APPLICATION: INTERACTIVE CHARACTERS

APPLICATION: INTERACTIVE CHARACTERS
There are multiple applications of 3D printed curved interactive surfaces. We explored applications of PAPILLON for
designing highly expressive animated eyes for interactive
characters, robots and toys (Figures 8, 9). Our technology
has a number of advantage when compared with alternative
approaches.
Arbitrary eye shapes and placements. Our eye elements are
digitally designed and 3D printed, therefore, they can take
any shape and location that is required by the character.
They also extend to characters with a multitude of eyes.
Passive, non-instrumented characters.The characters and
toys implemented with Papillon technology do not have
any interior active electronic elements, moving parts, wires
and power requirements. They are completely passive and
all the images are projected from the outside into the charFigure 8. Interactive characters with PAPILLON.
Figure 9. Dynamic animated eyes with PAPILLON.
acter (Figure 8) This allows creating engaging, yet easily
replaceable and very robust interactive characters.
Rich interactivity. Characters are instrumented with depth
camera which tracks presence of the user as well as basic
interactions, such as pointing or extending the hand.
Rich communication and expressiveness. Because images
are projected into the character’s eyes, they can communicate a rich set of emotions and intentions (Figure 8). The
expressions that our characters create can not be produces
by traditional animatronic technologies.
We evaluated our characters in informal studies with children 6 to 8 years old and the response was extremely positive. Children had no difficulties in recognizing the emotions and “facial expressions” communicated by our characters via animated eyes. They found our characters to be fun
and engaging