Shadow Box: an interactive learning toy for children

The Shadow Box is a tangible computing project that exploits visual association and auditory clues to teach children the representational relationship between words and their meanings. The Shadow Box contains three major components: the main box, picture blocks and word blocks. The Shadow Box activates when a block or a matching pair of blocks is placed inside. The box prompts children to find matching blocks and combine them together. When children successfully combine the right word and picture, the box rewards them with an animated video as if they had made the objects come alive. An informal study shows that children responded positively to the concept of the box. They played with it for a length of time and engaged in a collaborative learning process with other children.