Modular behaviours: cube world&cubees

http://www.radicauk.com/product/05%20-%2075039.htm

Play with one or stick two or more cubes together to build an interactive world(…) As you stack, they’ll interact and visit one another’s cubes.

http://www.takara-usa.com/toys/cubee/index.php

(…) if you interconnect additional Cubees, the one on top of the singing pyramid will belt out the lead while the others “sing” back-up.

Even though the possibilities of interaction between electronic toys has been already explored for a while (like in the most recent versions of the Tamagotchi or the Digimon), it looks as though there’s a new generation of toys on the horizon which are characterized by their ability to interact with each other regardless of the active presence of the user.

These toys generally come shaped as cubes which provide special connectors on several of their sides. Each cube is entertaining by itself, but in order for the interactions to happen, the user should Continue reading Modular behaviours: cube world&cubees

Let´s make a mini-me! now, in 3-D

http://www.haptek.com/products/peopleputty/tour/

People Putty is a tool (and also, a toy!) that allows you to make your very own interactive 3-D character, then use it to play dress up or act as a tour guide for your own web page.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, in fact it´s true and, even more, it´s fairly easy to accomplish. Right after you start People Putty (try to read the funny descriptions while loading), you face… no, well, actually a 3D character faces you, a nice girl who quietly stares at you while behaving in a very realistic manner. (actually only the face is represented, though it is possible to get full bodied characters from the company) . This is already quite impressive, but it´s only the tip of the iceberg. The interface to the program is self explanatory, intuitive and very well documented, comprising all the stages which take part in the creation of a character in a single row, from top to bottom: skin, shapes, emotions, accesories and theatre. Continue reading Let´s make a mini-me! now, in 3-D

Let´s make a mini-me!

http://www.tektek.org/dream/

http://fractal.neottdesign.com/avatars.php

In sanscrit, the term Avatar comes to mean “the terrestrial incarnation of a god”. In nerd, it is an image that you use to represent yourself in forums or while chatting, usually a picture of some person or character you feel attached to or a caricature of yourself.

Besides searching for a premade picture, you can make use of one of the many avilable automated generators, from which I chose the two examples above, to tailor one to your liking. The Gaia Dream Creator offers you full-body manga style characters with lots of accesories and a high cuteness factor; the Avatar Creator (which I found in numerous sites) is a flash application focused on face portraits. Both of them are very intuitive to use, and the Gaia Creator even outputs a rendered image that automatically gets hosted in ImageShack for you to use; as for the Avatar Creator, you´ll need to make a screen capture (printscreen button), then paste and cut the portrait with an appropriate program. Have fun!

[Update|26.12.05] If you liked the Dream Creator, you may want to try gavsim too.