hellozoo

Background: hellozoo exploits the behavioural changes and personalisation smart phones have propagated in popular culture. The work seeks to personalise the device into a form for play - allowing face changing and characterisations of animals - the idea of 'cute' being central to its conceit. It is a practical expression relating to the research of Larissa Hjorth, specifically "Odours of Mobility" (Journal of Intercultural Studies 2005). This work contributes to the collection of statistical data relevant to research in market and audience behaviour and popularity of content. This data will inform planned publications exploring these factors within the App markets for devices. Inspired by the phenomena of Sanrio's 'Hello Kitty', hellozoo presents cute cartoon animal faces for children to play with. The completed work was reviewed and published by Apple Inc. in December 2012. Contribution: This work contributes to the collection of statistical data relevant to research in market and audience behaviour and popularity of content. This data will inform planned publications exploring these factors within the App markets for devices. The aim of this work is to enable Lycette & Lycette to further develop a concept proven in an earlier publication. That concept used video footage of actors mouths to simulate peoples emotive facial responses. The user could then display these on their smart phone and hold over their own mouth. Significance: This work has achieved tens of thousands of downloads globally. It achieved its highest ranking on the Apple iTunes store of 269 in the Entertainment category in the USA for downloads in December 2012. It also ranks in the Top 500 free apps downloaded in the Entertainment category on the Amazon store. It has been downloaded over 50,000 times on the Amazon Appstore. These achievements are significant in that they confirm consistent popularity (downloads) to maintain such outcomes.