Memeopoly: An AI-Powered Physical Board Game Interface for Tangible Play and Learning Art and Design

Playtime holds great significance in the holistic development of children and young teens, both physically and mentally [16]. Engaging with physical toys and participating in outdoor sports fosters essential skills such as spatial interaction, socialization, and communication in the real world. However, contemporary entertainment that targets young people is predominantly screen-based media, offering simulated worlds, captivating narratives, and interactive experiences. Consequently, children and teens spend substantial amounts of time indoors, preoccupied with online activities and digital content consumption. This paradigm shift towards digital entertainment poses developmental challenges due to the absence of tangibility [19] and face-to-face interaction. This paper introduces Memeopoly (Figure 1), a novel AI-powered physical board game that synergies the strengths of tangible playtime with the dynamism and interactivity of the digital realm. Integrating AI technology into the traditional play framework augments the interactive nature of physical toys [6], enabling a richer and more engaging game-play environment. We designed our AI system in the game to harness and empower human creativity to generate unforeseen story lines personalized to players’ unique preferences, thereby cultivating a thrilling gaming experience that surpasses the static and generic narratives typically found in traditional board games.