Music with LEGO

''BEAT BRICKS – A LEGO STEP SEQUENCER'' [source]

Electronics kits for boys and girls

''littleBits Teaser Kit - Each bit has a simple, unique function (light, sound, sensors, etc), and modules snap to make larger circuits. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to put the power of engineers in the hands of artists, makers and children.'' [source]


''GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls by Debbie Sterling - GoldieBlox is a construction toy + book series starring Goldie, the kid inventor who loves to build. My name is Debbie and I’m a Stanford engineer. When I was a little girl, I thought the word, “engineering” was nerdy and intimidating and just for boys. I’ve since learned I was so wrong. Engineers build all the important things we use every day…things that make our lives better. The scary truth is that only 11% of engineers are women and girls start losing interest in science as young as age 8!  This is our chance to change that statistic.'' [source]

Kinect + top-down projector = portable tangible computing!

'' Company uses Kinect to create a touchscreen out of any surface (w/ Video) '' [source]

'' Mobile Surface
It is a novel interaction system for mobile computing. Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. '' [source]

''  Audio d-touch is a collection of applications for real-time musical composition and performance, with very special user interfaces.  '' [source, build it!]

''Explay’s Tiny Projector Goes on Show'' [source] 

'' Cube Laser Virtual Keyboard for iPad & iPhone ...
The Future Has Arrived
Remember when you were promised all those amazing future tech innovations? '' [source] 

A page with all the 1D games... so far :)

Here is a page with all the 1D games I have so far, but I'm working on a few more :)

1Dminos [one-d-minos]

A game like Tetris, but with only 1 dimension [game], still retaining some of the good rotate-place-and-match-colors, that was so nice in the original Tetris :)

The game is in javascript (and still rather ugly if you are brave enough to check the source code...) and it works on Windows (Chrome and IE8) and Mac (Safari).

Anyways... still lot of stuff to improve before it's close to an actual game... any suggestion is welcome :D

Tetris 1D now exists :)

I guess I wanted to challenge the idea (nicely expressed here http://www.kongregate.com/games/zigah111/tetris-1d-2-0?referrer=zigah111 ) that a 1 dimensional tetris is obviously stupid.

In the standard 2D tetris you have shapes and colors, and the feeling you have when playing is that you control the way your pieces fall, sometimes their speed, their position and rotation.
I wanted to see if some of the feeling could be kept in 1D. I think colors are clearly allowed in 1D, so I decided to use them as shapes are used in 2D, to classify the pieces.
Rotation would not make sense with simple square pieces in 1D, so I went for swapping the falling piece with the top of the pile below; I thought this might keep the impression of being in control of the falling piece during its fall. However swapping alone was too limited to make the game fun or non-trivial :)
So I (and the nice folk that suggested so many variations on facebook) explored a few other options: a good one is reversing of the pile, which to me has a kind of formal-methods, string-manipulation feeling that fits well with a single dimension. Other operations that were considered are right shift of the pile, swap of the first and second half of the pile, and randomization of the pile.

Anyways...
The current version of the game is playable with keyboard or mouse, it works at least on chrome for windows.
HERE IS THE GAME.

New features:
- audio
- experimental support for touch for android
- levels

It would be nice to have the time to clean up the code (which is so horrible that it might have been written by a bunch of visually impaired monkeys, with limited understanding of scripting), and improve the levels. I would like to be able to change few things from a level to the next:
- how many colors are possible for the blocks in that level
- speed of the falling block (a classic!)
- enable or disable special operations, like in some levels you might have the randomize button active
- mirror the game left-to-right
and more advanced things could be:
- have many pieces to fall at the same time (a very interesting suggestion from Arturas)
- bonus pieces that allow to destroy all pieces in the pile with a specific color (for example)
- pieces falling from both sides


Also adding a few special effects, like rotation of pieces when swapped or splash screens between levels.
Perhaps using a spline instead of a straight line, to align the pieces in a more creative way, also to play a bit with the fact that it is a 1D game, but the screen is 2D anyway ... :D

3D printing ... in many different ways

'' Hello, I am Origo. I am a 3D printer for ten year olds.
You can draw your very own things in 3Dtin and I’ll build them for you in plastic. '' [source, video]

'' Cube®
A 3D Printer for the home.
Express yourself in 3D.
Simplify with WiFi.
Starting at $1,299'' [source, video]

'' LEGO 3D Milling Machine - "3D Printer" '' [video]

1D games

'' What's this? A one dimensional game? Impossible!
That's how most people have reacted. Yes, a game in only one-D. Not 2D, not 3D, but 1D.
I thought about it and thought it jack. Everyone argues that having it even a single pixel wide would make it the second dimension. Some people argued that it was even, along with every game, in the fourth dimension, Time. But nay!
You see, the thing is, a game that classifies as 2D is only that because that's the depth of the imagery. Sure, on paper, if you draw an image, you call it 2D. And you know why you discard the fact it's actually 3D, that there's an actual depth to the paper itself? Because there's no change to the image through the third dimension. '' [source]

Examples:

