Storytelling on a String

Barbara Barry, a Media Lab PhD candidate, has invented a new way to tell stories: an interactive necklace of computer "beads" that hold wearer-selected images and text. The "StoryBeads" can be traded or strung together to create narratives.

Barry, SM '00, developed the beads as her master's thesis, designing them to be used by teenage girls. The idea originated in her work as a mentor at the Computer Clubhouse Girl's Day, a weekly after-school project that encourages adolescent girls to use technology for creative expression.

In addition to the regular beads, each necklace comes with a special interface bead and a viewing amulet. By plugging the interface bead into a desktop computer's serial port, necklace wearers can download images and accompanying text into their beads. Later, they can transmit the images to the amulet to be viewed. To send an image from a bead to the amulet, users press the interface bead the number of times that corresponds to the position of the bead (for instance, press twice to see the image stored on the second bead). Pressing a button on the amulet transfers an image from one necklace to another via infrared light.

If StoryBeads are ever commercially manufactured, Barry says, she will be the first to buy them. "I would love a pair for myself," she says, but notes that the necklaces could be expensive.