Tangiable Fidicial Blocks

The above picture shows a ReacTable tangiable object, note the fiducial on one side. These are made out of perspex and the fiducuial is inlayed within the plasic. To have tangiable like this will set you back alot of money, because of the material and also because they will have to be custom made for you.

But I was still curious...

So I emailed the reacTable website to find out how much it would cost, and the got back to me straight away with the following email...

"Hi Abigail,

we produce them ourselves, we can sell you a Reactable set if you're interested. The price of a full set is €400,- If you need more information let me know.

All the best,

--Marcos Alonso

Reactable Systems

(+34) 93 1820 777

http://www.reactable.com/"

A little steap and out of my price range but I was happy that I got a responce from one of the men who helped make it.

Deturmined to find a alternitive way I emailed other, more local plasic molding factorys in the UK. I tryed http://luminati.co.uk/.

I emailed them the imformation on how meny I required, which was 20, the fiducial picture i wanted inlayed within the plastic, and the size, and shape.

He most Kindly emailed me back with this:

"Dear Abigail

Thanks for the additional information.

As a one off project, I would suggest that we would need to charge around £350 minimum as there is a lot of fiddling around. For production, prices would drop significantly. If you require a formal quote, please can you supply all of the print ready artwork.

Thanks

John Gall
Director
Luminati Waycon Ltd
john@luminati.co.uk ~ DDI : 01752 897928 ~ T : 01752 698720 ~ F : 01752 698116"

Again far too much but I was supprised to notice that the price of geting them custom made in the UK was about the same size if I was to buy them from spain.

The pro's of buying them from spain is that I would get a set identical to the ones being used on the reactable, It would be alot easyer to buy them from the ReacTable website.
Yet

If I bought my own from Luminati.co.uk I would have more creative licence meaning I could design them how I want have different shapes and colours to the ones they use on the true ReacTable, making mine different, and I like different.

But Alas having tangiables made in this material is to expensive, so I have to think of alternitive ways of making my tangiable blocks.

The good thing and most important reason why the tangiables inleyed in a perspex object is because the fiducial must be clear at all times when in contact with the video camera. Having the fiducial inlayed in plasic makes the tangiable more duriable and easyer to clean if dirty.

If a printed out paper fiducial is just idily stuck on the bottom of an object, that that fiducial picture will soon get grubby, and the paper will start to peel away after time. So I begain to think about a few factors of making my tangiable blocks, I wanted a material that is,

1. light, so if droped on the glass surface the interface will not smash,
   
2. strong,


3. cheap


4. easy to find

I also needed to make my fiducial pictures stronger and more durable than a simple sheet of paper.

I thought of lots of materials such as wood, but in the end I decided on using blocks of duplo.

The good thing I think with using Duplo instead of wood is that it would be lighter because its plastic, and easer to get hold of, as most toy shops stock duplo, but it would probily proove more expensive than wood. Also they are a good size.

Another thing I liked about using duplo is the fact that it is in its pure form a childs building block, and from one of my early posts I said that, building blocks are implortant to a childs learning, and creative thinking, and also it links to the idea of collaberation, I like this idea.

I found a large box of duplo for cheaper than I expected, it cost me £6.99 from the Entertainer shop in Cardiff Queens Arcade, which I thought was quite resonable. Below are some pictures of me making the tangiable blocks.

I selected two peices of duplo that were the same size and stuck them together useing glue, I then filled in the square holes with tishue paper and succured this with celetape. I did this so that the fiducial picture will have a more sturdy base to lie on. I then carefully cut out the fiducial marker and it's number, laminated the paper fiducial and finaly stuck the fiducial to the bottom of the new tangiable object using super glue.

I made 14 of these bocks and they are light, easy to move around the table, but the down side it that they are hard to tell apart from each other. I will have to mark them with a pen to know which one does what. This of course will not look as fancy as the ones designed by the reactable people but it's a nice, cheap and fun do it your self way of creating tangiables.