A little Help thinking of the name of a toy...

ken · Post by **ken** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:35 am

Hey all,

I want to get one of those boxes you hook up to your TV that let's you draw. It is kind of a like a self contained Microsoft Paint thing. Anyone know the brand name of this device? Maybe someone with kids...

Thanks!

Ken

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:41 am

Do you mean like some sort of telestrator? Or do you mean like the V-Tech V-Smile Art Studio?

Post by jb » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:46 am

well, there's this: http://www.lighterside.com/product/6652 ... &WT.srch=1

ken · Post by **ken** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:04 am

Something like the V-Tech V-Smile Art Studio. The etcha sketch is cool too.

I had something like the v-smile a number of years ago and it was essentially a tablet with a stylus and a bunch of colors. You could even do stop motion animation with it I think.

Ken

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:09 am

All I can think of is Mario Paint for SNES. I always wanted that game.

Post by **Spud** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:07 pm

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/NIP-LITTLE-TYKES-SK ... idoodle</a> is close...

SPUD

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:15 pm

Spud wrote:<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/NIP-LITTLE-TYKES-SK ... idoodle</a> is close...

SPUD

This is the one I was thinking of. But I couldn't remember how it worked exactly. (from the commercials)
Hey old dudes, remember Felix the cat had some primitive interactive thing for the fans. If I remember right, it was something that you taped to your TV screen and physically drew on it, lol. Probably one of those kids that had one, thought of skiddoodle when he/she went to college and became a computer wiz.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:42 pm

I don't remember that with Felix but I remember Winky Dink. You got a transparent screen that you put on the front of your TV and you could write on it to interact with the characters

http://www.tvparty.com/requested2b.html

Billy's Little Trip · Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:58 pm

Felix stole that from Winky Dink? No wonder he later got into toon porn and changed his name to Fritz.

...how's that for a segway?

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:21 pm

Get a wii.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:36 am

That Wiimote hack has very little to do with the wii (and could be done with any webcam with an IR filter, for that matter).

ken · Post by **ken** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:14 am

What about Bill Cosby and Picture Pages?

Anyway, we want something we can connect directly to a projector without a computer.

Ken

Post by jb » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:43 am

Sober wrote:Get a wii.

What do you mean "get a wii"? The fucking things are impossible to find. Might as well say "get a magic pony that farts fractals in composite video".

"Get a wii" he says. Very helpful!

Bah.

Post by jb » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:44 am

You might have to resort to an overhead projector, Ken. Go old-school. Learn to love the silhouetted hand.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:56 am

Overhead projectors let you do <a href="http://www.73q.com/video.php?vid=8509">other things</a> as well.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:23 am

Oooh. I forgot all about Helium. They were great.

Ken, what do you actually need this setup for? Is it for kids and drawing? For art?

ken · Post by **ken** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 11:45 am

I play drums in an instrumental band (Parker Street Cinema) and we often talk of adding visuals to our show. Instead of just playing a movie or something, we thought it would be cool to let audience members or guest artists create art while we perform. Most clubs just have a digital projector hooked up to a DVD player, so we thought this would be easy, reliable, and cool.

Ken

Billy's Little Trip · Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:24 pm

Steve Durand wrote:I don't remember that with Felix but I remember Winky Dink. You got a transparent screen that you put on the front of your TV and you could write on it to interact with the characters

http://www.tvparty.com/requested2b.html

I searched for a Felix version of this and couldn't find anything, so I must have been thinking of Winky Dink. I don't remember watching it though, and I was pretty young at the time that I remember seeing this commercial, like 7 or 8 maybe.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:34 pm

ken wrote:I play drums in an instrumental band (Parker Street Cinema) and we often talk of adding visuals to our show. Instead of just playing a movie or something, we thought it would be cool to let audience members or guest artists create art while we perform. Most clubs just have a digital projector hooked up to a DVD player, so we thought this would be easy, reliable, and cool.

One of the VTech devices is probably your best bet.

That actually gives me another idea for interactive in-performance art... you could hook a computer with Bluetooth up to it and do a random slideshow of the art in the Bluetooth file dropbox, and invite people to just send their random cameraphone pictures to the computer. Might be a bit hard to set up and/or explain though.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:05 pm

Ahhhh!

Well, I've got a lot of experience in the realm of AV club antics. I personally like fluffy's idea of using a real overhead projector. There's something satisfying about the clunky old AV equipment.

I used to help organize a group called the The Tiny Picture Club and one of the things that we frequently did that was always a hit was "drawn on" Super 8 movies.

It's interactive and requires no expertise other than the ability to operate a super-8 projector. (Of course, if you have access to bigger format projectors, you can also have people draw on bigger film!) Have people doodle with sharpies / nail polish / any permanent medium on the film while you're setting up, then project the result as a big loop while you perform.

The results can be really neat!

If you want to drop some cash, you could get a used tablet PC from ebay.

Post by jb » Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:33 pm

anti-m wrote:I personally like fluffy's idea of using a real overhead projector.

Hey! That was my idea!

Stroke MY ego!

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:24 pm

Yeah, my ideas in this thread were all stupid, rambly, and geeky.

I was going to suggest maybe getting a cheap tablet PC and installing ArtRage on it, though I figure that might be a bit too spendy and possibly too fragile in a club setting.