GB2595445A - Digital sandtray - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer program that authentically emulates a physical sandtray and symbols, by facilitating the creation of dioramas, using camera-aligned images as symbols, and the sculpting of digital sand using deformable textured geometry to create still scenes in the tray during a therapy session. Collision testing may be utilised to optimally represent vertices (Fig.2), which can be averaged to support the effect of smoothing sand, and also to automatically control the position of a symbol in its Y axis (Fig.3). The amount of sand may be increased or decreased over time depending on the duration of the users’ input press, and symbol can be moved, rotated or deleted based on user input. Both three-dimensional (3D) models and two-dimensional (2D) camera-aligned images can be utilised. The digital sandtray can be used real time during online sessions or remotely for personal process. The user can also review their work via augmented reality (Fig.4).

Description

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Digital Sandtray This invention relates to a computer program that simulates the usage of sand, and symbols in a traditional wooden sandtray, for therapeutic purposes. It is made for use by therapists and clients, via mobile phones and tablets as an app, and for computers and laptops as a web-based product.

Sandtray therapy is a form of psychotherapy, in which the client places miniature toys and objects known as 'symbols', such as figurines, shells, rocks, crystals and vehicles, into a wooden tray containing sand. The client may mould the sand into shapes or patterns, depicting expanses of land or islands, and can depict rivers or streams by removing sand to expose the tray's blue-painted base. Ideally, the client has access to a vast collection of symbols that can be used to create still pictures or dioramas in the sandtray. The process of moving the sand and creating these dioramas is known to be very helpful in facilitating therapist and client to explore and understand the client's experiences and mental processes, and to work towards resolution of troubling issues.

Sandtray therapy, whilst very effective, has practical limitations. Many therapists work on an ad hoc or contract basis in schools and other locations, and do not have a permanent base from which to work. These practitioners are faced with the difficult task of transporting the bulk and weight of a sandtray, plus the sand, and a large collection of symbols, to and from different locations on a regular basis. Even with a permanent location from which to work, the cost and time it takes to collect symbols for use with a sandtray can vastly accumulate.

Further still, in these modern times, therapy has moved beyond the physical therapy room and onto digital platforms. Therapists, responding to ever increasing demand from clients, are conducting more online therapeutic sessions than ever before, for example, via video conferencing. Sandtray therapy in its traditional form does not translate easily into this medium, because clients are unlikely to have their own sandtray therapy collections, and cannot access the therapist's collection via an electronic device.

The Digital Sandtray invention bypasses these issues by providing a virtual sandtray that can be used across a range of mobile devices, both independently or online with a practitioner. This invention allows for ease of transportation and makes it accessible to more therapists and their clients, including those who are unable to visit the therapy room. Easy access to the digital therapeutic sandtray, sand and large collection of relevant symbols all in one place removes the work, time and cost involved in accumulating the usual physical sandtray therapy equipment.

The digital sandtray is designed to be a realistic depiction of a professional wooden sandtray that is traditionally used in sandtray therapy; rectangular in shape with bevelled corners, and with a light-blue-coloured base to represent water.

The symbols included are intended to replicate toys and hand-drawn cut-outs that are typically used with the sandtray in therapy sessions. This is intended to make the transition from using a physical sandtray to a virtual one as seamless as possible.

This invention's accessibility and ease of transportation is intended to allow therapists and clients to easily continue their use of sandtray therapy, to enjoy the same benefits as are achieved through the use of a physical sandtray and symbols.

The design features a 'screenshot' button, which allows users to save and share their sandtray work with their therapist for later discussion.

The user has the option to view their sandtray diorama from 2D and 3D angles.

The digital sandtray can also be viewed via augmented reality, where users can superimpose their sandtray onto a surface in their real-life surroundings, and can zoom in or out to get a more detailed look or an overview of the scene in the tray.

Users can select the symbols from a scrolling menu below the sandtray, position or manipulate them in the tray, and remove / delete them from the tray.

Sand can be added, removed and manipulated in the tray. For example, it can be used to simulate burying and uncovering the symbols, consistent with a real sandtray.

The invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows the main interface of the computer program.

Figure 2 shows how spherical objects are created to manipulate the vertices of the sandtray surface.

Figure 3 shows how the vertices of the sandtray surface are affected by any displacement of the spherical objects.

Figure 4 shows the interface when the augmented reality feature is enabled.

In Figure 1, the topmost two-thirds of the program interface depicts a computer rendering of a realistic wooden sandtray 1.

The sandtray is rendered as a rectangular tray, with bevelled edges and raised borders. The tray is light-brown in colour, with visible grain effects to give the illusion of a wooden texture.

The interior base of the sandtray is blue in colour, depicting a polished, but scuffed painted surface.

The depiction of the digital sandtray is designed to convey the authenticity of using a physical sandtray.

The wooden tray itself is non-interactive, in that it cannot be moved, or rotated, or scaled, except when being viewed in augmented reality.

In the interest of brevity, any user interaction with the sandtray interface will be described as a 'press'. In a real scenario, a user with the smartphone or tablet version of the program would press the screen with their finger, whilst a user with the web-based version of the program would click on the screen with a mouse.

The latter third of the interface displays a series of buttons, that the user can press to interact with the sandtray. All buttons are rendered in the colour (RGB: 62, 125, 35), and their text is written in the Anal Bold font, in the colour (RGB: 255, 255, 255), at a size of 22 points.

The 'Add Sand' button 2 will enable the user to add sand into the sandtray. Having pressed this button, the user can then press anywhere in the sandtray itself. Sand will appear in the area of the tray that the user has pressed. The sand is depicted as a beige mound on the blue surface, rendered with a gritty texture image to give the appearance of real sand.

When pressing the sandtray to add sand, the duration of the press will control how much sand appears. For example, a short tap on the sandtray will generate a small, flat area of sand. Whereas a long press of two seconds will make a taller mound of sand.

In order to achieve this process, the blue surface of the sandtray is built as a highly tessellated polygon mesh. As the program is initiated, a spherical object is generated at the position of each vertex of the polygon mesh as shown in Figure 2. The spherical objects are hidden from the user. When the user presses the blue surface, the program performs a raycast operation; defining a straight line from the position in screen-space of the user's press

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to the blue surface in world-space. This raycast operation is a method of testing whether the user has pressed an area where any of the spherical objects reside. If a raycast operation is successful; that is, if a user press collides with a spherical object, then the spherical object is lifted slightly in the Y axis. The program performs a proximity test to determine if any nearby spherical objects should also be affected, and any nearby spheres are also lifted by a lesser amount (based on their distance from the original sphere). This causes the displacement to take the form of a raised mound. Once this process is complete, the program then re-calculates the polygon mesh of the blue surface, setting all of its vertex positions to match the positions of the now-displaced spherical objects, as shown in Figure 3. This process allows the user to effectively deform the blue surface with their inputs. Any vertices of the polygon mesh whose object-space Y coordinate exceeds zero is rendered with a sand material, as opposed to the blue surface material.

The user also has access to a button for removing sand, as shown in Figure 1. As with the 'Add Sand' button 2, the 'Remove Sand' button 3 works in the same way. The user presses the button, then presses the blue surface itself. However, instead of raising the polygon vertices with each user press, this mode will lower the polygon vertices, effectively flattening any peaks of sand over time. This lowering effect is clamped to zero in object-space, so that the user can never lower a sand mound below the blue surface.

The 'Smooth Sand' button 3 is another feature that works in the same way as adding or removing sand. The user presses the button, then presses on the blue surface of the sandtray. However, instead of raising or lowering a vertex along with any nearby vertices, the smoothing tool averages the vertices. The object-space Y coordinate of the selected vertex, along with the Y coordinate of its nearest neighbours, are compared, and then a mean value is determined (the combination of all the Y coordinates measured, divided by the number of vertices measured). This mean value is applied to all of the tested vertices, giving the effect of smoothing any high or low peaks in the selected area.

