Interactive Audio-Tactile Children’s Book

@mastersthesis{Pandit2026,

title = {Whiskers: A Descriptive Study of Children's Engagement with an Interactive Textured Book},

author = {Malaika Pandit},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-08-31},

urldate = {2026-08-31},

school = {Dalhousie Univerity},

abstract = {Electronically augmented children’s books have existed for over two decades, and

commonly respond with a discrete event: a touch selects a pre-authored sound, which

plays to its end regardless of what the hand does next. This thesis asks what such a

book would be like if sound instead followed the hand continuously. An interactive

textured book was built with a fur-covered page over a pressure-sensitive sensor and

two audio engines sharing one contact stream: one synthesizing sound continuously

from the position and movement of an ongoing touch, the other triggering a discrete

recorded sound at touch-down. Eight children aged four to six met both versions in

counterbalanced order, with no task imposed. Every child spent a greater share of

the session in contact under continuous feedback; smiling was coded more often under

discrete feedback for six of eight. Neither is concluded better. What sustained a child

and what delighted one proved to be different measures.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {mastersthesis}

}