Skip to main content

DigiBlox

DigiBlox – The design and realization of Lego-esque blocks containing highly affordable microprocessors that when assembled communicate with each other to calculate and transmit their assembly configuration to a PC which will then render a representation of the assembled blocks in a virtual environment.
The DigiBlox was motivated by the desire to promote a creative learning environment for children. With the DigiBlox, children will be able to build structures like they would with normal Legos and witness their creations come into existence in a virtual environment. They would then be able to perform experiments on their creations in the virtual environment that would otherwise be impractical should it be done in real life. For example, a group of children may build a bridge using the DigiBlox and may want to see if the bridge could withstand a dynamite explosion under it. Dynamites would be too dangerous for children to play with but in the virtual environment, where that bridge they just built now exists, they will be able to put virtual dynamites under it and run a simulation. They could also go one step further by assigning the bridge properties like ‘all red blocks are made out of steel and all green blocks are made out of marsh mellows’ and see what happens if the simulation is ran again. Surely they could have easily built the bridge directly in the virtual environment with a mouse and keyboard; however, having children directly manipulate objects instead of using a mouse and keyboard makes an interface easy to learn, to use, and to retain over time [Shneiderman, 1998]. Furthermore, the “play” setting where children interact with other children will be lost with a mouse and keyboard, and instead will be replaced by a “hot seat” scenario (i.e. children taking turns using the mouse and keyboard to build the bridge). Having a collaborative play setting is conducive to learning and creativity among children [Boden, 2004]. What the DigiBlox does is retain the “play” environment while taking advantage of the flexibility and possibilities of software.

To achieve the scale required to provide an experience reminiscent of Legos while still being affordable enough to justify a purchase for children, the DigiBlox must allow children to build structures with thousands of blocks where each block is not packed with expensive technology. The solution, therefore, is to have each block contain a simple TI microprocessor costing only 30 cents a piece and one "brain" block that has the expensive hardware to interface with the PC. When the regular blocks are assembled with the one brain block, each regular block essentially have a line of connection to the brain block by going through other regular blocks. A block will transmit their information to the next block who will then concat some of its own information to it before re-transmitting it to the next next block, and so the cycle repeats until the information reaches the brain block. The brain block will then wirelessly send the final information to the PC who will then process the information to rebuild a replica of the the assembled blocks in a virtual environment.

This is just the abstract of a 2011 research paper authored by me and advised by Prof. John Orr. Download the full paper here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ontology of Virtual Reality

In 2012 the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality (VR) headset display, made headlines in the technology world when it raised US$2.5 million through crowdfunding. In 2014 it was acquired by Facebook for a whopping US$2 billion. Ever since then leaders in technology have been pouring money in VR research & development and there is no shortage of creative studios producing VR content. Although VR have not reached universal adoption, the data looks to be auspicious. In 2010, just 2 years prior to VR's supposed harbinger, I wrote a chapter in my Sufficiency in the Philosophy of Technology under Prof. John Sanbonmatsu titled 'The Ontology of Virtual Reality'. Rereading it, I think it is still relevant today. Here it is: There are two aspects of virtual reality that pertains to human use: information and communication (Valentine and Holloway n.d.). Virtual reality is a space filled with information provided by its architects. Perhaps the easiest example to grasp is the internet...
4 comments
Read more

Don Taylor's Creon in 'Antigone'

Who is the protagonist in Sophocles’ Antigone ? Is it Antigone or Creon? Scholars in literature often debate that question. But in Don Taylor’s 1984 rendition of Antigone , there is no doubt that Creon (played by John Shrapnel) is the protagonist. Don Taylor’s direction to have a Creon-focused Antigone was a precarious decision, but a highly successful one. You have to see it to believe it. The story of Antigone (played by Juliet Stevenson) is about the recalcitrant title character who buried her dead brother thereby violating a decree set forth by her uncle, the new king Creon. She did it to uphold a religious right she believed to be ubiquitous, but Creon viewed it as an act against his power and therefore refused to grant her impunity from death. Even the fact that she was his niece and future daughter-in-law could not have saved her nor did she want to be saved, at least not through family ties. After all, Antigone's iconoclastic action, her brother’s burial, was also ...
Post a Comment
Read more

M6 Software-Defined Radio

Here describes a design of a digital radio receiver for a multi-user transmitter with an error prone oscillator that functions in non-ideal transmission channels. The implementation is software-defined (i.e. no hardware other than an analog-to-digital converter) with Matlab simulations yielding deciphered messages that are fully comprehensible. It was designed by me and advised by Prof. Andrew Klein of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. What to expect of the signal clarity by the end of this article. Introduction The M6 radio receiver was designed to work in tandem with a transmitter with the specifications listed in the table below:  symbol source alphabet +1, +3   assigned intermediate frequency  210 MHz  nominal symbol period 121.6 nanoseconds  SRRC pulse shape rolloff f  β ∈ [0.1,0.3]  FDM user slot allotment 10.7 MHz   truncated width of SRRC pulse shape 8 transmitter clock periods  preamble sequen...
3 comments
Read more