Say Chee!
Elodie Liu
Advisor: Sharleen Smith
A web-based virtual pet game that unwinds, accompanies, and provides positive feelings to people.
Abstract
Say Chee! is a web-based virtual pet game that explores novel interactions with virtual pets. It aims to unwind, accompany, and provide positive feelings to people. The game consists of a webpage and a Google Extension. You can acquire your own smiling pets and interact with them through smiles, gestures, and clicks. The pets will follow you to every webpage, staying by your side.
Technical Details
Javascript, Face-api, ML5 Handpose, ML5 PoseNet
Research/Context
I mainly researched virtual pet games, mental health, positive psychology, facial feedback theory, machine learning models, etc.
In research on embodied cognition, some evidence suggests that bodily movements, such as facial displays, can affect emotional states. For example, unobtrusive contraction of the “smile muscle” (i.e., the zygomaticus major) increases enjoyment (Strack, Martin, Stepper, 1988), the head tilting upward induces pride (Stepper & Strack, 1993), and hunched postures (as opposed to upright postures) elicit more depressed feelings (Riskind & Gotay, 1982).
Relevant virtual pet project
1. [Travel frog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_Frog)
2. [Tamagotchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi)
3. [Tardigotchi](https://www.swamp.nu/tardigotchi)