Stuffed Toy as an Appealing Tangible Interface for Children

In recent years, there is a growing phenomenon
with children playing mobile devices. Overplaying mobile
devices, however, may not lead to a balanced childhood. Lack
of physical touch-and-feel stimulus is detrimental to children.
Can touch-and-feel stuffed toys be made more appealing to
children for a wider variety on their playtime diet? We
explore a stuffed toy controller which integrates elements from
both digital and make-believe games in an attempt to enrich
children interaction experience. A user study was conducted
to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed controller while
another children-oriented user study shows that make-believe
augmented reality games played by the toy controller can
enhance children’s interest in stuffed toys.