Imagine you’re a kid having a blast in the park, when out of nowhere a rad robot sidles up beside you, just begging to play. The MORPHs 2.0, created by Interactive Architecture Lab, is meant to encourage kids to interact with robots at an early age, hopefully instilling a life-long love of technology.

MORPHs, or Mobile Reconfigurable PolyHedra, are adaptive polyhedral structures capable of moving around in public spaces, They respond to their environment – both the terrain on which they slowly crawl, and the people around them. An onboard GPS unit and a wireless guidance system define the area in which the robot is allowed to crawl, but otherwise it moves through the space autonomously.

When a curious human happens upon the somehow-adorable walking sculpture, he or she can squeeze one of the rubber joints to interact with it. The robot will then begin moving in that direction. The rubber joints also provide the robot with important information, such as whether there are obstacles (like people) ahead or if it’s still sitting on solid ground. If someone does try to grab MORPHs 2.0 and run off with it, the environment sensors and GPS will cause an alarm to go off.

The robot’s movements are slow and deliberate so it won’t pose any perceived threat to people around it. At just 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) tall, MORPHs can support up to 30 kilograms (about 66 pounds). The team plans to double the height and increase the load-bearing capacity for a future version. If built big and strong enough, these roving bots could be like traveling monkey bars that just wander to wherever the kids are and invite them to interact, truly making real-world technology a familiar part of kids’ lives from a very early age.

The post My First Robot: Bot Wanders Playgrounds, Engages Kids first appeared on Gajitz.

Every parent has had the privilege of being the unofficial playground for their tots. Kids just love to climb all over grownups, regardless of how painful a poorly-placed little foot can be. Designer Atsushi Shiraishi at Tama Art University created the Athletitti Vest, a wearable device that turns you into a playground for your little one.

The Athletitti Vest is meant to strengthen the bonds between parent and child, to encourage interactive play and, we assume, to give your kids appropriate places to put their fists and feet.

It looks a little like a primitive torture device: a narrow leather vest held together with thick black rope. It ties around the front, effectively caging in the parent’s torso.

The ropes are sturdy handholds for small children, and because the vest is secured tightly on the body, Junior can climb, hang and swing all he wants. We can’t imagine it would be great for a parent’s back, but it’s a novel way to interact with your littlest kiddos while keeping them super-close.

The post Saddle Up! Vest is a Wearable Jungle Gym For Your Kids first appeared on Gajitz.

Things like power and light are undeniably taken for granted in the West. There are, nevertheless, large parts of the under-developed world that don’t have electricity. In Ghana, Empower Playgrounds President Ben Markham is cutely solving a somber issue.

Markham spent 18 months in Ghana in 2006, where he noticed poor conditions in both the playground conditions and availability of electricity. The result was an inspired twist on a merry-go-round: the classic playground toy would be used as a power generator.

The mechanical system of the merry-go-round produces power with 70% efficiency. It takes the power from the revolving equipment and transfers it to a DC converter to be stored in a deep cycle battery. The Energizer Battery Corporation is a sponsor of Empower Playgrounds and provides lanterns that store 40 hours of light from one charge. They’ve managed to combine efficiency and fun while providing essential utilities to villages in need.

The post The Power of Kids’ Play Brings Light to Ghanaian Families first appeared on Gajitz.

All too often, vehicles which have lived out their useful years are left to rot in various junkyards and trash heaps – but two Dutch designers decided to put an old ambulance and other “trash” to great use.

Pim van Baarsen and Luc van Hoeckel, in cooperation with Malawi social business Sakaramenta, rescued a boring parking space at Beit Cure hospital Blantyre. The hospital specializes in orthopedic treatments and has many young patients.

The designers pulled a gutted ambulance from a pile of trash, made it safe for play, and installed it in the newly-formed playground as a kind of funky playhouse.

Other attractions in the new playground include trashed tires, springs, axles and other objects that would otherwise have rotted away in the garbage dump. Instead, they’ve been rehabbed and now provide a bit of joy in the lives of sick and injured children.

The playground is open to the public, so kids from surrounding areas can come to play with the hospital’s patients. This allows hospitalized children to socialize with other kids from the area, giving them a few minutes of normalcy at otherwise-difficult times in their lives.

The post Rubbish to Recess: Hospital Park Revives Old Ambulance first appeared on Gajitz.

Modern playgrounds are all about safety, which can sometimes result in an unfortunate loss of fun. But back in the 70s, playgrounds were built to thrill the young park patron, often with a fair amount of danger – or at least what we would think of as danger today.

With super-high slides lacking safety enclosures and metalbars just begging kids to get their heads stuck, these playgrounds have everything an inquisitive and risk-loving kid could hope for.

By today’s standards, these playground sets are a lawsuit waiting to happen. But before parents started suing for every little bump, bruise and severed limb, this type of structure was a common sight in suburbs all around the country.

Playground manufacturers sold their sets partially on the perceived healthiness of anything that got kids up and moving around. And based on today’s lack of awesome playgrounds and alarming childhood obesity epidemic, they may have been on to something.

From humongous robots to space shuttles to bizarre round swings, these vintage playground sets bring to mind all of the fun afternoons we spent as kids doing things that we wouldn’t think of letting our own kids do today.

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The post Perilous Playthings: Dangerous Playgrounds From the 70s first appeared on Gajitz.