"Play with me Big Bird"

Design and Technical Specifications

1. Introduction

Nearly all children spend their earliest years with stuffed animals, engaged in important and enriching interactions which gently teach them about the world. Each of us, no doubt, has memories of a favorite stuffed animal which grew worn from age and love. This level of closeness is one of the wonderful qualities of stuffed animals; it is a shame when these simple, powerful affordances are overpowered in the name of interactivity.

Numerous new products are beginning to enter the consumer toy market with small amounts of embedded computing; the new 'Barney' product is such an example, as was last year's 'Tickle Me Elmo.' Doubtless, these characters represent innovative first steps; however, in both cases, the interaction/sensing design is primitive and overpowers the simple immediacy of the stuffed animal. Neither of these examples would be the toy of choice for a child to clutch while falling asleep - in the case of Elmo, a slip of the hand might cause jarring vibrations, while in the case of Barney, turning out the light would cause him to exclaim repeatedly, "it's dark in here!"

2. Executive Summary

Our approach in this design problem has been to leverage off of the natural affordances of a stuffed animal, modifying them only when a strong interaction idea warrants it. Our solution is to transparently embed the technology in the character, so as to not infringe upon the natural interactivity. To achieve this, we have off-loaded much of the hardware to a wirelessly-linked docking station.

To carry out our goals, we have selected one of the most successful and universally-recognizable franchises - the Sesame Street character set. By employing a combination of hardware and software characters, we seek to provide room for future development after the initial commercial success of our toy design. These characters have shown great longevity and appeal across cultural and age lines.

The product line will include an architecture that will allow for the gradual introduction and marketing of physical characters. Big Bird and Oscar "the Grouch" will be the first models produced, with subsequent models debuting each successive year. Our line's main target audience is for children between 3 and 6 years old, however we also perceive potential demand for older children as well.

Leveraging off of Sesame Street's traditional focus on teaching basic education, we seek to deliver a powerful platform based on streaming audio technology. Such interactions would be both standalone, and integrated with a Netscape derivative called "SesameScape." In an attempt to crush the stale model of talking dolls, we offer the Talk with me Big Bird as flag ship of our character based streaming audio platform.

3. Design Goals

Rather than attempt a wild new interaction paradigm, we chose to take the more moderate approach of picking a solid model and creating an elegant architecture to account for it. The following illustrates our design criteria:

Physicality of the Character

• The character must look and feel as cuddly and friendly a regular stuffed animal. We must minimize the impact of the technological elements of the "doll" as to not infringe on it's interaction modality.

• No mechanical motion is required on the part of the character; all physical movement will originate solely from the child's control.

• All network communications should be wireless, unencumbering, and independent of direction. In addition we must balance the need for range with the constraints of batter usage.

• There should be no obvious physical connector between the character and any external ports. Thus fostering the illusion of a tetherless creature.

• There should be only one reason to open up the character - to replace the rechargeable batteries. Access will be via an accessible velcro enclosure that uses soft materials. In addition, it should be possible to replace the rechargeable batteries with conventional batteries.

• It must be possible to turn the unit off - and the means for doing so must be unambiguously clear.

Personality of a known Sesame Street character

The character should be recognizable and popular with a wide group of children, ideally cutting across gender and race demographics. No activity by the character shall violate the Sesame Street franchise norms. In addition all design criteria must adhere to the contract as set forth with the Children's' Television Workshop.


Added interaction potential with a family of related characters

The technological architecture should allow for multiple, networked characters, all relating to each other. Connections between the physical characters docking stations should be established with technical ease by the an optional RJ11->RJ11 telco cable.

In addition to the networked "physical objects", there will also be a rich medium of interactive capabilities with virtual Sesame Street characters. These interactions will harness the natural, known, relationships between the Sesame Street cast and will serve to further bolster educational scenarios.

Young age range

The platform will be aimed at the 3-6 year old "Rug Rat" generation. Due to young children's physical limitations, the interaction modality with "SesameScape" will predominately rely on a mouse interface.

To complement their household and school education, focus will be on teaching beginning reading, math, and computer skills. Virtual characters, such as "Super Grover," will be employed to complement the physical character interactivity. In addition we are exploring a relationship with Surf Watch to offer filtering services for SesameScape.

4. Constraints

Hard constraints

Cost: To achieve widespread market penetration, the unit must cost less than or equal to $100. Due to this cost limitation will utilize only one (1) RF Linx transmitter, and a combination of FM transmitters and receivers.

