Published: Apr 11, 2014 by K. E. Claytor
The idea behind Tangicode is to bring logic / programming / coding to a tangible level so younger kids can interact with it. To carry this out in a weekend we decided that the easiest option would be to do image processing. Technically, we let the kid play around with the programming “blocks”. This is then recorded, and translated into a program. The character in the video game then carries out the program.
This system has some specific advantages, namely;
- it engages kids’ physical memory,
- they don’t have to re-design their entire program to make a change, they only have to move a block,
- they get immediate feedback allowing them to make easier connections between the logic and the results.
While this works very well for a tech demo, for the future we are pursuing tech avenues which would not require the camera. Instead we are looking at an option where a mat would read the blocks and then interface with an tablet for the video game component.
If you’re interested, follow us on twitter for more information.
You can get the source code for our demo.
Here’s a cool video of it in action:
