Monday July 30 2012 / Science & Technology - Art & Design - A Little Levity
Night Bright: Interactively Bringing the Forest at Night Inside
Design I/O, a creative studio based in the Netherlands and the USA, has created a clever interactive installation which lets children frolic with the little critters that inhabit an enchanted night time forest, with these computer-generated woodland animals playfully responding to the movement of the awe-struck young explorers.
Listening to the sounds emitted by the CGI creatures, children can locate them in the forest to play a nocturnal game of hide and seek. Some creatures are curious and will investigate the light, while others are frightened and will hide in the shadows.
Children can also grow nocturnal plants before releasing fireflies from their flowers. The fireflies, in turn, illuminate the environment and help locate the creatures hiding in the forest.
We can see woodpeckers pecking at tree trunks, frogs leaping, bashful cats peeping their heads from round a tree, skunks tip-toing and birds creeping along.
Night Bright harnesses the motion-sensing capabilities of Xbox Kinect to detect the children’s movements and convert them into directives that guide the sights and sounds of the forest.
Design I/O also created special tools for the project to make the various owls, frogs and butterflies more life-like, so birds could land on tree branches, for instance. Animated sequences with accompanying xml files also help to chain sequences together and have the creatures react naturally to the children’s movement.
The creators, Design I/O, specialise in the design and development of cutting edge, immersive, interactive installations for events, galleries, museums, exhibitions and public spaces. The emphasis is on engaging, meaningful interaction with the public.
International projects they have already worked on include an interactive sonic environment and interactive puppetry experience, plus a poster series for children, generative countdown for Amsterdam museum night and an augmented sand sculpture.
Night Bright was created for the Bumble children's cafe in Los Altos, a city at the southern end of the San Francisco peninsula. This a new concept cafe and play space created for families to gather, meet other parents, enjoy a healthy meal with their children and relax with friends while their children play.
For more information, please visit: http://design-io.com/site_docs/work.php?id=13 and http://www.bumblelosaltos.com/.
Listening to the sounds emitted by the CGI creatures, children can locate them in the forest to play a nocturnal game of hide and seek. Some creatures are curious and will investigate the light, while others are frightened and will hide in the shadows.
Children can also grow nocturnal plants before releasing fireflies from their flowers. The fireflies, in turn, illuminate the environment and help locate the creatures hiding in the forest.
We can see woodpeckers pecking at tree trunks, frogs leaping, bashful cats peeping their heads from round a tree, skunks tip-toing and birds creeping along.
Night Bright harnesses the motion-sensing capabilities of Xbox Kinect to detect the children’s movements and convert them into directives that guide the sights and sounds of the forest.
Design I/O also created special tools for the project to make the various owls, frogs and butterflies more life-like, so birds could land on tree branches, for instance. Animated sequences with accompanying xml files also help to chain sequences together and have the creatures react naturally to the children’s movement.
The creators, Design I/O, specialise in the design and development of cutting edge, immersive, interactive installations for events, galleries, museums, exhibitions and public spaces. The emphasis is on engaging, meaningful interaction with the public.
International projects they have already worked on include an interactive sonic environment and interactive puppetry experience, plus a poster series for children, generative countdown for Amsterdam museum night and an augmented sand sculpture.
Night Bright was created for the Bumble children's cafe in Los Altos, a city at the southern end of the San Francisco peninsula. This a new concept cafe and play space created for families to gather, meet other parents, enjoy a healthy meal with their children and relax with friends while their children play.
For more information, please visit: http://design-io.com/site_docs/work.php?id=13 and http://www.bumblelosaltos.com/.