The Bubbies

Brief / Concept

The Bubbies are robotic artifacts which combination can create a wide range of play activities that are based on elements such as facial expressions recognition, sound inputs or tactile perceptions. The Bubbies can also share information with one another ball in order to adapt their behaviors to parameters related to the play environment and the interaction patterns defined by therapists.The Bubbies can learn from these patterns and evolve during the therapy sessions with unexpected reactions. The spherical shape being assigned to the objects is meant to focus on a form factor that can enable a wide-range of basic games and interactions (kicking, passing, throwing, rolling, etc.) that are normally shared between children across different cultures or therapy backgrounds. The Bubbies can support different play activities such as Excercise play (activities that involve sensory development, coordination improvement, cause and effect relations, reasoning abilities and development of balance), Symbolic play (Activities that involve immagination, creativity and language development), Rule-based play (Activities being designed in order to let socialize children, observe rules, develop language, memory, attention and reflective thinking).

Design Process

Aim of the workshop with IROMEC (Interactive Robotic Social Mediator as Companion) was to develop innovative concept for Play Experiences based on robotic technologies targeted to children aged 6 to 12. Play stimulates children sensory-motor, psychological behavioral and cognitive abilities and supports their first steps into the development of social relationships and personal identity.
During the workshop, an initial research on disabilities was accomplished in order to individuate the design opportunities for the following phases. During the concept generation, the focus was on the design of basic shape elements that embed specific abilities to be involved in the play activities according to the therapy goals.

Scenario video