Prerequisites: The minimum system requirements for the "Talk with me" line will be a 486 running Windows 3.11 or higher, and an Apple Macintosh 68030 running MacOS 7.5 or higher. A minimum of 8 megs of free RAM will be required for both platforms, and sound cards and speaker are recommended. Market information shows that these configurations represent

Soft constraints

• The entire system must be simple to use and set up - requiring as little parental intervention as possible.

• The target weight for the doll is ~5 lb. No heavy batteries, mechanical moving parts, hard edges should be present.

• Although network access will not be required, we believe a strong internet interface will both enhance the users' experience, and reduce the software distribution costs.

• To maximize product life and user enjoyment sensors used will be both malleable and durable. No inflexible, or hard sensors will be utilized.

• Interaction design must allow for multiple physical characters on one computer at a time.

5. Design Realization

External appearance

The external appearance of the character must approximate the look of the Sesame Street characters. Only plush and maximally durable material will be used. In addition reinforced thread will be used for all stitching - so as to minimize the chanced of seam tear.

We hope that the external appearance will be so soft and "lovable" that only complaint parents will make is that their child wore it out with affection.

Interactive requirements

The combination of onboard PIC and computer streamed feedback should combine as to maximize the educational and entertainment aspects of the overall interaction. The onboard sensors shall be used to enhance the educational value of the doll, in addition to providing comic relief. For example:

C. Interactive qualities: (in-depth scenarios at end of paper):

Character 1 - Big Bird

Gentle, ambiguous-gender personality; best for small children. As on the Sesame Street television show, Big Bird is rich with nurturing and educational qualities.

Character 2 - Oscar the Grouch

Eccentric, strong personality, slightly crass. Oscar's enjoyment stems from interacting with the child. Possibly better suited for the 6-7 year old range. Useful model for character specific docking station - a garbage can.

Oscar is also good for teaching cleanliness in that he can urge children to "Do as I say, kids, not as I do!" Oscar could also be complemented by other value added characters such as Slime E. D. Worm.

Interface Goals

To promote both ease of use and to make the interface more transparent, we are employing a combination of RF and FM receivers and transmitters. We believe that this will better aid the child in maintaining a directional independent connection, while leveraging off of the physical affordances of a real doll.

The overall interface system integrates multiple physical objects (the docking station and doll), software elements, and an infinite possibility of imagination. Recharging the character can take place though the inductively coupled docking station.

While our design team has made the utmost effort to employ durable parts, we seek to avoid any sort of Achilles heal. To that end, sensors will not be wired in parallel, and no one minor component should have the ability to make the rest of the system fail.

6. Technical Specification

Equipment List

Character
Fuzzy, stuffed-animal doll
Linx receiver
Rechargable battery
Battery-holder
Inductive-coupling recharger (or conductive cloth bottom)
Power switch
Internal speaker with amp
PIC to interpret sensor data and chose which audio clips to play
Eprom
Sound Chip - 1.5 minutes of audio
6 pressure sensors (one in each limb, tummy, and beak)
1 gyro
unique hardware ID

Docking Station


Stations must be character specific. For example: Big Bird has a Nest, while Oscar has a Garbage Can.
Equipment List
Linx transmitter
Inductive recharger
Speaker
Audio encoder
AC adapter
Serial interface
RJ11 interface
Serial cable (Mac/PC)
MOT 86HC11

Software package on CD-Rom

Multiple synthetic characters: Super Grover, Virtual Elmo, etc. Leverages off potential net access; updated software, updated words, name-recognition.

System Overview

The complete system, as pictured above, will include processing power on both the docking station and the character. The characters processor will be used as a gateway to control the flow of the pre-recorded (canned) responses and the live "streaming" audio from the computer. For the streaming audio we plan to use a C73 Microchip PIC in the docking station to serve as a D-A translator, and then an FM Transmitter to broadcast the audio information to the character.

The character will be equipped with a Linx Technologies RF Transmitter, 5 pressure sensors, to be located in the hands, feet, and beak, a gyro, and FM Receiver (~49 MHz), an EPROM, rechargeable batteries, FM receiver, and an amplified speaker. With proper compression, we believe that the record time for the canned responses will be ~1:30-2:00 in length.

The docking station will fitted with a Linx Technologies RF receiver, an FM transmitter, AC adapter, serial interface, audio encoder, serial pass through (for chaining an additional dock), and an inductive coil.

Error correction and control signals will be relayed to the computer via the Linx RF equipment.

