A research group over at JAIST have come up with a prototype system so that you are able to play the Pocky game without any other opponents. Yes sir, you can fly solo now with this prototype system, where biting motions are used as a form of communication.
According to the research group, “In the Pocky game, two people start eating a Pocky from each end, until their lips touch. So you can’t play without a partner. We thought it would be good if you could play with your ideal partner. So we’ve made this system to try doing bite communication in a Pocky game, using a cartoon character or famous person. The system nibbles the Pocky from the far end, and the sound and vibration of biting are communicated to the user. And when the user chews along the Pocky, the system’s face moves forward, so finally, the user’s lips touch the candy lips, and the game ends. Here, we’ve used a servomotor and the lever principle to break the Pocky, and reproduce the vibration and sound of biting. We’ve also tried using gears and various other ways of breaking the Pocky. But through feedback from users, we’ve found that this method is the most realistic. From now on, we’d like to make quantitative improvements.”
Additional interactivity is slated to be part of future improvements, and the group intends to throw in the ability to play the Pocky game with others over the Internet.
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