Abstract
A toy is an item mainly intended for children to play with. However, due to its important role in child development, it has evolved to encompass sophisticated educational and learning characteristics. Toy industry has evolved to provide these needs as digital interactive smart toys. Interactive toys combine traditional toys with additional computing capabilities using software and hardware components. This paper presents the design and development of an interactive toy system named “Basma” which interacts with a child in Arabic language. The system consists of two parts: The first one is a plush toy with a hardware component that is implemented using a low cost Internet of Things (IoT) kit. This part leverages the interaction between the child and the toy, allowing the toy to respond and talk. The second part is an iPad application connected to the toy via Bluetooth. It allows parents to customize the toy and provides the child with stories that embed moral and cultural values. The interactive toy system was evaluated using test scenarios and user acceptance.
Highlights
Toy computing has recently emerged as a concept that focuses on advancing the functionality of traditional toys, using mobile technologies
This section will present the different scenarios that were followed during the user acceptance testing for stakeholders, four parents and four children were tested during the following sessions
The parent was asked to add his/her child by typing their name and choosing an avatar. Afterwards, they were asked to set up a reminder for Evening supplications at 6:00 pm. This scenario revealed that the parents needed more instructions that were later added to the interfaces
Summary
Toy computing has recently emerged as a concept that focuses on advancing the functionality of traditional toys, using mobile technologies. The integration of modern toys with mobile platforms was appealing due to the spread of personal mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, together with the portability and flexibility that allows them to support applications developed for a wide range of uses. Toys with this feature, in addition to sensory and/or networking capabilities, can be referred to as Augmented, Interactive or Smart Toys. StoryTech allows children to use various background cards and place animal characters on the stage to make their own story. Rosebud encourages children to enhance their stories. Revise, collaborate and share stories in the storybook (Glos and Cassell, 1997)
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