Welcome to Shale

Shale (Shadows & Levers) receives input from the web camera and outputs data to a projector, which projects virtual objects (e.g. falling spheres) onto a whiteboard or blank wall. Affixed to the wall are mechanical/physical objects and the beam of a green laser pointer, which are seen by the web camera, and interpreted by digital image processing software within Shale. Shale then combines the web camera's input and correlates the locations of the virtual objects to create an interactive environment. Shale will also interact with the physical objects through use of a wireless transmitter. It will send signals to these physical objects when they interact with virtual objects, triggering movement (through motors), lights (through LEDs), or sounds (through speakers).

About the Craft Technology Group

CU Craft Technology Group is a part of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design at the University of Colorado specializing in the integration of computation and craft materials to produce mathematical or educational toys and activities for children. The group consists of a small number of faculty members and students working on the Boulder Campus of the University.

Previously, CU Craft Technology collaborated with a team of undergraduate software engineers to develop a project entitled Laser Ball. This program created a combination of virtual and physical elements through the use of digital image recognition. Project Shale is an expansion upon this project, and will include wireless communication with the physical objects, in order to enable more advanced interactions such as movements, lights, and sound.


Shale Libraries

Shale is built on top of Processing/Java, as long as you have the right webcam drivers you can run it on Mac or Windows. In order to get started you'll need a few things first...

Shale+Arduino

The craft technology group's implementation of Shale uses Arduino microcontrollers coupled with 2.4ghz wireless Xbee modules to build the addressable mechanical objects seen in the demonstration videos. That's not to say you can't use any serially addressable hardware platform you wish, it's just we have sample code for these ;)


Photo by Nicholas Zambetti


Photo by Lady Ada

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