Lands of Fog
Lands of Fog is a full-body interaction system based on a 6 meter diameter projection on the floor where both ASD and TD children can explore and discover unique characters, objects and events in a magic world. This magic world is covered by a dense layer of fog, which parts and reveals what is lying below as users wander around. To interact with the virtual environment, children have a magic colorful butterfly net.
The magic world is populated by swarms of fireflies which can be caught with the butterfly net. These swarms of fireflies fly under the fog and only when users approach them, they will be hunted. Once they have been caught, the fireflies change color to match the color of the user’s butterfly net color.
Once a child has caught enough fireflies, there comes a moment that all the caught fireflies will transform into a magical creature which will follow the user around the environment. In Lands of Fog there are a total of 14 magical creatures that can be discovered while exploring the unique environment. All the creatures that inhabit the world have been designed by four children with ASD during a series of Participatory Design sessions.
As children continue to explore the environment with their creatures, they can change their creature’s appearance by hunting more fireflies and feeding them to their creature. For each creature there is a total of 4 variations, thus making up to 56 different and unique combinations. Furthermore, by getting together and collaboration players can discover that by combining their creatures new different ones will appear, replacing the old ones.
The virtual objects in the world may only be discovered if the children collaborate to trigger them. Again only through collaboration children will be able to discover all the 16 objects that are scattered around the virtual environment.