All three of the features described so far operate using a 'circle of influence', that is, when the user displaces a vertex on the mesh, the number of nearby vertices that should also be displaced is defined by a given radius. The user can define this radius, using an on-screen scroll bar, labelled "Sand Amount" 4.

The 'Screen Shot' button 7, when pressed, will capture the interface of the program as an image, and save it to the user's Camera Roll (for iPhone/iPad) or the user's Gallery (for Android). The screen shot button is not available in the web-based application.

The '2D/3D' button 6, when pressed, allows the user to toggle between the standard 3D view of the interface (where the sandtray is viewed from a high angle) and a planar top-down view of the interface (where the sandtray is viewed from above). This provides the user with the option to interact with the sandtray, without the distraction of perspective.

The interface includes a scrollable row of buttons 8, collectively labelled as 'Symbol Select'. The user can scroll these buttons left and right by dragging/swiping them.

Each button in the Symbol Select refers to a category of symbols. For example: Nature', 'Animals', 'People', or 'Vehicles'. When a user presses one of these buttons, the Symbol Select changes to show a row of icons, depicting the available symbols. For example, pressing the 'Animals' button will display all of the available symbols associated with animals, or pressing the 'Nature' button will display all of the available symbols associated with nature.

When the user presses one of these icons, a symbol (whose appearance matches the image of the icon) will appear in the sandtray. For example, clicking on an icon depicting a tree will place that same tree on the surface of the sandtray. This symbol is represented as a flat, camera-aligned image. When seen from the perspective view, the symbols appear to stand perpendicular to the sandtray. When viewed from above, the symbols appear to lie flat on the surface of the sandtray.

Where appropriate, any symbols that depict objects that should traditionally lie on the ground are always shown to be flat against the surface of the sandtray. For example, insects or snakes.

In physical sandtray therapy, certain symbols can be placed inside others (for example, putting a skeleton symbol inside a coffin symbol). To allow this level of interactivity, a small number of symbols in the program are rendered as 3D models, as opposed to being rendered as camera-aligned polygons. Specifically, the current 3D models are: a bridge, a coffin, a treasure chest, a wooden fence, and a boat.

Where appropriate, the 3D models have a greater level of interactivity than the standard camera-aligned symbols. For example, the user can open and close the treasure chest by pressing it after it has been placed.

All symbols are displayed as static models or images, and they do not animate.

After a symbol is placed in the sandtray, the user has a number of options to interact with it. Pressing the 'Move Symbol' button 9 will allow the user to move any symbol that has been placed in the sandtray, by dragging that symbol with their finger/mouse pointer. The user can only move a symbol in two dimensions (along the XZ plane). Any motion on the Y axis is automatically solved by the program. For example, if the user drags a symbol over a tall mound of sand, the symbol will automatically rise to match the height of the sand.

As with the sand manipulation, the movement and selection of symbols is controlled by the invisible spherical objects, that in turn control the vertices of the sandtray surface. When the user opts to move or delete a symbol, and then presses that symbol in the sandtray, the program performs a raycast from the user's input position in screen-space to the spheres of the sandtray in world-space, and determines whether the user has selected a symbol. If the raycast determines that the user's press is within the bounds of a symbol, that symbol is considered to have been selected. When a user drags/swipes to move that symbol, its position is always clamped to the nearest spherical object. In this way, the program can always test the position of the symbol against the height of any sphere/vertex on the sandtray itself.

Pressing the "Delete Symbol" button 10 will allow the user to remove symbols from the sandtray. This process works by pressing the aforementioned button, then pressing or dragging any symbol in the sandtray.

Pressing the 'Rotate Symbol' button 11 will alter the orientation of the latest symbol that was previously placed or selected. For example, if the user places a robot in the sandtray, then places a wizard in the sandtray, and then presses "Rotate Symbol", the wizard will rotate. Whereas if the user then moves the robot by dragging it, and then presses 'Rotate Symbol', the robot will rotate.

