Billow: Networked Hospital Playspace for Children

ABSTRACT

Keywords

© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.

INTRODUCTION

THE SYSTEM: BILLOW

The Visual and Audio Worlds

There are two types of representations on screen: the fuzzy-edged clouds, which represent the audio-activity zones, and the crisp-edged forms, made by the children via their hand-held input devices to represent themselves. There are three fuzzy-edged activity zones on the screen that remain stationary: the Music cloud, the Storytelling cloud, and the Nature-Sounds cloud. These zones are represented as large, blurred clouds in an open sky, and remain in the same location all of the time to allow for easy access by the children. There are a variety of smaller, fuzzy edged clouds which provide a range of activities that can change on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis These clouds could even be made invisible, so that the children might accidentally bump into a surprise island of music, echoed voices, or other sounds. A child enters these audio zones by simply floating their crisp-edged form over the cloud. Audio emanating from these areas will then be transmitted into the child's room as ambient sound.

Real-time conversations between the children can take place in any part of the virtual space. In order to talk to one another, the children simply overlap their on-screen representations, press the "engage" button (found on the input device), and a real-time audio connection is established. The forms adhere to one another, becoming translucent where they overlap, signifying that an audio link has been established. Only one point of contact is necessary to achieve a voice connection, which also applies to connections of three or more forms.

The Input Device

There are six buttons in all; three clustered at the top the device, and three circling the base. The three buttons gathered together at the top of the object control the modality of manipulation, allowing the child to manipulate color, shape, and audio. The child can manipulate the device in any combination of one, two, or three of these modes to change the shape of his or her on-screen representation, the color of their form, or to apply voice filters and sound emissions to any audio communication in the cloudscape. The buttons near the base of the egg control basic mechanisms: an on/off button, an "engage" button (which enables the child to attach his/her form to another child's form for audio communication), and a "bookmark" button (which remembers how to find a certain child by translating the shape of another child's form to a bookmark bar at the bottom of the screen, updating it as shapes and colors are altered in the world). Additionally, a microphone is located at the base of the egg, and a video fish-eye lens is nested in a socket at the top of the ovoid.

The body of the device is comprised of moderately soft, squishable material, and covered by a latex skin, with a variety of slightly harder nodes embedded within. These multi- shaped nodes are differently shaped switches that can trigger voice filters, musical tones, or sound effects for the voice communication aspect of the system, or change the color of the on-screen representation by allowing the child to cycle through a selection of colors, selecting one by releasing the node. The contour of the on-screen form is created and changed by pressing and squeezing the electrically conductive polyurethane foam at the core of the device¹ until the representation has reached its desired shape. These manipulations make up the three modalities of the device: shape manipulation, color change, and sound filtering.

Navigating through the cloudscape with the device is accomplished via a soft indentation located in the middle portion of the oval. The child applies pressure with his or her finger around the perimeter of this area to indicate where the on-screen representation should move.

The microphone is located at the bottom of the device. By depressing the screen covering the microphone, conversations in the cloudscape become locked in a privacy mode. At that point, other children cannot overlap their clouds and participate in another conversation. A private conversation is no longer seen in the world by all the children; rather, those forms become invisible to everyone except the two children who have locked their communication. The microphone recesses into the device to let the user know that they are in privacy mode. When in the privacy mode, it is the speaker inside the device, rather than the speakers in the hospital room, that transmit sounds and voices. Rolling the device on its side and resting it on the microphone mutes all the sounds emitting from the audio environment.

The video fish-eye lens enables the child to chose to participate in "show and tell" activities, allowing the remote audio interactions to have a visual presence. The video is activated by twisting the lens in its socket. Any frame grab the child makes with the slightly distorted camera will be displayed in their on-screen form.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REFERENCES