''  In 1992, Wolfenstein 3-D revolutionized video games and created the 3D first-person shooter genre. Now, after decades of development, Wolfenstein 3-D has been converted to breathtaking, epoch-making 1-D. You can now play the game in a single, dazzling one-pixel line.  '' [source]

'' 1D Game idea came up when chating with my friend. We tought that a game that can be played in just 1 dimension would be interesting. It doesnt offer fun or true gaming experience, altough it took just couple of hours to make. '' [source]

'' Ever wondered how would it be to see everything through a scanner, one line at a time?
In Eye-Scan the challenge is to discover exactly what is hidden behind the single line you can see from an object being scanned.
Hidden objects can be letters, numbers, symbols, shapes, anything you imagine! '' [source]

Make my own games for Nintendo 3DS via browser

There might be a "simple" and legal way to develop free games for the Nintendo 3DS platform.

'' A coder has discovered that Nintendo's launch of a browser for the 3DS allows basic homebrew apps and games to be created in JavaScript. 
... Andy Smith, who also happens to be the brains behind the excellent Spotibot, noticed that it comes with just enough functionality to get basic JavaScript apps to run. "I reckoned it was a ported browser, so lazy porters would likely just map some of the buttons to ASCII codes," Smith told Thinq. "Turns out they did. I've only got Up, Down, Left, Right, and A, but that's enough." ... 
He's put together a basic tech demo for people to experiment with, which you can find here (it'll work in a regular browser as well as the 3DS's). ... '' [source]

And a javascript library to work with 3DS games is also under development  [see here].

It would be great for things like e-learning, since researchers could develop games and educational programs and deploy them on the 3DS platform. (btw that's what I do in my work :D )

Interesting way to generate complex 2D drawings

'' Geometric patterns design with recursive pursuit relative motions 
...
Recursion is the concept of the well-defined self-reference, and a way of specifying a process by means of itself.
...
In the relative motions as the solar system, we can assume the Sun serves as the initiation of an absolute coordinate system, which does not move, and the Earth serves as the termination of a coordinate system, which orbits the Sun. Compared with relative motions, recursion is a operating mechanism that initial coordinate system orbits the termination, and the termination also re-influences the initiation.'' [source]

Independent games (and more)

''2012 Independent Games Festival Winners'' [source]

''The 2011 Finalists'' [source]

''Ni no Kuni - the another world
the first videogame made by anime company Studio Ghibli'' [source]

''Jenova Chen Unravels the Secrets Behind Journey'' [source]

Wanna program a bit... and make a game without sweating too much? ;)

Check out these nice and free environments:

 ''Scratch 1.4. Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.'' [source] 2D, very friendly to use for non-programmers

''Kodu. Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.'' [source, download]

Sliceforms

What a nice idea for calculus in 3 dimensions! ''paper sliceform [ARE] models made from intersecting sets of parallel planes which slot together to generate interesting three-dimensional surfaces'' [book]

Possibly one could take a function of 2 variables, plot a few profiles, then create a sliceform out of it. [as done here]

Another nice example can be seen here.

A game to kill numbers!

''Prime Slaughter
A computer game for playful math-learning.
We have designed and developed Prime Slaughter, a computer game to play with abstract mathematical concepts, like factorization and primality.
The target group is composed of primary and early secondary school students.
Following the findings of a participatory design study about children interaction in museums, our game maps operational aspects of prime factorization onto a gameplay inspired by 2D action-adventure games, where primality and factorizaton are experienced in a visual and direct way.
The museum study also suggested to support learning by multiple play styles and goal-directed activities. ''
Authors: Andrea Valente and Emanuela Marchetti
[source]


[playable game here]

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Roberto Capancioni for starting a stimulating discussion about prime numbers, that led to the development of Prime Slaughter; and Finn Nielsen for the valuable feedback and testing-time he volunteered during development.

Curved creases

All kinds of printers!

''Stick POP Portable Printer Concept: Print Your Documents Anywhere, Anytime'' [source]
''handheld printer'' [source]

''15 Amazing Concept Printers'' [source]

Mini retro game and modular gadgets

''Mini Space Invaders arcade cabinet big on nostalgia, small in size'' [source]

''Modular Gadgets'' [source]

Analytical Engines

The machines [source]
And the first programmer: Ada [source]

Paper, origami, printing in 3D and paper automata

''Sumo Wrestling Game Papercraft'' [source]

''Make Your Own Working Paper Clock'' [source]

''Paper Automata: Four Working Models to Cut Out & Glue Together'' [source]

3D printers (plastic- and paper-based):
''Mcor Technologies of Ardee, Ireland has developed a US$22,000 3D printer that combines an eco-friendly water-based adhesive with standard A4/letter paper to create wood-like three-dimensional models.'' [source, and here]

''Cheap, portable personal 3D printer: the UP!'' [video]

''Researchers at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have developed a 3D printer models that are smaller, simpler and probably cheaper for the same class 3D printer.
'' [source]

Tangible interfaces, paper and more.

Various interesting projects made with paper [source]

Via: The low-tech club [LoTeCLB]