Peripherals/Magic Wand

The idea is to have a wand shaped instrument with a number embedded sensors which can calculate the exact movements of the wand in 3 dimensional space. This wand could then be used to 'draw' in the air or in sand while controlling the XO cursor.

Once integrated with Sugar, one would be able to do a variety of things with the wand including control musical tempo, pitch in TamTam Activity , paining in Paint Activity, drawing or writing characters, playing games, using it as a general pointing device etc. This would enable kids to have an intuitive and fun device as an expression of their creativity. All this with just a few simple sensors on a wooden baton. They can 'magic' their way to an education, that's why it's called the "magic wand".

Another possibility is to use the camera to try to pick out a handheld object in front of the XO. With power and signal from either the headphone or USB ports, the XO could flash the manipulator to better pick it out. Every other frame would either have the wand's light off, to zero out the image, or on to actually locate the wand. Like with all CCD cameras, infrared light would be best here.

Technology

Gyration's new low-cost, fully-integrated mini gyroscope for pointing devices

Contributors

• Concept: Various people inclusing Carla Gomez Monroy, Arjun Sarwal and Joshua Seal