In this episode we talk to Henrik Lund who is the director of the AdapTronics Group at the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute at the University of Southern Denmark. He just recently launched the Center for Playware in the same institute which has received wide media attention (Wired, NewScientistTech, CNN) for motivating kids to play together on his interactive playgrounds. So why is it better than just playing twister? First of all, the modular robotic interface made up of tiles can sense and react to pressure input with lights and sounds. Second, the game adapts to the people who are playing, whether slow, hyperactive, old, young or genuinely not interested. The general term "Playware" was coined by Lund and Jessen as being...

"[the] use of technology to create the kind of leisure activities we normally label play, i.e. intelligent hardware and software that aims at producing play and playful experiences among users and of which e.g. computer games are a sub-genre".

Lund has been pushing his modular robotic tiles to the market with applications in therapy, fitness, sport and music products thanks to his company "Entertainment Robotics".



Finally, don't think it's all play! Henrik also presents his work done in the field of educational robotics with the Afrobot Project which is motivating children in Tanzania to become inventors and engineers. By combining LEGO-like electronic modules (I-BLOCKS), the students can come up with sensor-actuator systems adapted to their everyday life.

Links:

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• Henrik Lund's homepage