Update 31/7

Since my last post I've been working more with Flash and I've figured out how to track the coordinates of a marker and print it out (to help me to code what Flash should do when a certain marker is at a certain coordinate).

I've got my perspex sheet, it's 4ft x 2ft which is a bit longer than I'd planned - 4ft is a bit of a stretch (for most people anyway!) so I might use the end of the table for something else...

I met with Annette to show her what I've done so far, she also helped me a lot with the thesis and I left the meeting feeling a lot less stressed! I also got some more ideas from both her and Colm which have given me a lot to think about.

For the thesis I made a SketchUp model of what the final table should look like (click for a bigger pic).

The triangular marker is what the user moves to control a Flash animation of the road - as they move forwards or backwards, so does the animation. The buildings and small roads are made from card. For more information on a building, the user rotates the triangle/arrow head to point at the building's target. They can use the square markers to choose the type of information they want to view (video, pics, text) and the circular markers to control the information (play, stop, next pic, previous page, restart, etc).

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what kind of frame the table needs and how to make it. Hopefully when it's finished it'll look and work like the model above :)