Enlighten is a novel system that helps bring 'alive' classroom displays through the power of torchlight. Students use a standard torch to illuminate objects and trigger associated hidden information (such as music clips, sound files and projected images), which is linked to the target objects via Enlighten. This project was featured on Futurelab's Innovations at BETT 2005 stand.

Outline and overview

Wall displays are a key way of exhibiting and communicating classroom work to others, but are usually static, one-way transfers of information from producer to viewer. Enlighten aims to redress this balance, offering viewers greater choice and control over the way in which they interact with displays. As initial studies show, viewers using Enlighten are more likely to explore the physical space around them in rich and memorable ways.

Enlighten comprises four key stages:

1. Students, with or without teacher support, create real and digital materials for inclusion in the final product.
2. The computer system is trained to recognise the different patterns of illumination produced by different torches, allowing students and teachers to use their own torches within Enlighten.
3. All digital materials are linked in turn to real objects in the environment and assigned to a torch or torches, through the Enlighten database.
4. Students (or other users) use the torches to explore the physical environment; illuminating an object triggers the linked response.

Enlighten is inherently flexible. Responses can vary with target and torch, eg Torch 1 may generate a different response on Target A than Torch 2 does. Any computer-controlled event can be generated via Enlighten, though applications to date have focused on audio feedback and projected displays.

Viewers typically focus their attention on the area illuminated by the torchlight. As the system can detect targets containing very small or faint markings, Enlighten can be used both to draw students' attention to and provide further information about features of the world that they would otherwise be unaware of.

Enlighten may be used by individuals or groups of learners, sharing a torch or carrying torches which produce different responses. Also, a given target may only become active when others have been discovered, either by one or by several members of the group. It is left to the viewer(s) to investigate.

Enlighten is a versatile resource which also can be incorporated into creative activities such as arts, design, drama and performance.

Project motivations

Enlighten was developed by researchers to help us gain a better understanding of how children and adults use physical devices as interfaces into the digital world. Valuable information can be gathered about the user's interests and intentions by tracking the area(s) in which they search, and the way in which they search the physical world through the motion of the torch beam. This may provide new insights into how best to design human-computer interaction technologies in the future.

Technology used

The Enlighten interface has been designed to be familiar and user-friendly. A low-cost webcam is used to capture an image of the physical environment under ordinary, fixed light conditions (known as 'background illumination'). This is then compared to images of the environment being illuminated by students' torches. Using novel techniques from computer vision and pattern recognition, Enlighten distinguishes the relative contributions of background and torch-generated light. It can then detect, locate and recognise when individual torch beams illuminate a specific object's surface. Given the position and identity of each flashlight beam, the system generates an appropriate response that is experienced in the real world.

Partners

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
www.epsrc.ac.uk

University of Nottingham

Mixed Reality Lab (MRL)
www.mrl.nott.ac.uk

The Learning Sciences Research Institute
www.nottingham.ac.uk/lsri/

Contacts

Dr Tony Pridmore
Mixed Reality Lab
tony.pridmore@nottingham.ac.uk
0115 8466510

Mixed Reality Lab
School of Computer Science and IT
Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road
University of Nottingham
Nottingham NG8 1BB





Futurelab Innovations at BETT is sponsored by:




December 2004

Please note: this article is NOT covered by Futurelab's Open Access licence (see open access policy for further details).