Thanks to his application Artoo, Bastien Kespern, a Master’s student in Interaction Design, was selected for the Siggraph. Chaperoned by Grégoire Cliquet – Course Leader for Interaction Design – he traveled to Los Angeles, from July 25 to 29, 2010. Journey to the Mecca of computer-generated images.
Disney Learning Challenge: Educational Widgets
The 37th session of Siggraph (Special Interest Group in GRAPHism) took place at Los Angeles Convention Center from July 25 to 29, 2010. This event is a must-see for interaction design professionals.
After Frantz Lasorne, who represented L’École de design Nantes Atlantique at Siggraph 2009 with his project SCOPE, this year Bastien Kerspern (Master’s student in Interaction Design) was our ambassador. His project “Artoo” was a finalist in the Disney Learning Challenge, in which participants were required to design a widget-like application to help kids aged 7 to 11 learn the basics in astronomy, ecology, mathematics, etc.
Artoo received a warm welcome
Bastien opted for the “Understanding Geometric Transformations by Reflecting on and Creating Visual Art” category and proposed Artoo, a kind of interactive Tangram for kids to become familiar with geometric shapes ("fill in the gaps"). The application also features a freestyle drawing function that enables kids to freely assemble 6 basic shapes. Once completed, drawings can be commented by their creators via a webcam.
The ActionScript 3 application developed by Ian Ardouin-Fumat – also a 4-year interaction design student – was the perfect device for demonstrating the project. Artoo is a playful application based on user-friendly modalities of interaction that enable young kids to take control of the interface in no time. During 5 days the throng of young interaction design fans and professionals who tried the demo gave very positive feedback. Many professionals seemed very interested in Bastien’s project, including the website universcience.fr, a French educational portal jointly created by the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie and the Palais de la Découverte.
Grégoire Cliquet
Course Leader for Undergraduate Studies in Interaction Design
Read also:
More information about Siggraph 2010 on Grégoire Cliquet’s blog
IVRC & Siggraph Prizes Awarded to Augmented Reality Toys project "SCOPE" by F. Lasorne
Master’s Program in Tangible Interfaces
Master’s Program in Virtual reality
Useful links:
Website dedicated to the application Artoo
Siggraph 2010’s official website