Cratch S, A free programming tool that allows anyone to create their own animated stories , video games and interactive artworks has been developed.
Primarily aimed at children, Scratch no prior knowledge of complex computer languages.
Instead, use a simple graphical interface that allows programs to be assembled like building blocks.
The digital toolkit, developed in the U.S. at the MIT Media Lab, allows people to blend images, sound and video.
"The programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - just for a panel with expertise and experience," said Professor Mitchel Resnick, one of the researchers in the group kindergarten throughout life at MIT.
"We have developed Scratch as a new kind of programming language, which is much more accessible."
Child's play
The explosion in broadband connectivity has fueled the growth of web sites that offer media rich media experiences, including video and animations.
"These days, kids interact with all kinds of dynamic things on screen, but usually is a one way street - they are usually interacting with things that other people have created," said Professor Resnick , who also invented Lego Mindstorms, a robotics toolkit often used in teaching.
"With Scratch we want to leave the children to be creators. We want to create interesting dynamic things on the computer."
The program works by making the act of creating a computer program more like building Lego bricks.
"Kids make programs by pulling blocks together," said Professor Resnick, whose position is partially supported by the toy company.
"With Scratch we want to leave kids to be creators. We want to create interesting dynamic things on the computer."
The program works by making the act of creating a computer program more like building with Lego bricks.
"Kids make programs by pulling blocks together," said Professor Resnick, whose position is partially supported by the toy company.
objects and characters, chosen from a menu and created in a paint editor or simply cut and paste from the web, are animated by snapping different "action" cell blocks.
"They do not have to worry about hiding the punctuation and syntax common in most programming languages," he said.
Each block contains a command like "move" or "play drum" and each action can be changed from a dropdown menu. Blocks can only be stacked if they fit.
For example, if someone wanted to animate a cat walking across the screen they could modify the move block to tell the cat to walk 10 steps forward.
If you then wanted the cat to bang a drum as he walked, that could play the stack-drum block underneath, choosing a sound for the instrument and how long each beat should last.
Other actions, such as making use of the word, change the color or the triggering of music, can be added to complete the animation.
Mix and match
Zero is inspired by the method hip hop DJs use to mix and scratch records to create new sounds.
"With Scratch, our goal is to let people mix all kinds of media, not just sounds, in creative ways," said Professor Resnick.
"We want people to start from existing materials - grabbing an image, grabbing some sound, maybe even bits of someone from the program, and then expand and mix to make them their own. "
