Experimental prototypes, informed by an understanding of cognitive and child psychology are being created for museums with the aim of producing surprises, children's excitement, retaining their attention, encouraging physical activity and increasing their knowledge and understanding. We will argue that this approach can create exhibits that enhance the learning experience through interaction.
... [Show full abstract] This paper, describes a simple prototype showing that both surprise and attention can be generated and maintained through the adaptation of an old and familiar toy: thereby utilizing an existing skill set, to control a more advanced activity. Here, an interactive digital LED system is embedded within a child's skipping rope, and by exploiting our persistence of vision, it creates an illusion of an animated character correspondingly jumping in the air on an invisible/ephemeral screen (provided by the movement of the skipping rope), thus combining the experience of skipping with image display.