I'm sure most of us have been in a crowd at some point where an inflatable ball has been punched, tipped, or pushed from person to person. There's an easy kind of cooperative game that develops, as people naturally try to keep the balls from hitting the ground. Alex Beim of Tangible has taken this idea forward with his Zygote balls, which are equipped with a microprocessor, and internal LEDs. These very large high-tech beach balls are interactive – people can tap, bounce, or punch the balls to get them to change colour. The result is simple, engaging, and fun. When dozens of these balls are released into an audience, the effect is quite stunning. Check out a video of some Zygotes in action here.
What makes the Zygote even more interesting is that each ball can be used as an input or an output device. Connected wirelessly to a central computer, the balls could be synchronized to music or to any other type of activity. Conversely, user interaction with the balls could play sounds, trigger graphics, or queue events. In this way, the zygote could act as a giant, bouncy mouse.
Zygote is already on the road – they will be bouncing around with The Chemical Brothers in October. Tangible is actively looking for more audiences for Zygote, so if you are an event producer, musician, or performer that could use some giant, ball-based fun, get in touch with Tangible via their website.
Personally, I'm interested in how an array of these devices could be used to generate visual compositions. If a group or an audience could see the results live on-screen, they could theoretically learn to cooperate in producing a shared work. Food for though, for sure!
