Abstract
Coloring book programs are often simple and do not develop anything but mouse-move-and-click skills. The only task is to fill-in predefined regions by a selected color. This research exploits the possibilities offered by a computer to do more.
Based on discussions with a clinical psychologist, we designed an interactive coloring book concept to help preschool children in development of creative and logical thinking and basic computer operation skills. Children are offered a simple scene for coloring where individual objects can interact with their mouse input. The objects behave exactly as the children know from their every day life. The object reaction is physically simulated.
We present a pilot implementation of the interactive coloring book concept. The scene can be designed using elementary objects, images, sounds, and logic, allowing more complex entertainment. Scene description is stored in XML files, being simply editable and manageable.
We have successfully validated our concept by a user study involving five preschools and their parents. The good experiences lead to continue the coloring book development in cooperation with Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague.
Results
To demonstrate the abilities of our interactive coloring book concept we created four example scenes. An Easter Eggs scene, Path Coloring, Truck, and a Music scene.
Easter Eggs scene
The task of this scene is to fill in the eggs ovals with an appropriate color. The steps the eggs lay on can be colored anyhow. After filling in, the eggs start rolling and falling down to the bunny. The moment all the eggs fall down to the bunny the fanfare is played and the game is over. The eggs scene with newly assigned colors appears and a new game startes.
Path Coloring
In this scene, the user must create the path for the marble to get it into the house. The path is built by coloring the rectangular steps. The marble can roll on the filled steps only. Non-filled steps does not support the ball and it falls down. The correct filling order is: all the steps first, then the marble to release it onto the path. Fall out of the scene and reaching the house play a sound and the game starts again.
Truck
This simple scene shows how to create and control vehicles. After coloring the truck body and wheels, the motor turns on and the truck drives down the ramp. When it reaches the scene border, colors are reset and game starts again.
Music scene
The task is again to crete a path for a vehicle. After coloring the path pieces and after filling the holes by falen collored rectangles, the car can be filled in and it starts moving down the ramp. Each ramp piece sounds different tone, given by the applied color. If any noncolored path piece remains, the car cannot start and honks.
Conclusions
We have presented a concept of interactive coloring book and a pilot application based on this concept. They were designed in cooperation with a clinical psychologist with the main idea in mind – how to use computers in children entertainment better. The classical paper-and-pencil coloring scheme cultivating imagination and sense for colors was enriched by the physics simulations helping the children to understand the interactions among objects in the real life.