Polly World is the 4th generation of Co-creative Tangibles developed within the RHYME project. The name Polly comes from “poly”, the Greek prefix for many. We have chosen the name because the 4th generation of RHYME Co-creative Tangibles is many folded in a multitude of ways: There a many ways to create music, many musical tunes and visual expressions, many ways to play and interact, many ways to participate socially, many colours, polygon shapes and many possible sensorial experiences, just to mention a few.
The Polly World Geography
The Polly World consists of four Co-creative Tangibles and two APPs.
One APP, Polly Compose, is for interacting with the Co-Creative Tangibles at home, using a Smartphone or a Tablet over the Internet. The other APP, Polly Control is for setting up and manage the whole Polly World.
The four Co-creative Tangibles are: Polly Land, Polly Planet, Polly Fire and Polly Ocean.
Polly Land is a large wired Interactive Landscape with three arms and an embedded projector for a close and intimate relation to live video and dynamic graphics. One of Polly Lands arms has a Microphone for voice input, one has a Camera for live video and one arm has a RFID-reader for selecting and playing music in several ways. In addition Polly Land has six Touch-sensors and four Bend-sensors to vary the music further. It also has several sensorial stimulating surfaces to enrich the sensory experience.
Polly Planet is a large ball-shaped mobile Co-creative Tangible with two Bend-sensors, four Touch-sensors, one Movement-sensor (accelerometer) and RFID-reader.
Polly Fire is a sleeping-bag-shaped mobile Co-creative Tangible with two Bend-sensors, five Touch-sensors, one Movement-sensor (accelerometer), Microphone and RFID-reader.
Polly Ocean is a big banana-shaped mobile Co-creative Tangible with two Bend-sensors, two Touch-sensors, two Movement-sensors (accelerometers), Microphone and RFID-reader.
All wireless and mobile Polly Tangibles have USB and Inductive battery charging. They also have separate on/off-functionality, so that they can run stand alone or together in the Polly World.
All the Polly Tangibles have a unique sound system and speakers to provide high quality multi-channel sound. Polly has a specially developed lighting textile with embedded LED-light system and diverse sensorial stimulating surfaces to give the users unique sensorial, visual and tangible experiences .
Making Music and Sensorial Experiences in the Polly World
There are many ways to create sensorial experiences and play music in the Polly World. You can choose the music you like to play by selecting a Scene card (see below) with a RFID tag. There are several Music Tunes and Soundscapes available in the Polly World. The Scene governs both the sound and visual experience.
There are also many tagged things, Tag-Thing, that offers tangible and sensorial experiences by their shape, colour and surface in the Polly World, and that makes you able to develop the music further. Every Tag-Thing, has a RFID-tag connected to it. When you hold the tag onto the RFID reader, the white velvet triangle, it plays a tune related to the Scene and the actual thing. You can play the selected musical tune by holding the Fury Tag-Thing agaist the RFID-reader over long time. Additionally you can interact with the bend, and touch sensors in the Polly Co-creative Tangibles to vary the music further. You can also sing into the microphone. Polly World then adds effects to your voice in real time and you can change it further by moving and thereby activating the Movement-sensor. Polly World also records your voice so you can play with it in a musical manner by interacting with the Bend-sensors.
Here are some more situations from the pilot test 16. June 2014:
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