Snoezel Activity Blocks
The 'Activity Blocks' are one of my firsts attempts at playing with the idea of building a snoezel object.
Initial inspriation for this object, or group of objects, came from the work of Leah Buechley, particuarly her Boda Blocks project......
your can also watch a little movie..... http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~buechley/movies/boda_blocks_5_05.mov
In the Boda Block project Leah has rules such as:
if off and = 1 blue neighbor -> blue
if blue and > = 2 green neighbor -> green
if green and > = 2 blue neighbor -> blue
... and so forth.
So, taking the boda blocks as a starting point, I made these simple geometric objects ...... at this stage they lay dormant....waiting for phase 2.... 
So the idea is for the objects to come to life when in close proximity of one another.
I would like for each block to do something a little different.
- Vibrate/rumble
- sound
- Blow air/ fan
- Flashing lights
In addition to its own 'character', when the blocks are alive they all also glow....
Possible combinations for activating 'character' could be:
- Vibration occurs when block comes into contact with another block
- Sound volume and sound type changes according to distance with other blocks
- Fan blows when object is squeezed or cuddles
- Flashing lights change pattern or speed when object is shaken or rotated...(using accelerometers)
As mentioned, the blocks are not wired for life at this stage, but a brainstorm session has been called for the 29th of April. Hopefully my next post will show some physical exchanges from the objects.
