BodyFood

[We published the paper after working on this project, see here]

1️⃣ Overview
This study proposed ‘Body Food,’ an interactive tactile mat that provides interactive visual responses and induces physical activity in young children at the time of developing tactile and five senses, along with the touch of various stimuli. The product combines fiber materials and digital content to achieve a variety of visual and auditory responses in real time when children touch the fabric. User tests were conducted for 4-year-olds and the result was positive in terms of physical exercise and artistic experience, but quantitative testing is required to generalize it. In the future, we will complement physical and digital contents to realize more complete product.

2️⃣ Design Process
We proceeded design iterations to develop mat for kids as an education toy. Based on literature research and iteration, we developed two goals to contribute physically including body and sense of touch as an educational toy; (1) Focusing on body movements rather with physical cues (e.g., texture, sounds); (2) Playing using mat with parents as well as kids alone. We developed ‘BodyFood’, an interactive tactile mat providing five senses of stimulation. We used conductive threads and Arduino for implmenting physical devices, and programmed with processing for giving visual interactive experience.