A4 Refereed article in a conference publication
Moved by B*Bots: Speculative Toy Fiction and Play with Future IoToys
Authors: Heljakka Katriina I.
Editors: Arai, Kohei
Conference name: Future Technologies Conference
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Publishing place: Cham
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Lecture notes in networks and systems
Book title : Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2023, Volume 1
Journal name in source: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
Series title: Lecture notes in networks and systems
Number in series: 318
ISBN: 978-3-031-47453-8
eISBN: 978-3-031-47454-5
ISSN: 2367-3370
eISSN: 2367-3389
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47454-5_12
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47454-5_12
This study introduces the idea of speculative storytelling to portray fictitious internet-connected toys, namely B*Bots, as a tool to understand envisioned affordances of future IoToys. The study positions speculative toy fiction as an emergent area of design fiction that allows the inspection of future technologies yet to be realized. The Internet of Toys (IoToys) is a developing area of technologically-enhanced toys with multidimensional affordances that use sensors, light, sound, and movement. Previous research on IoToys demonstrates how currently connected toys offer edutainment through physical, functional, fictional, and affective affordances. One dimension detected as a design feature and affordance for play is the toys’ capacity to generate multidimensional movement while used in play. By analyzing the animated film, Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021), the paper highlights two approaches to movement discovered in association with interaction and engagement with the B*Bots as an illustrative case of speculative toy fiction. The findings demonstrate that the functional affordances of the connected toy robots first urge physical movement in play, and second, invite emotional bonding achieved through affective play. These affordances related to mobilizing tendencies of technologically-enhanced toys provide a pathway to think about and design features for IoToys and connected robots of the future.