Play therapy interaction and visualization apparatus

An apparatus for play therapy diagnostics and treatment, the apparatus comprising:

• a microcontroller affixed inside a physical toy, the microcontroller having an embedded operating system reading stored instructions to execute functions and procedures according to computer-readable code;
• a battery secured inside the physical toy and electrically coupled to the microcontroller to power it;
• a plurality of pressure sensors affixed inside or upon a surface of the physical toy, each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors communicatively coupled to the microcontroller through an input/output (I/O) connection, the plurality of pressure sensors configured to detect force imparted upon the plurality of pressure sensors measured by a resistance drop to electrical current running through each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors, each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors connected through the dedicated I/O connection wherein the microcontroller contains instructions to poll the plurality of pressure sensors for values representative of electrical resistance for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors;
• an accelerometer affixed inside or upon a the surface of the physical toy, the accelerometer communicatively coupled to the microcontroller through another dedicated I/O connection whereby gravitational forces imparted on the physical toy are sensed by the accelerometer and communicated to the microcontroller;
• a transmitter affixed inside or upon the surface of the physical toy, the transmitter communicatively coupled to the microcontroller and configured to transmit accelerometer and pressure sensor data collected by the plurality of pressure sensors and accelerometer to an external receiver;
• a computer workstation having a processor and non-transitory computer-readable memory storing software for executing functions and procedures on the processor;
• a connection from the processor to the external receiver, the external receiver receiving the accelerometer and pressure sensor data from the microcontroller in the physical toy during a play therapy session;
• computer readable instructions in the non-transitory computer-readable memory for generating an avatar of the physical toy and visually modifying the avatar of the physical toy responsive to pressure sensor data received from the microcontroller;
• a display device communicatively coupled to the computer workstation, configured to display the avatar of the physical toy, wherein the apparatus further comprises software to cause the processor on the computer workstation to;
• retrieve resistance values for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors by polling each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors at least once per second;
• execute a function to retrieve a timecode value from a clock embedded in the microcontroller;
• transmit through the first transmitter to the external receiver, the resistance values for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors associated with the timecode value when the resistance values were obtained;
• store the resistance values;
• parse the resistance values for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors to retrieve a minimum resistance value for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors with the associated timecode value representative of the time during the play therapy session when the resistance values occurred;
• and
• for each individual pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors, enumerate on the display device, the location on the physical toy where the individual pressure sensor is located, the minimum resistance value of resistance detected and when the minimum resistance value occurred during the play therapy session.