Sara Bellini

	A New Play Dimension for Bedridden Children in Hospital

	Sara Bellini www.sarabellinidesign.com sarabellinidesign@gmail.com download CV
If one imagines a child in hospital, what immediately comes to mind is how stressful this situation can be, and it is an accepted theory that a negative affective state can have a detrimental effect on how the child reacts to his/her illness, therapy and recovery. My project proposes a play service that children’s hospitals can offer their patients (ages 5 to 8). This service creates a bridge between the child’s hospital life and social and family life, as well as providing a creative opportunity that bedridden children (in addition to able-bodied ones) can explore in order to promote positive emotional states. The service consists of an animal virtual reality that children can access through plush toys, wired to communicate to a main server, with each toy having a corresponding animal avatar in the virtual reality. In such a way, children can passively enjoy both a calm animal scene and care-giving to their virtual animals. The children will also be able to play games and communicate among themselves, locally, by whispering in their plush toy’s ear. The virtual reality can be accessed by parents and friends from home, who will be able to login on a website and communicate with an ill child through voice over IP.

Sara Bellini

www.sarabellinidesign.com
sarabellinidesign@gmail.com
download CV

If one imagines a child in hospital, what immediately comes to mind is how stressful this situation can be, and it is an accepted theory that a negative affective state can have a detrimental effect on how the child reacts to his/her illness, therapy and recovery.

My project proposes a play service that children’s hospitals can offer their patients (ages 5 to 8). This service creates a bridge between the child’s hospital life and social and family life, as well as providing a creative opportunity that bedridden children (in addition to able-bodied ones) can explore in order to promote positive emotional states.

The service consists of an animal virtual reality that children can access through plush toys, wired to communicate to a main server, with each toy having a corresponding animal avatar in the virtual reality. In such a way, children can passively enjoy both a calm animal scene and care-giving to their virtual animals. The children will also be able to play games and communicate among themselves, locally, by whispering in their plush toy’s ear. The virtual reality can be accessed by parents and friends from home, who will be able to login on a website and communicate with an ill child through voice over IP.