The behaviour of 'Rotate Symbol' is different for 3D models and camera-aligned images. If the symbol is a 3D model, pressing the 'Rotate Symbol' button will cause the model to rotate by 45 degrees on the Y axis with each button press. If the symbol is a camera-aligned image, pressing the button will cause the image to flip horizontally like a mirror reflection (for example, a character facing to the left will appear facing to the right).

Pressing the 'Flip Symbol' button 12 will flip a symbol vertically, effectively turning it upside down. As with the 'Rotate Symbol' option, the 'Flip Symbol' button will only affect the latest symbol that was previously placed or selected.

Pressing the 'Clear Tray' button 5 will remove all placed symbols from the sandtray, and flatten all vertices and spheres on the sandtray's surface, effectively resetting the interface to its initial state.

The smartphone/tablet versions of the sandtray also support augmented reality. With this feature, the sand tray, along with any placed symbols or sand sculptures, can be superimposed onto real world footage captured in real time from the mobile device's camera. This effectively allows the user to place their digital diorama 'in the real world', where they can walk around the sand tray, move further away or closer to it as they would be able to do in real life, and generally inspect the sandtray in more detail than they can using the standard interface.

The user can enable the augmented reality feature by pressing the 'AR' button 13.

The augmented reality feature makes use of Apple's ARKit technology and Google's ARCore technology. Because of this, only mobile devices that support ARKit and ARCore can use the augmented reality feature in this program. When the program is initialised, it determines whether or not the device can support augmented reality, and hides the 'AR' button if it cannot.

When the user presses the 'AR' button, the standard interface disappears in its entirety, replaced with a direct feed from the user's rear-facing camera. Three buttons are displayed at the base of the new interface, as shown in Figure 4; labelled 'Return', 'Place Sandtray', and 'Screen Shot'.

In this new interface, the 'Screen Shot' button 7 will function as it did before.

The 'Return' button 14 will discontinue the augmented reality session and revert back to the original interface.

The 'Place Sandtray' button 15 begins the process of scanning the real-world environment for suitable ground planes on which to place the digital sandtray. After this button is pressed, the user is prompted (by way of an on-screen text message) to repeatedly move the device from left to right, in order to scan the environment for a floor or other flat surface.

During this scanning process, the program will look for a surface on which to place the sandtray. When it finds one, the sandtray will appear on that surface. However, at this point, the sandtray is not locked in place. The user can still reposition the sandtray in the real world by moving their device (the program performs a raycast from the centre of the screen to the point on the surface, and places the sandtray there).

If the user moves the device to face a scene where there is no floor or flat surface, they will be prompted to re-scan the environment by moving their device left and right.

When the user has positioned the sandtray to their liking, they can press anywhere on the screen to lock the sandtray in place. During the positioning process, an on-screen text message will inform the user that they can tap the screen to place the sandtray.

Sand cannot be added, removed, or smoothed, and symbols cannot be added, removed or manipulated when the user is viewing the sandtray in augmented reality. The augmented reality feature is intended as a process for reviewing sandtray dioramas, and not for editing them.

Claims (9)

1. Claims 1. A computer program that authentically emulates the appearance and user experience of working with a physical sandtray.
2. 2. A computer program according to claim 1, in which the digital representation of the sandtray is rendered realistically, with textured geometry and real time self-shadows.
3. 3. A computer program according to claim 1, in which collision testing against invisible spheres is used as a method to optimally represent vertices to deform the geometry of digital sand.
4. 4. A computer program according to claim 1, in which the volume of digital sand can be increased or decreased over time, based on the duration of the user's input press.
5. 5. A computer program according to claim 4, in which vertices can be averaged to support the effect of smoothing digital sand.
6. 6. A computer program according to claim 1, in which both three-dimensional models and two-dimensional camera-aligned images (henceforth described as "symbols") can be placed within a digital representation of a sandtray.
7. 7. A computer program according to claim 6, in which the aforementioned symbols can be moved, rotated, or deleted based on user input.
8. 8. A computer program according to claims 6 and 3, in which collision testing against invisible spheres are used to automatically control the position of a symbol in its Y axis.
9. 9. A computer program according to claim 1, in which the user can review their sandtray compositions in the real world using augmented reality.