Design and implementation of an educational virtual pet using the OCC theory

• Published in: Journal of ambient intelligence and humanized computing 2012-03, Vol.3 (1), p.61-71
• Main Authors: Laureano-Cruces, Ana Lilia, Rodriguez-Garcia, Arturo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive maps; Cognitive tasks; Computational Intelligence; Confectionery; Decision making; Design; Eating; Education; Emotions; Engineering; Games; Happiness; Original Research; Robotics and Automation; User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
• ISSN: 1868-5137; 1868-5145
• DOI: 10.1007/s12652-011-0089-4

This paper presents the design and implementation of a virtual pet with educational purposes. Because owners experience a wide range of emotions as a result of interactions with their virtual pets, the goal of this software is capture the attention of children by taking advantage of the emotional ties which form, using playtime to introduce educative elements. With this in mind, it is possible to make conscious the process whereby children are most likely to quit eating candy to achieve healthy eating habits. It models a virtual pet using Ortony, Clore and Collins’ theory as a framework to implement a cognitive structure of emotions and a Behavior Cognitive Task Analysis to elucidate the components necessary to simulate behaviors. The designed system utilizes a fuzzy cognitive map like engine inference. The latter is the product of a causal matrix that takes into account all the elements included in the behavior we want to simulate.