Swiping fingers on a screen is not enough! Dusting off toy blocks to build new gaming experiences through mobile apps

Smartphones have become everyday objects for many children. They learn how to count, spell or paint by swiping their fingers on a screen, using some of the thousands of applications specially designed for them. However, real world interactions also need other kind of skills for physical object manipulation, often developed through traditional toys. In this paper we present 3DU Blocks, a proposal to take advantage of both approaches, combining traditional building blocks with the features provided by mobile devices to create new gaming experiences.