Playful World
Topobo: a constructive assembly system with kinetic memory
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Plushie: an interactive design system for plush toys
ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 papers
The LilyPad Arduino: Toward Wearable Engineering for Everyone
IEEE Pervasive Computing
Sniff: designing characterful interaction in a tangible toy
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
"Serious" Programming Made Cuddly: A Fully End-User-Programmable Stuffed Toy
DIGITEL '10 Proceedings of the 2010 Third IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning
Plushbot: an application for the design of programmable, interactive stuffed toys
Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction
Digitally augmenting the flannel board
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
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Within the past decade, computationally-enhanced toys have become a staple of children's environments. In large part, this is due to the small size, robust operation, and low cost of embedded computing that enables computers (and associated electronic devices) to be included within toys of all descriptions. More recently, a variety of powerful technologies have emerged so that children can design their own computational artifacts: that is, small (and inexpensive) processors, sensors, and actuators have been developed that are well-suited to combination with "soft" materials such as textiles. This paper describes Plushbot, a system-in-development that allows children to create their own plush toys and stuffed animals, and to include computational enhancements within the toys that they create. Thus, Plushbot represents a step toward expanding children's creative design of their own interactive, computationally-enhanced characters. The paper describes the current state of the Plushbot software, shows a sample project created with the system, and describes plans for upcoming pilot tests with the system.