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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of the Soft Computing and Applications research within the Emotions research section, funded by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; the authors also want to acknowledge the enthusiasm of Arturo Rodriguez-Garcia (CVU: 330563); a student in the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México Postgraduate Program in Computer Science and Engineering and supported by the National Counsel for Science and Technology-MEXICO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systems Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Azcapotzalco, San Pablo 180, C.P. 02200, México DF, Mexico

    Ana Lilia Laureano-Cruces

  2. Postgraduate Program in Computer Science and Engineering, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Edif. Anexo IIMAS, 3er piso, Coyoacán, C.P. 04510, México DF, Mexico

    Ana Lilia Laureano-Cruces & Arturo Rodriguez-Garcia

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  1. Ana Lilia Laureano-Cruces
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  2. Arturo Rodriguez-Garcia
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Correspondence to Ana Lilia Laureano-Cruces.

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Laureano-Cruces, A.L., Rodriguez-Garcia, A. Design and implementation of an educational virtual pet using the OCC theory. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 3, 61–71 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-011-0089-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-011-0089-4

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