Project Zanzibar

When playing computer games, do you like to play with the images that are not clear and blur ? definitely your answer will be no because we all like to play with clear eye catching images. So for that Microsoft has done a research to identify those issues and resolve them by introducing Project Zanzibar. 

Project Zanzibar is a flexible, portable mat that can sense and track physical objects, identify what they are, and allow you to interact through multi-touch and hover gestures.It is completely new sensing platform that has the ability to locate, sense and communicate with objects as well as sense a user’s touch. So that people can play, learn and interact between the physical and digital world. 

The Project Zanzibar team exhibited an equal passion for imagining powerful opportunities for the research platform in the educational space, inspired by the Montessori Method.The importance of multi-sensory learning is especially apparent in the Montessori method of teaching, where children use physical objects and self-directed activities for all subjects of learning. The team took inspiration from traditional Montessori exercises for young children and extended them with digital content and feedback using Project Zanzibar.

When we consider the technical details of the Project Zanzibar mat,

•  prototype is designed for self-contained operation 
• all sensing and processing happens in the mat itself
•  high-level interaction events are sent to connected devices via USB or Bluetooth.
• The mat incorporates scalable and localized NFC(Near Field Communication) coverage 
• Has the ability to energize and communicate with multiple tags up to 30mm above the surface of the mat.
• The tracking system fuses data from the NFC and capacities subsystems to generate high-level interaction events.

This project allow kids to bring their toys into an interactive experience and watch them come alive through sound, visuals, special effects.They invites children to bring their toys into an interactive experience and watch them come alive through sound, visuals and special effects. The team had observed kids spending hours making stop-action movies to share online. They envisioned the Project Zanzibar movie maker scenario to let children tell stories by physically interacting with their toys on the Project Zanzibar mat while at the same generating an animated movie.
It will improve the creative thinking in children and provides a natural fit for extending many existing physical games into a digital space.

Following are some features of  Project Zanzibar

• A roll-able mat that uses capacities touch and NFC to track objects.
• Able to uniquely identify objects if tagged with low-cost NFC stickers.

• Custom NFC tag allow these interactions to be extended.

• Extender tags allow objects to be identified when stacked above the mat.

• I/O Tags provide digital inputs and outputs to an object such as LEDs and buttons without needing a battery.

Therefore by considering those facts we can gain an idea about the Project Zanzibar which is  to identify the issues occurred during the research done by Microsoft.