Bookcases

I’m a big big fan of not just books, but bookcases as well. These are some awesome interesting bookcases, and I love some of the creative designs!

http://apartmentsilike.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/creative-bookshelves/

Kinect Incubator

One interesting development in the last year or so has been that Microsoft started supporting Kinect applications with more enthusiasm. One of the programs that Microsoft has started is the Kinect Incubator: http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-announces-kinect-incubator-6346437

It’s an awesome initiative, and I’m waiting to see the kind of products that come out from there. The Kinect is one example of industry driven technology making awesome research projects affordable for researchers.

Autism and collaboration

Teachiing collaboration and turn-taking to children in general, and children with autism in particular, is a challenge. A lot of researchers have come up with creative ways of getting children to learn collaboration.
A few of the games or activities I really liked were:

https://sites.google.com/site/autismtechnology/tools-for-Social-Behavior-and-Affect/conversation-skills/collaborative-learning-puzzle-game

http://reactickles.org/

Interactive Storytelling

This was one of the inspirations for our project:

http://morrislessmore.com/

One f the most interesting fact about it is that it won at the Oscars this year, in the short animated category! We are moving towards this kind digital content now, where interaction and creativity on the part of the user have also become a part of the more traditional one-way entertainment.

Awesome Japanese music percussion game

It’s not really a game, but it’s a really different and creative way of creating music, specifically percussion. check it out at http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/e7a3/

Rubic’s cube based creative products

http://www.oddee.com/item_97599.aspx

Awesome products based on Rubic’s cube!!

Georgia Tech Initiatives for computing and creativity

The ICE-GT here conducts workshops and activities to get primary and middle school children. I recently took interviews of some of the people involved, and here’s a post about it: https://sites.google.com/site/sanikamokashi/projects/cj_assg1

After school workshops

Mila’s discussions about girls and technology reminded of this initiative called the Computer Clubhouse, which aims to engage children after school in creative technological activities such as Lego Mindstorms, Photoshop and other such activities. Check it out at http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Clubhouse/Clubhouse.htm

Board games that improve creativity

Board games serve multiple purposes – they develop logic, analytical thinking, and help children understand social transactions, collaboration. But there are few games which promote creative or imaginative thinking, examples being balderdash, taboo etc. One such game I really liked recently was somehting called Liebrary, which is described here: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20130/liebrary
It’s a fantastic game for very very creative thinking, getting players to make up first lines of books. Check it out, play it someitme if you get your hands on it!

Unit origami..

.. and a slight attempt at instructions for the 3d structure (So much harder than I thought!)