In research it’s important to change things up from time to time, to see whether an idea works when you vary the context. So this weekend I turned my little interactive desklamp into a fish. Deep down he isn’t all that different (in some ways he still thinks he’s a desklamp), but now he floats serenely above the desk in a nice magical way.
This floating quality also makes him suitable for showing up some day soon in our own world as an eccescopic pal, sort of like Slimer from Ghostbusters.
I added some controls for facial expression, and at some point I’ll add higher level facial controls, like talking, as well as gestures like nodding “yes” and the corresponding “no” gesture. And of course I’m also going to give you the ability to save your own original movies, so we can all share.
But for now I wanted to get this out there. As usual, click on the image to try it for yourself:
Awww! He looks like he could be Elmo’s pet fish :).
(BTW, I had to Google eccescopic, having only started reading your blog recently. It seems to have spread some.)
Thank you so much! My 10 and 7 yr olds mastered it in no time. A BIG mistake: it was bed time “Can I do this again and again tomorrow!?!?!”
I went back and read your old posts on eccescopy. Fascinating discussion!
Have you decided that you prefer “eccescope” to “ambiscope”? I comfess that even after reading more than 20 posts on the subject, I have to keep reminding myself how to pronounce eccescope.
What is your fish’s name?
The word “eccescopy” (pronounced eck-a-scopy) is deliberately obscure, to get across the idea that it’s too early in the game to give a real name to what it describes. Kind of like phlogiston, or phenakistoscope.
The fish has not yet told me his name, but he seems to want to be thought of as a he.