ePAD: Engaging Platform for Art Development

This paper discuss the benefits of using touchscreen interfaces to encourage older people in the art therapy process. Although my research is going beyond this, it is still interesting to understand the benefits of using touchscreen and there positive influence on a user. The full paper can be read hear at,  ePAD: Engaging Platform for Art Development

Another publication that I came across Design and Prototype of a Device to Engage Cognitively

Disabled Older Adults in Visual Artwork is also a good paper that explains the benefits of using touchscreen technology. 

Ezscreen Helps Art Therapy Miracle

Five-year-old Deontay Isaac of Philadelphia, a patient at Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children,
does not need words to tell her story. The artwork-lined walls of her hospital say it all.


The breakthrough came with the arrival of a printer and an Ezscreen® RxKiosk® “All-in-One” Touchscreen PC donated by the Katherine Townsend Terral-Jessica Shelby Ferris endowment. This fund supports early intervention and art therapy in Batson Hospital. The computer is operated by touching its screen, so it could be controlled with a mouthstick which meant that Deontay could run the computer independently.


For further reading click on this link, Ezscreen Touchscreen Systems

Art therapy research

Art Therapy: Using the Creative Process for Healing and Hope Among African American Older Adults

This article provides an introduction to the field of art therapy and the potential it can offer to address the emotional needs of the frail elderly. Two case studies are discussed, and examples of artwork are provided. The case studies and artwork were created under the guidance of an art therapist at a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) site in an urban African American community. This article explores how art making addresses the specific developmental tasks of the elderly in a culturally competent manner. Included are practical considerations in the choice of art media and directives for working with elderly clients, as well as resources for further information on the use of art in therapy.

Plastico, Westport, Co.Mayo

Based in Westport Co. Mayo, Ireland, We at Plastico pride ourselves in providing the highest quality range of plastics and customised fabricated products which create maximum impact at point of purchase or enhancement at point of display. Plastico's superior workmanship and ability to listen to and meet our customers needs has seen Plastico grow from strength to strength from its inception in 2005. Talk to us about your needs and we will guarantee to give you a product that both you and Plastico can be proud of.

The reason for choosing this company is that they were very helpful and professional with helping to solve my design problem. The company sent out samples in the post the first day that I contacted them and this really helped me to clarify what material I exactly needed. Another thing that I felt company excelled at compared to other companies was that the owner took time to explain the different methods for polishing edges and how other companies do a cheaper job but with less success to do do what I was looking for. In my design, one of the challenges is to maximize the light that bounces through the acrylic. One way to increase the sensibility of my prototype is to have the edges buffed to a polished edge so that I have the maximum amount of light being used from the IR LED's. I will take photos of the acrylic when it gets delivered. 

Week 10 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

Hunt Museum proposal

Below are images that our group created to give to the curator and director of the hunt museum for our proposal. We have finalized the measurements and over the next week we plan to go forward to the making stage of our project.

Ceiling plan of where our projection will circulate. 

Floor plan of where the projection table will sit in the middle of the room

Hunt Museum project

As part of the ‘Contemporary Art in the Public Realm’ module in Interactive media, we were given a brief to explore the concepts of scaling, miniature and invisibility within the Hunt museum. We have decided to create an instillation piece that would display a catalogue of the pieces that reflect the concept of the projects outline mentioned above. We propose to build an interactive table that would project the objects we choose onto the ceiling within the Captains room. This interactive table will be 24 inches square and a height of 35 inches. There will be four buttons on the piece that will allow the user in interactive with the projections, to choose an era with the catalogs of work, to stop the frame it will be on and to move back and forward. The projection will be animated to circulate on the roof and this will be very subtle so that it would not affect anybody with epilepsy. The interactive table will be either a dark green in color or black that it is in fitting with the color scheme within the room.

This video show the area in which the projection table will be. I feel that the design of the table will have to be subtle so that it fits with the feel and color of the room. It should be visible, but invisible at the same time.

This image is the picture of the ceiling, where the projection will circulate around the centre piece.