Using a Wizard of Oz study to inform the design of SenToy

We describe the design of an affective control interface, SenToy, a doll with sensors that allows users to control their avatars in an adventure game. A Wizard of Oz study was used early in the design process to find the best relationship between user movements of SenToy and the resulting affective expressions and movements of their avatar on the screenon the screen. The results from the study showed that there are behaviors and gestures that most users will easily pick up to express emotions. It told us which dimensions of movements (distance to screen, movements of limbs, etc.) that work most easily will be picked up by users. We describe in what way the results from the study have affected the design of the SenToy and the hardware requirements. Wizard of Oz studies have previously been used for natural language interface and intelligent agent design and we show that it can also be used in the domain of affective input-device design.