# A Design Space for Virtuality-Introduced Internet of Things
## 3 Analysis of Current IoT Products and Services that Introduce Virtuality
### Case Studies of Digital Services Introducing Virtuality
#### 3.2.1 Virtual Aquarium  
Virtual Aquarium was developed to improve user's dental hygiene; it is set up near a mirror in a washstand [45]. In the aquarium, the behavior of fishes is reflected by the user's tooth brushing activity, and the fishes are visualized on the display, as shown in Figure 1. The activity is detected by Cookie, which is a wireless sensor device that can sense three-axis acceleration [48]. Each toothbrush that is attached Cookie enables the system to recognize the activity. In addition, an event notification is managed by a context acquisition framework named Prottoy [49]. Tooth brushing patterns are recognized by analyzing the sensed data.  
The tooth brushing patterns are reflected in the virtual aquarium. In this prototype, the ideal patterns are as follows: (1) people should brush their teeth at least twice per day; (2) one session should involve at least three minutes of brushing; and (3) brushing should involve the patterns that ensure that their teeth are properly cleaned. The system provides two types of feedback for these ideal patterns: immediate feedback and accumulated feedback. When the user starts tooth brushing, the walls of the virtual aquarium begin to be cleaned by a scrub and the fishes start dancing in a playful manner. This action is termed immediate feedback. When the brushing time is sufficient, the movement of the scrub and the fishes' dance become more elegant. After brushing is finished, the fishes stop dancing and start normal movement. The movement of the scrub and fishes is designed to give the user some suggestions regarding to a better method of tooth brushing. The fishes' health is affected by the cleanliness of the aquarium. If the user does not sufficiently brush his/her teeth, the fishes may become ill or die. However, continuous brushing produces eggs laid by the fishes in the aquarium. The incubation ratio of the eggs is not very high. If the user continues to brush at a constant rate, the user can improve the incubation ratio. This type of feedback is termed accumulated feedback. This approach improves long-term user behavior.  
An experiment that evaluates the effectiveness of improving the users' tooth brushing patterns was conducted. It consisted of the following three phases:  
1. The households are asked to continue their normal activities while daily tooth brushing patterns are recorded by the toothbrush attached the Cookie. Once the patterns have become stable over time, the study progresses to the next phase.
2. Virtual Aquarium's feedback components are introduced to the households' bathrooms while the tooth brushing patterns continue to be recorded. Once the patterns have stabilized to a pre-determined degree over time, the study progresses to the final phase.  
Figure 1: The screenshots of Virtual Aquarium; a toothbrush embedded a wireless sensor device can detect the movement of tooth brushing. When starting the toothbrush, the fishes are dancing and the cleaner removes stains in the aquarium.  
The feedback components are removed while tooth brushing patterns continue to be recorded. Once the patterns have stabilized to a pre-determined degree over time, the data collection is concluded. Brushing records are analyzed to determine the effect of the feedback on the patterns.  
An 8- to 12-day pilot study was conducted. The study participants consisted of three Japanese male participants and four Japanese female participants from three families. The experiment indicated that every participant's brushing time was less than three minutes at the beginning but increased to more than three minutes. When the feedback system was removed, the brushing time decreased; however, the brushing time of the majority of participants remained long.