7. Interaction Scenarios

In order to flesh out our design concept, we have envisioned a few short scenarios, indicative of what will be possible with these characters. First, we will show the case of the character where the software is not engaged; where just the doll itself provides the entire range of interaction. Second, we will describe a scenario with the docking station and software, involving short interaction with SuperGrover in one of the SesameScape teaching programs.

Big Bird on its own - Internal Mode

Mary, who is four years old, wakes up early on a Saturday morning and discovers that her beloved Big Bird doll has fallen to the ground sometime during the night. Imagining that Big Bird is crying, she yells down to the doll, "Hey, Big Bird, I'm up here! What happened to you! Don't worry, I'm coming down!" Mary gets out from under her covers and slips noiselessly down to the floor. "There, there, birdie, don't cry," she says, as she picks up the doll and gently cradles it. Internally, Big Bird's gyro indicates to its PIC that it is moving in a gentle, rocking manner. "Ah, I like when you hold me like that," croons Big Bird. After another few seconds of rocking, Big Bird starts singing a lullaby song: "That feels so nice, it makes me feel like singing a song. Lullaby, and goodnight, go to sleep now, dear Big Bird" Mary laughs, and says, "Big Bird, you are so silly! It's not time for you to sleep!" And with that, Mary gives Big Bird's beak a squeeze. "MMMmmmm,mmmm" ! says Big Bird in response, until Mary releases her grip. "Well, if you didn't like that song, do you want to hear another one?" asks Big Bird. "If you want to hear Skip to My Lou, press my right hand." Mary mistakenly presses his left hand. "That was my left hand, which has the blue ring. Now, if you want to hear a song, press my right hand, which has a red ring," intones Big Bird. Mary obliges with the correct control, and Big Bird begins singing Skip to My Lou. At the end of the song, he asks Mary to play a game with his feet and hands, so as to reinforce the concepts of left and right.

Big Bird with Docking Station -- External Mode

Later that evening, Mary's mother comes home from shopping, dismayed to find Mary propped up on a couch, watching television. Thinking that she should provide Mary some more stimulating entertainment before dinner, Mary's mom goes to her study and turns on the computer. Immediately, she gets a musical greeting from Big Bird's nest, which, upon recognizing that the computer is on, launches into a cheery song. "Wow," thinks Mary's mom, "how nice it is that the song changes every day, unlike that weird wash of sound I get every time Windows 95 starts up!" When Mary's mom has double-clicked on the Big Bird icon on the desktop, she calls out to her little daughter to turn off the TV and get Big Bird. Mary comes running. As the little girl and her doll arrive in the room, a song begins to play. At the end of the song, Big Bird says, "I'm tired. Can you please put me into my nest for a nap?" Mary places Big Bird down for recharging, and as he makes contact with the nest, he begins to make a soft snoring sound. Meanwhile, on the screen, the SesameScape web browser has launched, and Grover is, with great effort, trying to drag a huge letter A onto the screen from off-stage. Huffing and puffing, he says, "hey! Where's Mary! Mary, Mary! If you're there, could you please help me? Just click on a corner of this letter and help me slide it out so that I can figure out what it is!" Mary, clambering up on her mother's office chair, deftly grabs the mouse and helps Grover drag out the huge letter. "Well, now I can see it, but I don't know what it is. Do you know what it is? Yes? Well, then click on it to find out!" Mary clicks on the letter A, and a small animation follows with a song about the letter A. During it, Big Bird wakes up on the nest and sings along, before falling back asleep again. After the song, Grover and his crowd depart screen left, followed by a hard cut to an animation with the Count.

8. Conclusion and Design Evaluation

We believe that the talking Sesame Street character line nicely builds upon many of the successes of other interactive character dolls currently on the market, while avoiding some of their more egregious faults. For example, "Play with Me Big Bird" distinguishes between the interaction modalities of computer and physical activities, while still embodying the baseline qualities of a classic stuffed animal. We acknowledge the powerful possibilities of a character such as Interactive Barney, while avoiding its pitfalls, such as cumbersome animatronics and direction-dependent IR transmission. In addition, the inclusion of value-added services such as the kid-styled web browser, SesameScape, is a win.

We believe that development and implementation time for our design would not be significant, particularly for companies that have already begun to commercialize similar dolls. For a company that has strong hardware and software development teams, we think that a product like this, if approved by February, could be available for purchase next Christmas. In addition, we think there is much room in our design for future optimizations, such as the use of magnetic tags to identify characters and their owners, so as to further the interaction potential.

Finally, we would hope that whatever toys are developed for market during the coming years, that they serve to inspire a child's imagination in the same way that a stuffed animal does.