Photo Credit: Bit Space
Want to create a mixed reality game with a steel framed cube? Join Bit Space at the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire!
Located in Lincoln Square, Bit Space’s mission is “to engage, enrich, and educate the creative and critical minds of our youth, using a full spectrum of material and computational skills for open-ended inquiry and design-build projects. From complete beginners through PhD caliber research, Bit Space can prepare young makers for any future they wish to pursue.” In conversation with co-founder Thomas Kearns, he explains, “Emerging technologies are transforming the way we make things, and the way we live, work, and play are increasingly a convergence of material and computational intelligence.” The space has several classes for ages starting at 6 years up to 18 years. They run many different classes from summer camps, workshops, and exciting birthday parties. BIt Space has many different projects available including making a skateboard “from a stack of raw veneer to a tricked out and completely custom, fully functional board they can ride out on.” Kearns explains, “Recent projects have included pewter casts using laser cut molds, laser trip wires without microcontrollers, interactive sound and light projects built with Arduinos, and virtual reality obstacle courses complete with physics based interactive elements.”
For Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, BIt Space will be bringing a prototype of a new project that they’ll run in their summer camp called “Inter-Act.” There, they will create “a 10′ steel framed cube which will serve as the armature/enclosure for a week long group project. Each week of the camp, the participants will re-conceive and implement a new identity or program for the cube using a range of technologies. With each new group will come a new set of interests and aspirations and hence a whole new concept for the cube. Right now Bit Space is “feverishly working on setting up some of the core building blocks for this, with body tracking using Kinect to augment the tracking within Oculus Rift and an improved communication framework for Arduino and Unity3d. We’re going to bring the Beta version of the cube to the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, and work with participants to build out a mixed reality game experience that pits a group of people outside the cube with or against a brave soul wearing the Oculus inside.” That sounds really swell.
Check out a video of the project here: https://youtu.be/3oqQfMf71L0
Come one, come all and join Bit Space and their amazing mixed interactive Cube at Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire!
