Start of project 01.10.2005

The bachelor project "The Mystical Gray Box" aims at the construction of a three dimensional, virtual world which represents an abstraction of a real computer. This little world is inhabitated by a busy people of bits, rushing around inbetween weird looking buildings. Being carefully guided by an avatar at first and later on exploring the virtual world on their own account, the visitors of this world are carefully introduced to the real features of computer hardware and their coherences.

The educational goal of the project is to introduce some basic aspects of hardware-logic to youngsters. Computers already are part of our everyday life but due to the complexity of the technology involved, most people never dare to try to understand how they work. With basic early education as our project aims to provide by rebuilding the hardware of the computer in an abstract, yet imaginative way, floodgates can be opened to young students and encourage them to target at a deeper understanding of the mechanisms in their future educational career.