Research & Citations

Body Blocks represents over a decade of practice-based research in embodied interaction for education, evolving from the original Kinect2Scratch (2011) to today’s cross-platform pose detection system.

How to Cite Body Blocks

If you use Body Blocks in your research, teaching, or publications, please cite it as:

@software{howell2025bodyblocks,
  author = {Howell, Stephen},
  title = {Body Blocks: Visual Programming for Embodied Applications},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  url = {https://bodyblocks.app},
  institution = {University College Dublin}
}

Research Context

Body Blocks emerges from practice-based PhD research exploring the affordances of embodied interaction in educational computing. This work focuses on:

• Accessibility: Democratizing creative computing by reducing traditional hardware barriers
• Inclusivity: Designing multimodal interfaces that support diverse learning styles and physical abilities
• Pedagogy: Investigating how embodied programming environments transform computational thinking and learning practices
• Co-evolution: Examining the iterative relationship between tool design and educational practice through participatory workshops

Academic Influences

Body Blocks builds on decades of research in:

• Embodied interaction in education
• Tangible and gestural computing
• Constructionist learning theory
• Inclusive computing education

Related Publications

Theoretical Framework

Body Blocks draws on:

• Embodied Cognition: Understanding thinking as fundamentally rooted in bodily experience
• Constructionism: Learning through making and creating with computational tools
• Multimodal Learning: Supporting diverse ways of knowing and expressing
• Inclusive Design: Creating tools that work for the widest possible range of users

Research Applications

Kinect2Scratch has been used in research contexts including:

• Computer science education (K-12 and university)
• Special education and accessibility studies
• Movement and dance education
• Physiotherapy and rehabilitation
• Museum and informal learning spaces

Collaborate

Interested in using Body Blocks for research? We welcome collaborations in:

• Educational technology studies
• Embodied interaction research
• Accessibility and inclusive design
• Movement-based learning
• Cross-cultural computing education

Contact: stephenhowell@outlook.ie

Ethics & Data

Body Blocks:

• Does not collect user data
• Processes all pose detection locally on-device
• Does not store or transmit video or images
• Requires no account or registration
• Is fully open source for transparency

When using Body Blocks in research with participants, researchers are responsible for their own ethics approval and data management practices.