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Fig. 5.1 The interactive slide ( left ) and the interactive pathway ( right )
Later interactive playground projects have often been based on the projection of
interactive graphics on the environment, in combination with camera input (mostly
reacting to location and gross motion of participants). In the Interactive Slide (see
Fig. 5.1 ), a display is projected on a large, inflatable slide ( 2009 ). The projection
area is monitored by an IR camera, which allows for interactivity between the slide's
users and the projection. The games designed by Wyeth et al. ( 2011a , 2011b ), the
Dancing in the Streets project (Palmer and Popat 2008 ), and many other playgrounds,
similarily use projections of responsive visualisations to generate interaction with
users. Other projects are focused around tangible playground objects. For exam-
ple, the Swinxsbee was developed as a shared play object to allow for new types of
games (Jansen and Bekker 2009 ): evaluation showed that using a shared play object
increased social interaction amongst children (games that require a lot of physical
activity, however, might suffer a negative influence on the amount of social interac-
tion). Flash-Poles (Sturm et al. 2008 ; Bekker et al. 2007 ) are interactive poles, placed
on a fixed position on a field, meant for flexibly developing many different simple
game concepts. User tests indicated that such games were successful in stimulating
both cooperative and competitive physical play amongst children. The authors touch
on an important paradoxical issue in the design of installations for open-ended play:
The interactive behaviour of the objects needs to be understandable for the children,
but too many and too specific rules limit the possibilities for open-ended play. Space
Explorers are a new category of autonomously moving playground props that allow
children to explore the space around them in a playful manner (Seitinger 2006 ). The
prototype consists of a ball which moves around autonomously in a space, while
interacting with the children present in the space. Children keep interacting with the
ball as it moves around the space, such that they gradually discover the space around
them. This shows there is potential for such playground props as mediating objects
between a child and its play setting.
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