Bedtime Stories
We are not with our kids everytime. Sometimes we go miles and miles away, but kids need bedtime stories. Bedtime stories connect parents and kids. How can we share bedtime stories with our kids when we are not with them. We found interactive storytelling as a way to connect children and parents separated by distance.
Bedtime Stories is has two aspects one is a physical story book and other is a interactive story book in the kids' bedroom. The physical book is used to record the story in your own voice. As you turn pages the book knows what page you are on and when you narrate the story, it records for that particular page. As you finish the book, the entire story is recorded in your voice and stored online.
The kids at home open the interactive story book which has the same story as the physical book. The interactive story book is projected on the ceiling and kids can turn its pages by swiping left or right. As the kids turn the pages, the interactive animations on the page are played on the ceiling along with the recorded voice of their dear ones giving a sense to the kids that their parent is narrating them the story.
Bedtime Stories can also be used if the parents and children are collocated. As the person narrating the story is sitting besides, the interactive animations are played on the story book on the ceiling making the story more immersive and entertaining.
Bedtime Stories can also be used to store the stories narrated by grand parents in their own voice which can later serve as their memory when they are not among us.
Description
The Prototype
The physical book is a book with an arduino which records the audio and detects on what page the user is. The Interactive story book on the other had is a combination of a kinect and a projector hooked up to the computer. The kinect detects the swipes to turn pages.
In the future iteration, the kinect will be used to see if the kid is falling asleep and one the kid is asleep, the projection will automatically turn off.
Design Consideration and Lessons Learned
Tangible interfaces are easier to learn. People easily pick up affordances of everyday objects so little to no learning is involved. Interactive storytelling is a great way to create immersive experiences. When people see the metaphor of a book, the next thing they do is swipe to turn the pages. Using affordances of day to day objects can be tool for designing interaction for Natural User Interfaces.
My Contribution
I ideated on the initial concept and developed the working prototype using Arduino, Microsoft Kinect and Visual C#. I also contributed to design visuals and animation of the first story made for this concept. I also helped in doing the hardware setup, usablility testing and checked for any interaction flaws.
Team Mate
Sourjya Sinha Roy