I/O brush: drawing with everyday objects as ink

Ryokai, K., Marti, S., and Ishii, H. 2004. I/O brush: drawing with everyday objects as ink. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Vienna, Austria, April 24 - 29, 2004). CHI '04. ACM, New York, NY, 303-310.

Abstract: We introduce I/O Brush, a new drawing tool aimed at young children, ages four and up, to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, children can draw with the special "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment. In our preliminary study with kindergarteners, we found that children not only produced complex works of art using I/O Brush, but they also engaged in explicit talk about patterns and features available in their environment. I/O Brush invites children to explore the transformation from concrete and familiar raw material into abstract concepts about patterns of colors, textures and movements.