Interactive play objects:The influence of multimodal output on open-ended play

In this paper we investigate how providing multiple output modalitiesaffects open-ended play with interactive toys. We designed a play object whichreacts to children’s physical behavior by providing multimodal output and wecompared it with a unimodal variant, focusing on the experience and creativityof the children. In open-ended play children create their own games inspired bythe interaction with a play object. We show how the modalities affect thenumber of games played, the type and diversity of games that the childrencreated, and the way children used the different feedback modalities asinspiration for their games. Furthermore, we discuss the consequences of ourdesign choices on open-ended play