A research group at JAIST has developed a prototype system for playing the Pocky game by yourself. This project is part of the group’s research on using biting motions as a form of communication.

“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.”

Next, the group would like to make the system more interactive, by detecting the user’s biting motion. They are also considering adding the ability of playing the Pocky game with other people over the internet.

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