Imaginote

Who is in Team Imaginote?

Team Imaginote consists of: Nikola Nevin, Marco Castorina, Jonathan Lynch, and Phil Kavanagh.

On the 29th of April 2010, Imaginote won first place in the Irish Microsoft Imagine Cup, and will go on to represent Ireland in Poland this July.

The videos of our presentation in Poland:

What is it?
Imaginote is an audio visual therapy tool with educational and gaming applications! It allows you to make sounds and visualisations out of movement by using Soundbeam Technology.

As a therapy tool;

• For people who are unable to pick up a conventional controller, Imaginote allows access to a range of games and applications.
• For people who find it difficult or frustrating to learn to play different instruments, Imaginote can recreate the same sounds out of simple movements, with a visual accompaniment.
• Imaginote can be picked up by anyone regardless of ability or communicative ability, and used to play creatively with others or solo, as a stress relief excercise.

As an educational application;

• Alongside the ability to create music and visuals from movement, there is a Rhythm Game mode, in which you must play notes correctly alongside a music track. This teaches notation, and can be quite a physical excercise.
• There is Numbers Mode in which you must catch numbers and functions to reach a goal amount. This helps speed up mathmatical ability, and may aid people with dyscalculia.
• Similar to the above, there is Letters mode, where the user must catch letters to create a goal spelling. This may help people with dyslexia.

Why create something like this?

Imaginote was created with the intention that people from all different backgrounds and abilities could collaboratively create music and visual schemes in a simple, fun environment. It brings music therapy to a wider audience and includes those for whom traditional technology and games interaction might be out of reach, but who would most likely see benefits in its use.

Imaginote was developed in conjunction with feedback and testing by Enable Ireland and Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School.

How does it work?

The player moves around in the area in front of the Soundbeam, which produces audio and visual feedback on screen.

The distance between the movement from the Soundbeam corresponds to the input Imaginote recieves. Move close and you will move down the musical scale, move away and you move up the musical scale.

The nature of Soundbeams allows us to minimise the divisions and length of the beam it emits, so that an able bodied user could interact with their entire body, or someone without the use of their legs could use a hand to interact.

Screenshots;

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Free Play Mode                 Rhythm Game Mode.

Imaginote.org

Together with a powerful application, we wanted our users to be able to share their creations and themes. For this reason we created Imaginote.org, where people can upload their own pieces and themes and download what others shared. The authentication is done using Microsoft Windows Live SDK, which allow us to reach million of users. We also implemented a simple theme editor, which make even easier to create and share your own creation.

Press coverage

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0618/1224272792414.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0709/1224274340046.html

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/techsavvy-students-are-first-on-the-grid-2158989.html

http://www.soundbeam.co.uk/news/dublin-students.html

http://www.dit.ie/news/archive2010/imaginecup/

http://www.komplettblog.ie/dit-to-fly-irish-flag-at-imagine-cup/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-daniels/imagine-cup-dispatch-a-ne_b_635768.html

http://imaginecup.com/community/blog/how-team-imaginote-ireland-found-their-inspiration

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/16359-next-gen-music-therapy-brin

http://www.computersinbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Education-20101.pdf

http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/imaginecup/

Many thanks to:
Bryan Duggan – Our project mentor.
Mark Dunne – Who had the initial concept for using Soundbeams.
Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School – Teachers & Pupils.
Central Remedial Clinic – Teachers & Pupils.
St. Catherine’s Special School - Teachers & Pupils.
Enable Ireland – for providing useful feedback and information.
Enterprise Ireland – for the advise on how to structure a great presentation.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup – for the opportunities this competition has allowed the team.
Dublin Institute Of Technology – for access to Soundbeams and other materials without which the project wouldn’t exist.