Tiptoi

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tiptoi
Tiptoi here with the game board The English detectives and some game material
Tiptoi here with the game board The English detectives and some game material
Game data
publishing company Ravensburger
Publishing year since 2010 several media every year
Art Audio-digital learning system
Teammates 1 to several
Duration differently
Age 3 to 10 years (depending on the medium)

Awards

German Learning Game Award 2011

Tiptoi is an interactive educational game consisting of a digital pen and a game board , book or puzzle with digital paper . The pen is held at various points ( pictograms , graphic elements, etc.) on the printed surface and recognizes which point has been tapped from the dot matrix of the OID . The infrared scanner in the pen reads this code and, in the simplest case, plays audio files that explain the game or the pictures of a book, convey knowledge or give people a voice. A whole game based on a finite machine can also be created with a simple programming language .

Versions

In September 2015 Ravensburger launched an improved version 2: the tiptoi® pen with player. The pen can play songs and audio books in the proprietary format of the manufacturer independently of tiptoi products (books). Two audio books and two songs are included with the pen. The new version has four new buttons (music, play / pause, back and forward) and a softer tip.

Version 3 has also been sold since 2018. This allows audio recordings with certain software, but no longer supports audio books.

concept

The game principle is basically a further development of the Electric Questioner : A surface printed with graphics and text represents the game plan. Tapping the graphics in the pen starts playing an audio file. The audio file can then influence the course of the game (for example, instructions on how many fields the game figure should be advanced by), give instructions, reproduce information about the image shown or pronounce the tapped word in a foreign language . The solutions for given tasks are signaled to the pen by touching the symbol belonging to the solution. The integrated microcontroller makes it possible to not let the game run linearly, but to react to the actions already taken and, depending on these, play other variants or make random decisions and thus ensure a greater range of variation - similar to the game Who was it .

The digital memory in the pen can hold the audio files for multiple products. To manage the files there is the Tiptoi Manager, whose program installation files are located in the pen's memory. The pen can be connected to a PC via the integrated mini USB socket type B and the supplied USB cable. It is recognized as a USB mass storage device on the PC and the stored audio files and installation files for the manager can be accessed. The audio files are on the website free of manufacturer downloadable . You can create your own files with the help of the free tool tttool. It also creates the corresponding optical identification codes , the PNG dot matrix of which can be integrated into your own graphics.

Origin of name

Tiptoi a portmanteau of the words, tap and Toy (Engl. For toys).

Functional principle of the digital pen

Opened Tiptoi pen

The technical novelty of this game is the learning pen and the digital paper. In the pin is an optical infrared sensor by the manufacturer as OID technology (optical identification, engl .: optical identification ) is referred to. If the sensor is held close to the digital paper (a real tap is not necessary and is not evaluated by the pen), the sensor detects the code contained in the print, which is evaluated by the microcontroller in the pen and used to play the appropriate audio file via the integrated Speaker leads.

Depending on the device version, the pen provides 564 MB (generation 1), 1.71 GB or 3.43 GB (generation 2) memory as a USB mass storage device, which, according to the manufacturer, is sufficient for audio files from approx. 15-20 products. He needs two batteries of the type  AAA can be fitted. It has an on / off button and a rocker switch to adjust the volume . The speaker is at the top. A socket for headphones (3.5 mm jack plug ) and the USB socket are located under a flexible cover .

Digital paper

Coding in digital paper (detail of a playing card)

The graphic elements that trigger an action when tapped with the pen are printed with a grid of small dots (red marking in the adjacent graphic), which clearly stands out from the print grid (blue circle). The manufacturer speaks of an invisible code, but the dots are visible with normal lighting. By using infrared light and a corresponding filter in front of the optical sensor, the detection rate of infrared-sensitive printing ink is increased even in dark colored areas. Due to the small area required for a code, it is possible to make even relatively small graphic elements of approx. 5 × 5 mm recognizable by the pen.

System requirements

The following minimum requirements are specified for the tiptoi Manager , with which new audio files can be transferred to the pen:

If you have a computer that does not meet the minimum requirements (e.g. with Linux systems ) or if you do not want to install any software, you can load the required files manually from the tiptoi website and copy them to the tiptoi pen using a file browser.

tttool

The free tool tttool creates the necessary PNG files from a YAML file for printing with a normal (600+ dpi) printer, optionally Ogg audio files (mono, 22050 samples per second) from a speech synthesizer, as well as the GME file, that needs to be copied onto the pen. Each game is identified with a product code (0..980) so that OID codes can also be used in other games.

A seven-page guide to creating games was published in Make: Magazin 6/2015 ( Heise Verlag ).

Alternatives

TING audio pen
Globus What is what TING starter set with audio pen "Adventure Earth"
  • A similarly structured pen with comparable technology is offered under the name TING (Chinese for “hearing”), which can, however, be used by all publishers and is therefore not limited to products from one publisher. The pen was launched on the market in spring 2011 by Ting Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Himmer AG in cooperation with the Random House publishing group and the United Publishing House .
  • The Bookii audio pen, released in 2018 by Tessloff-Verlag , has a similar technical structure and also contains a microphone that can be used to create your own recordings and link them to stickers you have stuck on yourself. The pen can be connected to a smartphone, PC or tablet via Bluetooth and open videos or web links there. The Bookii pen is also intended as an open platform that is used by other publishers in addition to Tessloff-Verlag (Kondoo-Verlag, 1Buch, Domowina-Verlag, Langenscheid-Verlag, Finken-Verlag, ObersteBrink - as of June 2019).
  • The Encyclopaedia Britannica sells similar “interactive books” that work with an SD-X pen.
  • Toystick from Noris
  • The Taiwanese Chameleon Reader was first published in 2012 and has been distributed in Europe by ENJOY Studio since 2019. It is based on similar technology, but is geared towards creating your own audiobooks. With stickers, for example, you can turn a normal book into an audio book. 4 audio recordings can be saved per sticker (color-coded), for example in different languages ​​or from different speakers. The stickers can be combined into playlists. The recordings are saved as WAV files, the pen can also play MP3.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Make 6/2015 Heise Verlag
  2. Make 6/2015 Heise Verlag
  3. Tiptoi pen versions 2018 . Website of the Ravensburger publishing house. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  4. Tiptoi pen versions . Website of the Ravensburger publishing house. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  5. Article new Tiptoi pen version . Website of the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  6. General questions about tiptoi . Website of the Ravensburger Verlag. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  7. press release . Website of the Ravensburger Verlag. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  8. Operating instructions for the pen
  9. Tiptoi concept . Website of the Ravensburger Verlag. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  10. Questions about the tiptoi manager . Website of the Ravensburger Verlag. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  11. tiptoi® FAQ: Questions about manual download . Website of the Ravensburger Verlag. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  12. ^ Results of the code analysis . Website accessed January 19, 2014.
  13. Discussion on code analysis . Website accessed January 11, 2014.
  14. [1]
  15. Press release from February 23, 2011 (PDF; 172 kB). Website Ting Co. Ltd. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  16. ^ Britannica Interactive Science Library ( Memento August 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on December 28, 2013.
  17. What is SDX? Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  18. About Chameleon Reader accessed on May 10, 2020.