Portable engine for entertainment, education, or communication

A multi-channel portable interaction module comprising:

• one or more input devices, each input device including a plurality of input mechanisms for receiving input responsive to an interaction and one or more sensors for capturing data associated with an environment surrounding the input device;
• a processor coupled to the one or more input devices;
• computer program code stored on a memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the computer program code including instructions for:
• receiving data from the plurality of input mechanisms and from the one or more sensors;
• generating data describing at least one of:
• an input received by an input mechanism and the data captured by a sensor and
• generating an input description identifying input mechanisms or sensors having received input;
• providing an identifier associated with each input mechanism indicating whether individual input mechanisms have received input
• providing an identifier associated with each sensor indicating whether individual sensors have captured data;
• and
• generating transmission data associated with the input description;
• a communication module coupled to the processor, the communication module for transmitting the transmission data to a target electronic machine.