An imaginary friend that connects with the user's emotions

In this paper we present a metaphor of an Imaginary Friend that walks along with the user. Due to a special bond with the user, the Imaginary Friend can see the emotions that the human companion is feeling glowing around her. As the user moves around she leaves behind emotion cookies that the Imaginary Friend will collect and treasure. In order to enable rich and playful interactions in the virtual-real continuum the implementation of the Imaginary Friend responds to motion, to the electrodermal activity and resorts to GPS coordinates. The Imaginary Friend was tested with several users to evaluate the connection between humans and this creature that lives in the border that separates imagination and reality.