Where's Bo Peep? Making the TouchMouse a finger puppet

We reevaluated our project design and decided we didn't have a great reason for using a projector.  Then we thought, why use visual output?  When people think of computers, they think of a monitor, mouse and keyboard.  We want to be non-traditional, so we are going to do away with the visual output and instead use auditory and vibrotactile feedback.

Instead of "Where's Wendy?", we have altered the game to be "Where's Bo Peep?".  More people know about Bo Peep and her lost sheep, so we are going to make a twist on the nursery rhyme and have her sheep look for her.  Since we got rid of the visual display, there is going to be a 3D physical map the mouse will travel over and then the user can interact with the physical objects by gesturing and receiving audio feedback.

The TouchMouse is now going to be dressed up as a sheep.  There will be two different ways of gesturing on the mouse: in the head of the sheep like a finger puppet, and on the bare surface of the mouse.  By allowing the user to control a finger puppet, the gestures he/she makes are much more intuitive.  If he/she wants to make the sheep look around a tree, they gesture to the right by moving the sheeps head forward and to the right.

The users will help the sheep find Bo Peep by looking in different places represented by the 3D map.  For example, the sheep could go knock on Bo Peep's door and then will receive a response from Bo Peep (if she is there), or her mother (if she is not there).  The sheep will also vibrate when she gets excited, such as if she is close to finding Bo Peep.  If the users are lost, they can go get a hint from the old wise sheep.  This approach will encourage the users to collaborate and work with each other to find Bo Peep.  The size of the 3D board is a constraint that will also force them to work together.  The users will probably be elementary school aged with varying technological experience.

I think this conception is much more unique and creative.  It will be exciting to begin implementing it.  Our next challenge will be to use the TouchMouse SDk to interpret touch data.  I have downloaded the software from DreamSpark, so I'm starting down that path!!