Timmy is a colourful and funny little "toy-friend" that will help kids in the process of learning and distinguishing emotions with their relative face expressions.
The starting brief of the project was to create a toy that was going to help children in the learning of something thorough the act of playing. While researching for the project we discovered something that got us really thrilled: it turned out that kids between 3 and 6 years old cannot distinguish separately the emotions that they are feeling . Instead, they are overwhelmed with an "hurricane of emotions" that comes and goes very quickly. In a nutshell the kid can be very happy and the second after very sad without knowing what's happening and what's making him or her that way.
So, how does Timmy helps children recognise and distinguish emotions from one another?
Timmy as a humanoid aspect created by a soft silicon body and a front screen that acts as Timmy's face (capable of representing different face expressions).
With that we developed two ways of playing: the first one is called "Cubetto" (little cubes in Italian) while the second one "Giravolta" (turnaround in Italian).
The Cubetto mode works based on a simple idea: we take an element or object or situation that the kids already know and that make the kids feel an emotion, like an ice-cream that will make very kid happy, and we give it to Timmy that reacts to this element we just gave him in a specific way. If we give Timmy an ice-cream he’ll smile, making a happy expression. This way the kid unconsciously connects the element he or she gave to Timmy with the facial expression Timmy makes, and again he or she connects this facial expression to the emotion he or she feels inside. Step by step the kid learns unconsciously that there are different emotions and different expression strictly related to them; all that while playing. From the practical point of view these elements are represented on 9 different cubes (3 cubes for 3 different primary emotions: happiness, Sadness and Fear) that can be “given” to Timmy by inserting them in a squared hole on the top of the Toy.
The Giravolta mode is based instead on the way kids interact with things. Indeed from 3 to 6 years old kids tend to touch, turn, shake, launch stuff as a way to understand and discover them. In the same way depending on the interaction that the kid will have with Timmy, the toy will have different reactions. If putted upside down Timmy will make a confused face, if placed on the side he’ll fall asleep and if he’s left quiet he’ll have a neutral reaction. This will teach the kids the consequences of their actions, as with Timmy also with people.