Friend*Chip is a wearable device designed to foster inclusive social interaction among children through playful group dynamics. Each child wears a bracelet featuring a digital pet avatar that grows only through positive social contact—like handshakes and collaborative activities. By blending persuasive technology, sociometric sensing, and game mechanics, Friend*Chip is meant for encouraging children to engage with peers they might not otherwise interact with.
Teachers can monitor group activity in real time, using system-generated data to guide and adapt interactions, ensuring every child is included. The system promotes collaboration over competition, empowering children to grow their pets together while forming social bonds across diverse personalities and backgrounds.
Friend*Chip in action within a classroom setting. Children wear the devices during collaborative play, and each positive interaction contributes to their pet’s growth. Teachers can access group-level data to support inclusive social behaviorand adaptive guidance.Concept FC
Inside Friend*Chip: The wearable integrates LED feedback, a pixel-based avatar display, and a microcontroller. It detects proximity and touch, enabling real-time interaction and pet evolution between connected users.
A sleeker, lighter version of the wearable device. This design aims to motivate children to collaborate and help their digital pets grow by forming and maintaining group connections.
Early version of the Friend*Chip wearable digital pet. Each module glows in a specific color to indicate group affiliation. When users shake hands, their pets interact via infrared sensing—growing one step and forming social clusters with others.
Related work:
Nunez, Eleuda, Francesco Visentin, and Kenji Suzuki. "Friend* Chip: A Bracelet with Digital Pet for Socially Inclusive Games for Children." In Adjunct Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 213-214. 2016.