Antsworld - a Tangible Interface for an Interactive Ant Foraging Simulator

Emergent order in complex dynamic systems is a concept that is both important to a wide variety of fields of science and difficult to understand and teach. Recent advancements in interactive and tangible interfaces point towards the possibility of new tools which can help with both the analysis and simulation of complex systems, while also making the systems dynamics more approachable and easier to understand for students. This paper describes an experimental tangible interactive interface designed to make the complex and emergent behavior of ant colony foraging more understandable. We present the system design, its interactive capabilities, and discuss evaluation methods for further studies.