• What's IKU?

IKU is the First International Language

As your pets travel around the world, you will meet lots of new people who may not speak the same language as you. For this reason, GoPets comes with its own universal language, called "IKU". IKU, which comes from the words "icon" and "haiku", substitutes pictures for words, allowing people from different countries to communicate with ease. IKU is the world's first truly international language!

The most fun part of IKU is that you can add your own icons to the IKU dictionary. Users themselves create the language over time, choosing which IKU icons they like the most. The most popular icons (the ones that get used the most) will be listed first during icon searches. Another great feature of IKU is that it allows the addition of new words, in any language, to existing icons. In this way, people who speak rare language can link their vocabularies to the IKU Dictionary. Literally anyone in the world can use IKU to communicate with anyone else.

IKU is the First International Language

IKU icons are accessed through the message palette (1). Simply type in the word you want and click on the magnification glass (3) and the associated icons for that word will appear. By dragging icons from the Palette to the Message Creation Matrix (4), you can create your own IKU sentences. By right-clicking and dragging from one icon bubble to the next, you can create connectors (to create subclauses). This flexible interface acommodates any direction of reading or word order. Don't worry too much about grammar rules. An IKU message is pretty easy to figure out no matter how you write it. IKU messages are stored and handled very similarly to normal emails. You have an Inbox and an Outbox, and you can store the best messages in your Favorites .

Adding Words and Icons

To add an icon, click on the "Add Icon" button(6) in the Message palette (it looks like a little plus sign). The Add to Dictionary dialog (7) will appear, asking you to choose your home language (so it knows what language to associate with the icon). Enter the word (8) you want attached to the new icon. Finally, browse your computer for an appropriate image - for best results, the icon should be 100X100 pixels and in gif, jpg or bmp format. Hit "OK" (it looks like a check mark), and your icon is now a usable IKU icon! From now on, if you type the word in the message Palette, you'll see your IKU icon in the icon listing.

IKU Tooltips

If you leave your cursor over any icon in an IKU message, a balloon will appear (9), containing the meaning of the word in your primary language and the word as it was entered by the sender. The balloon can be used to verify the intended meaning of a message independently. It is also a fun way to learn a new language, since it shows you the original word, its translation, and a picture to help you remember the word!

IKU Poetry

One interesting thing about IKU is that it allows novel word constructions in three dimensions. A little experimentation may lead to competely new ways of expressing complicated ideas. Must a message be written in a straight line? Why not a spiral or a circle? IKU can be used to create subtitle, impressionistic meanings as easily as it be used to tell someone you like them.