by Thomjazz on 2/9/23, 6:12 PM
Funny to see it at the top of HN 7 years after I made it! My kids still play with it from times to times (one of the game that lasted the longest in the family)
by SamBam on 2/9/23, 1:40 PM
I used to write agent-based simulations for science education, and one of the main libraries was AgentScript, which I believe is now SimTable [1]. They had developed their own sand table with an agent-based model running on top, and used it to create wildfire models to help plan and train firefighters. I think they also would do modeling of defense scenarios. It was pretty interesting stuff.
1. https://www.simtable.com
by mtrimpe on 2/9/23, 1:47 PM
I once played with one of these where if you built the sand high enough the top would turn blue again and water would start flowing down from the top.
So... an overflow bug caused the mountain to overflow.
Still one of my favourite real-life bugs of all time.
by wiz21c on 2/9/23, 12:22 PM
Funny: I have one prototype of it in my office at my university (but the sand has been removed) :-) Its code is from someone else I think...
Ah, but mine does an hydrological simulation on top of it (water flows in valleys). Besides that, these are super cool to show kids A.R.
by doodlesdev on 2/9/23, 7:09 PM
The UC Davis AR Sandbox is awesome, happy to see there is still work on keeping the idea alive. I've built one for my school quite some time ago and honestly it's just so cool playing with it I almost wish I had one for myself.
This one specifically seems so much more polished than the UC Davis research project with a dashboard for configuration such as color maps, contour lines, sea level, etc. which had to be changed in config files previously. The calibration also seems automated? I distinctly remember the calibration steps to be a major pain.
Also I'm really thankful for the Sandbox project since it was what first got me into using Linux as my main operation system, since I was the only one in the whole place which any idea what a "Linux" or a "package manager" was.
The only part of this project that still gets me a bit mad is the need for the Kinect, it's been getting harder to find X360 versions of these recently and specially the cable to connect it to a computer (in case of using the XONE version). I really wish there was some kind of hardware alternative to it.
by schappim on 2/9/23, 3:52 PM
My team and I actually made one of these a few years back.
Here is what it looks like with video: https://share.icloud.com/photos/046QwitWWGHRx-qSNHgJWsnNg
From memory, things worked best with magic sand, which was regular sand + mineral oil + corn starch, as it helped the sand hold shape.
by seltzered_ on 2/9/23, 2:33 PM
by TuringTest on 2/9/23, 4:49 PM
I'm always a bit pleasantly surprised when following technical terms with a metaphorical meaning (an AR sandboxed playground) and it turns out to be they're used in the literal sense - it is an AR box, filled with sand!
by bilsbie on 2/9/23, 3:50 PM
I’m shocked no one has commercialized this yet.
I’d bet almost Every parent would buy one. And a lot of adults.
by Symmetry on 2/9/23, 5:25 PM
I got to play around with one of these during my stint as a solder monkey for the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab back in the early 00s. Lots of fun, worth trying out. It was, of course, way more expensive than a setup in the early 20s is.
EDIT: Found it: https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/sandscape
by PaulHoule on 2/9/23, 1:57 PM
Some people I know made an art exhibit that was the hippie version of a theme park exhibition and it had one of these in it. It was a lot of fun.
by mustacheemperor on 2/9/23, 6:08 PM
The Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, NY has one of these - despite moving out of Upstate NY a while ago and living in other cities with much bigger, higher budget science museums, it's still one of the most memorable and interesting exhibits I've ever seen at one.
They also had another interesting project using a kinect-enabled display, where you could stand in front of a screen showing a Jurassic scene and throw dodgeballs at velociraptors. The original plan was actually to sync the experience to another display in a museum in Boston, so you'd be playing raptor dodgeball with the other exhibit's patrons over state lines - unfortunately, the other museum never set their half up.
I think that speaks to the question commenters are raising here about why these aren't more common or commercially available. A lot of cool stuff like this is tied to the Kinect and comes with non-trivial setup and maintenance cost.
by floucky on 2/9/23, 2:03 PM
by batch12 on 2/9/23, 1:12 PM
Cool project, but I don't want kids playing with sand inside.. something like this that uses clay or even Legos would be cool. It couldn't be exactly the same, I understand, since the shadows would ruin the immersion. A whole room version would be cool too that takes into account toys and clothes. Bonus points if it can help encourage tidying up as part of play.
by joezydeco on 2/9/23, 2:09 PM
I have a number of similar AR ideas like this, but thinking about cobbling together an optically aligned projector/depth sensor/camera is the hurdle that I need to get over first. Plus it would be a messy setup to actually deploy.
I'd really love to see some company develop a single unit that had maybe 5000-10000 lumens in a box with an HD camera.
by ZeroGravitas on 2/9/23, 1:33 PM
I wonder if this could be redone for mobile phones with multiple cameras an/or depth sensors to replace the Kinect?
by monkeydust on 2/9/23, 1:11 PM
Remember taking kids to an experience to try this out and they loved it. Very tempted to try to put this together.
https://youtu.be/YLYO0YhY83w
by DonHopkins on 2/9/23, 5:51 PM
by noneeeed on 2/9/23, 1:38 PM
I’ve seen this in use a couple of times, it’s surprisingly fun to play with and my kids love it. I had no idea it was an open source project.
by breck on 2/9/23, 2:02 PM
They have one of these at KidCity in Honolulu. My daughter absolutely loves it. Didn't know it was an open source project. Very cool!
by moritonal on 2/9/23, 1:08 PM
I saw one of these at the V&A when they did a digital showcase. Cannot describe how joyful it is to play with.
by ldayley on 2/9/23, 4:59 PM
This is great! But what are the alternatives to using MS Kinect as the capture now that it's been EOL?
by tibbon on 2/9/23, 3:41 PM
I recall seeing a demo of a similar setup at Burning Man about 5-6 years ago. Same people?
by foobarbecue on 2/9/23, 2:10 PM
I helped set one of these up at the NM Bureau of Geology in 2015. Everybody loved it.
by ZeroGravitas on 2/9/23, 1:21 PM
This link crashes my mobile Firefox.
checked it on Chrome and nothing obvious as a cause.