You Can Create Fantastical Landscapes with a Kinect-Powered Sandbox. Here’s How

Computers & Mobile Craft & Design Science Technology
You Can Create Fantastical Landscapes with a Kinect-Powered Sandbox. Here’s How

There’s something incredibly gratifying about swiping your hand across a surface, digging a trough with your fingers, and watching a flowing river come to life before your eyes. These interactive displays use sand as the base medium, allowing you to scoop, smash, and splatter structures that are then analyzed by a Microsoft Kinect and fed to a computer, which then projects a topographical map onto the surface. The result is you feeling like a giant, shaping the world beneath you.

Lets take a look at a few impressive examples of this fantastic marriage of tactical and visual stimuli.

The recent Maker Faire in Trondheim had a stunning example of a sand table at work.

YouTube player

Children can’t keep their hands out of it. Watch as these kids make all kinds of fantastic structures.

YouTube player

This one, located in Alaska, incorporates all kinds of weather simulations as well. You can use your hands as “clouds” to rain on the surface. Also note that fantastic bit of wall-art in the background made out of old PC motherboards!

YouTube player

Easily the most visually stunning example, the SandyStation has fantastic graphics. Watch as volcano simulations cause lava to burst from freshly sculpted mounds.

The good news is that you can make your own! The software, called SARndbox, is free to download. You will need a projector, a Microsoft Kinect, and of course, a sand table. The current system works best with a first generation Kinect and an Nvidia graphics card in the computer. The software install and setup can get a bit complicated. Luckily, there’s a step by step guide to setting up your own interactive sand table available to walk you through the process. An active support forum is also available as you’ll likely run into issues along the way and have questions.

6 thoughts on “You Can Create Fantastical Landscapes with a Kinect-Powered Sandbox. Here’s How

  1. David Chatting says:

    It would be useful to cite MIT Media Lab’s Sandscape (2002) http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/sandscape/

    1. kooz says:

      Why? It was a University of West Bohemia in Pilsen project that inspired the AR Sandbox as it is today. http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/30/sandystation-interactive-sandbox-uses-kinect-to-make-topography/

      1. David Chatting says:

        because that’s how we understand our community’s long history

        1. kooz says:

          Fair enough!

  2. EngineerDog.com says:

    They had one of these at the Cincinnati Maker Faire this weekend. I didn’t get to play because there were at least a dozen children fighting each other to touch the sand.

    1. ohneefie484 says:

      JOB  AT HOME SPECIAL REPORT………After earning an average of 19952 Dollars monthly,I’m finally getting 98 Dollars an hour,just working 4-5 hours daily online….It’s time to take some action and you can join it too.It is simple,dedicated and easy way to get rich.Three weeks from now you will wishyou have started today – I promise!….HERE I STARTED-TAKE A LOOK AT….htr…..

      ➤➤➤➤ http://googlehomeofficialjobsverifiedonline/start/earning/…. ⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I get ridiculously excited seeing people make things. I just want to revel in the creativity I see in makers. My favorite thing in the world is sharing a maker's story. find me at CalebKraft.com

View more articles by Caleb Kraft

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK