Source code for the key components of the physics playground

[Yitzchok Chakiris]

I am currently evaluating different platforms for creating a "visual classroom" for understanding Montessori schools. I am the "chief scientist" at a Montessori school and a radical behaviorist. Strangely enough the two actually belong together! (see attachment). In general the behavioral ecology of a Montessori school is highly visual experience to those that know what to look for but rather confusing to those that don't  (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Y-huCMjIc). 

Our school would like to remove the barriers to understanding that make it very difficult to explain the rigorous science of why a Montessori classroom works for most children and what needs to change for some children to shape the behavioral repertories needed to be successful in such a classroom. I am currently writing up a proposal for funding now. On an intuitive level, it seems clearn to me that a system that had the analytics of the system used by the MIT media lab (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE4ce4mexrU) with the user interface of the Physics Playroom (https://vimeo.com/52964510) is exactly what is needed. Basically a multitouch surface that can be used to explore ecology of a live Montessori classroom by selecting actors (human and non-human) for viewing their ecological interaction over various time intervals and ways of annotating this data or interacting with it. 

I have not started hacking Extempore as yet although it is on the to do list and already installed on my Mac. I am a long time emacs user and like to hack lisp code so I am looking forward to the experience. 

My question: Are the key components of the source code for the physics playground available? Would like to know what is involved hacking wise and expense wise in putting together multitouch screens that interact in this way. 

Thanks!!

[Jason Levine]

I would also be interested in seeing some of the Physics Playroom code, just to understand how extempore scales, and how it deals with multi display and touch.

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Jason Levine

new media performer + creative coder

https://www.behance.net/jasonlevine

[Andrew Sorensen]

Hi, 

I am overseas at the moment, but the project sounds very interesting and I will be happy to answer your questions in more detail when I get home next week.

My question: Are the key components of the source code for the physics playground available? Would like to know what is involved hacking wise and expense wise in putting together multitouch screens that interact in this way. 

The Physics Playroom source code is not open source unfortunately. However, all of the *core* components are available in the various open source extempore libraries. So, in short, all of the core components are readily available.  However, many of the necessary core libraries are currently not well documented.  This is unfortunately particularly true of the extempore graphics libraries.

Time and expense is difficult to answer without more detailed information.  At a minimum you will be looking at around USD $20,000 per screen.  Depending on the number of screens you have in mind your development costs will also change - as will the number of rendering machines you will need etc..  Development time completely depends on the content you have in mind, and the flexibility of what you intend to build - in short - how long is a piece of string.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Yitzchok Chakiris]

Could we set up a time to skype? The proposal is getting to a more advanced stage and I am exploring who should or wants to be on the team. This is for pay but it can't just be anyone that is good at hacking lisp (in one of its many forms)--- I happen to like lisp hacking so, it will probably be a lisp project. They have to be on board for the behavioral science part and want to do revolutionary things in education. There has to be commitment beyond the money although they will be paid for their work.  I looked at your videos and code base and liked what I saw.