Experiences from designing a tangible musical toy for children

This poster describes the design and early evaluation of MusicPets. MusicPets allows children to store audio, such as (composed) tunes or recorded messages, on tangible containers embodied by soft toys. Results show that children enjoy creating tunes and appreciate the possibility to record them on physical objects so that they can later 'show' them to others. They would also use MusicPets for exchanging messages and playing DJ using multiple prerecorded soft toys. MusicPets not only fosters musical creativity but also promotes collaboration among children.

[1]  Justine Cassell,et al.  StoryMat: a play space for collaborative storytelling , 1999, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[2]  Andrea Valente,et al.  C-cards in music education , 2005, Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'05).

[3]  Allison Druin,et al.  Tangible user interfaces for children , 2005, CHI EA '05.

[4]  Mikael B. Skov,et al.  A review of research methods in children's technology design , 2005, IDC '05.

[5]  Joseph A. Paradiso,et al.  Tangible Music Interfaces using Passive Magnetic Tags , 2001, NIME.

[6]  E. Schellenberg,et al.  Music Lessons Enhance IQ , 2004, Psychological science.