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Today’s Siggraph’s “Computer Animation Festival” had a little surprise for the attendees. It was a simple yet amazingly innovative product.


“ZYGOTE is a lightweight inflated ball, illuminated from within, that responds to pressure applied to its surface. Interacting with the ball is simple: punch it, bounce it, squeeze it, or tap it and the ball’s internal LEDs react instantaneously.”


Here is a clip of Alex Beim at the BIP (Building Interactive Playgrounds) in Italy, explaining how this project started and a little bit on how it works.

Zygote Interactive Ball at BIP, Italy from alexbeim on Vimeo.

The first time I saw the ball in action was a couple weeks ago, he was a guest at the latest VFS Digital Design Assembly, and I was amazed with the simplicity of it, and at the same time the complex programming that goes on behind the scenes, I love that, when something looks so simple and has a quite complex system running to make it look simple.


I was excited of being a part of this event. I was assigned to record this event, there were two of them, and even though the second screening of the Festival had more people, the fewer people in it actually got more involved in this experience, so much that the lights on the ceiling received some impacts, but nothing to worry about.


After I finish the edit of the footage, I’ll post it here, this would be probably at the beginning of next week.