Projects - Playful Invention Company

Our Projects

Since the early 1980s, we have been developing new technologies and activities that engage children in creative learning experiences, providing them with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.

Click the links below to learn about some of our projects and playful inventions. Some were simply side projects that took on a life of their own, while others have grown beyond our expectations.

TurtleArt

Inspired by Logo, TurtleArt turns coding into a creative adventure where art, math, and imagination come together.

OctoStudio

OctoStudio transforms how children use mobile devices, enabling them to create their own stories and games anytime anywhere. Children can take photos and record sounds, bring them to life with coding

ScratchJr

ScratchJr is a version of Scratch especially designed for children ages 5–7. Developed in collaboration with the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab and the DevTech Research group at Tufts University

Scratch

Scratch is a graphical programming environment that enables kids ages 8 and up to create their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations.

The PicoCricket Kit

An invention kit that integrates art and technology to spark creative thinking in girls and boys 8 years and older.

Collaboration with LEGO

We maintain an ongoing relationship with the LEGO Company, collaborating on LEGO MINDSTORMS, LEGO WeDo, LEGO Universe and LEGO Modular Playware Technology.

Digital Fabrication

We want to encourage people to make art with code, we also want to be able to take that art from the computer screen and make it into something tangible.

ArtLogo

ArtLogo is an app that lets you create images. It has a Turtle that follows a sequence of commands written in Logo programming language.

Logo

Logo is a programming language developed in the 1960s for educational purposes. It has been used by tens of millions of kids around the world.

LightPlay

We created the iPad app for LightPlay, a project that explores computational tinkering through playful making with digital and physical materials.

Shadow Coding

In 2019, the Playful Invention Company teamed up with the Montreal Science Centre to create an interactive, coding based exhibit called “Code des Ombres” (Shadow Coding).

Art:bit

The art:bit is an app that helps the user create imaginative LED animations and was designed primarily to help young students learn the basics of programming and animation.

Tivoli Lights

Animated light displays designed by students in Denmark and done in collaboration with Google CS First and the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.

SunSlicer

SunSlicer is an innovative, miniature, low power, versatile, TRL7 flight ready XRAY spectrometer with custom packaging and thermal design to adapt it for a harsh, miniature rover-deployed lunar environment.

Crickets in Space: T-LogoQube

One of our projects is in outer space!

Cellular Automata

Cellular Automata is not a product as much as it is an idea. Brian then invented the rule that became known as Brian’s Brain.

History of Computing

A project to preserve, study and document historic computers. Some of this work is in museums.