The Affective Tigger is a project to construct an emotionally reactive
and emotionally expressive toy
. An emotionally reactive toy
is one that recognizes emotionally laden cues from the playmate, or
responds to the playmate with an expression of an emotion. The
Affective Tigger does both. Hopefully, as the child plays with the
Affective Tigger, she learns to recognize his expressions, and begins
to notice a causal relationship between her behavior and his
responses. Eventually, she might recognize his expressions as either a
positive or negative reaction to her behavior. The larger goal is for
her to generalize that her actions have social consequences. At the
same time, we are observing the form that the child-computer
interaction takes on, and we are beginning to extrapolate what kinds
of modifications to make to the computer-toy. We are interested in how
to `child-proof' computer interfaces while maintaining the sense of
`child orientedness' inherent in a toy.
There are three phases that comprise the Affective Tigger project:
expression, detection, and recognition. Expression refers to the
capability of the Affective Tigger to communicate his emotional state
to the child. The Affective Tigger uses facial movements, voice, and
responsiveness to demonstrate his current state. Detection refers to
the Affective Tigger's sensory capabilities. As the child plays with
the Affective Tigger, she naturally holds and moves him in a manner
that is emotionally expressive. The Affective Tigger is designed to
sense specific cues which correspond to the child's expression of
emotion. Finally, the recognition phase consists of trials with
children to evaluate the Affective Tigger according to the
appropriateness of his reactions to the child. This phase concluded
with both an evaluation of the Affective Tigger's behavioral system,
and an assessment of the child's level of emotional
development.