Virtual social toys: A novel concept to bring inanimate dolls to life

Abstract

Different social robotics studies are carried out to give robotic gadgets an interactive retrofit. In this research, we tried to present a new perspective on using interactive animated toys in a virtual environment. Such social toys would be able to interact with children in the same way as social robots. To this end, a 3D scanner setup and interface was designed/fabricated and implemented to extract the 3D model of an inanimate toy to be used in a virtual reality game. The children were asked to participate in a fifteen-minute game scenario and play with the interactive virtual social toy. Then the Believability, Acceptance/Attractiveness, and Vibrancy/Interaction of the virtual social toy were assessed quantitatively through a questionnaire. Our preliminary findings showed high scores in all three criteria by the children. However, 2-sample T-tests indicated a significant difference between the children and parents’ viewpoints regarding the effectiveness of this generation of new toys.