'Living Ink' Auto-Animates Kids' Art
New reading game automatically animates kids' drawings.
Feb. 2, 2009— -- "ItzaBitza," a revolutionary new PC game for kids ages 4 to 8, motivates kids to read while encouraging them to explore their creativity.
Using "Living Ink," kids draw things on the screen using a computer mouse. When they do, the drawings come alive through animation and are immediately incorporated into stories that the kids help to create.
Children experience such a thrill at watching their drawings animate on the screen, that they are greatly motivated to read the words in the game to find out what to draw next. For emerging readers, all of the words can be read aloud in a child's voice by simply moving the cursor over a word. The word turns red, gets bigger and then is spoken aloud.
The idea for "ItzaBitza" incubated in the Microsoft Advanced Strategies unit before it was spun out to be produced by the startup Sabi Inc. Its development team included cognitive psychologists and learning specialists.
The game is made up of five playsets based on the themes of building a home, going camping, visiting outer space, exploring a farm and searching through a haunted house. In each, kids choose to play with a girl or boy, both named Sketchy.
Sketchy sends the player on a series of drawing quests that earn stars. For example, in the "Home Sweet Home" playset, the Sketchy asks you to draw it a house. On the screen, a translucent piece of paper appears on which you can draw.
What is amazing is that the game anticipates what shapes a child might draw, and then magically adds color and detail to the drawing as it brings it alive in the playset. For example, with the requested house, kids can draw a square, a circle, a mushroom or a random shape, and the Sketchy will be adjusted in size to fit that house. Once kids add a door and windows, the Sketchy will use the door to walk inside the drawn house and wave to them through the window.
The reading in the game starts off easy in the first playset and gets progressively harder with each subsequent playset. By providing the reading in an interactive setting, kids can cross reference words with visual objects that they have drawn or actions that they can see.
