hence the name Music Squared). After more discussion with some other lecturers i found that musical notes are made up with fractions so i could use music to teach 4th year class students (approx 11 years old) maths.

Trying to now convert this idea into a interactive project is the hard part now. I tried to come up with different ideas myself but kept hitting a brick wall.

Today i just had one of my first meetings with my supervisor and we both came up with a plausible idea.

The idea is to use an interactive wall and floor to create music. The floor would be the rhythm section and the wall will be the pitch. There will be an array of primary coloured circles - on the wall maybe making the colour lighter for the higher note and on the floor making making the circle smaller/bigger for the note length.

I will probably use webcams to detect the position of the users hand or foot -- i will need a semitransparent wall so i can back project the graphics.

This idea is still very fresh in my head so i am gonna do some more brainstorming and sketching over the next few days.

I'll be back soon with more developments....