One of the primary features that makes a pleo fun to own is the autonomous AI. However, this same feature makes it very difficult to guarantee the pleo will respond appropriately and consistently (especially RBs) to match your activities. The best way around this problem is with skits . . . I would advise your getting very familiar with MySkit because besides song and dances, MySkit is very useful for planning out "routines". You can almost think of your pleo as a pre-programmed puppet. You can plan out what you want say and what you want the pleo to do and using MySkit you can set specific touch sensors to trigger specific sequences of actions. That way you can talk for a bit, tap your pleo on the head, the pleo "responds to what you said", you talk some more, tap your pleo on the shoulder, the pleo responds, etc. Doing this you can easily set up a skit that make it appear as if the pleo is actually interacting to what you're saying.
For example, part of the Pleosaurus Rex personality has a dramatic "death sequence". After only a couple of times practicing, I could turn on the pleo, as soon as it woke up, I would grab the head with both hands, looking sternly at the face and say "Now listen up Bob, show 'em how you can play dead." I would then let go, step back, point my finger at him and go "BANG!" Bob would immediately roar, stumble a bit, fall over on his side, moan, and twitch his tail, then go limp. People were absolutely convinced Bob was hearing and responding to what I said. In reality, the whole death sequence was just a pre-programmed skit triggered by touching the two sensors on the top of the head and the one under the chin for three seconds. and I knew I had about five seconds after that before the skit ran. I also knew I had to do it as soon as I turned the pleo on, otherwise the pleo would start doing other parts of the personality and "break the illusion".
In the same manner, with MySkit, you can program the pleo to stand still and say "Four" when you touch the head, "Six" when you touch the shoulder, etc. They you get all the kids around, turn on the pleo, ask "Mission, what's two plus two?" and then gently pat him on the head. After the pleo says "Four" to the amazement of the kids, you say "O.K., what the square root of thirty-six?" and casually stroke his back. Before long, the class will be amazed at how well pleos can do math!
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Topic: Help with ideas for lesson plan (Read 4662 times)