Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.8
Projected image of the Imaginary Friend while walking along with the user
4.4.3
The Imaginary Friend
The system implements the metaphor of the imaginary friend that walks along with
the user (Fig.
4.8
; Reis and Correia
2011
,
2014
). When the user stops and looks down
his friend is there looking back at him (Fig.
4.9
a). The Imaginary Friend is projected
on the floor using a pico projector attached to the user's backpack shoulder strap
(Fig.
4.9
b). The projector is connected to a mobile phone that runs the interactive
application. The user also wears a bracelet with an electrodermal activity sensor.
This sensor is used to measure the arousal of the user. Arousal corresponds to a
change in conductance at the surface of the skin due to an external or internal stimuli
experienced by the user (Dawson et al.
2000
). The sensor is connected, with wires,
to a PLUX device (PLUX
2013
) that transmits the data, via bluetooth, to the mobile
phone. The PLUX device can be attached to a belt, placed inside a pocket or inside
the backpack. The mobile phone is connected to the pico projector, in order to project
the Imaginary Friend on the floor. The mobile phone accelerometer is used to detect
if the user is standing or walking.
When there is a significant increase or decrease in the arousal, the external or
internal stimuli behind that change might have caused an alteration in the emotion
the user is feeling. To discover what emotion the user is feeling, the Imaginary Friend
will pose a question and present several emotion tags from which the users needs to
choose one. The phone beeps and vibrates to warn the user that the Imaginary Friend
is posing a question. After the user selects an emotion tag, an emotion cookie, with
the same color as the selected emotional tag, is left on the ground. The Imaginary
Friend collects the user's emotions for future reference in a jar. The user can also
visualize, in a map, the places where the Imaginary Friend collected each emotion
cookie. It may help the user to follow his emotional history.
The Imaginary Friend can be adapted for several behavior change games, where
it can have the role of the users' conscience (Talking Cricket metaphor), informing
and persuading the users to take specific actions when a certain contextual situation
is detected. This way, the Imaginary Friend works as a persuasive friendly agent
trusted by the user.
