Abstract |
Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a vision of the future information society stemming from the
convergence of ubiquitous computing, communication and intelligent user
-
friendly
interfaces. Many AmI applications aim to improve and enhance everyday
living activities for a
variety of target user groups, including non
-
traditional users of interactive technologies.
However, the potential benefits and impact of AmI technologies for children is under
-
investigated. This work aims to build an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment which is
capable of supporting the development of young children through playing. In order to achieve
this goal, this thesis proposes an AmI technological framework to support the design,
development and deployment of innovative games. These games are capable of monitoring
and evaluating children’s skills and abilities, while, on the other hand, enhancing children
playing experience as they adapt to meet the continuously changing playing maturity. At the
same time, children’s needs
for activity, exercise and pleasure are optimally covered while
also providing opportunities for creativity.
The proposed technological framework facilitates the creation of smart games that share
unique features such as: a) being adaptive to children’s s
kills and abilities, b) being able to
establish the appropriate communication channels with children (verbal or non
-
verbal) c)
allowing children to have the control so that with practice they are able to play unsupported
and thus develop their self
-
esteem
and independence, d) improving motivation, and f)
reducing fear of failure.
For producing the proposed technological framework, the stakeholders (i.e. young children,
their parents as well as early intervention professionals) were initially identified and
their
requirements were collected and analyzed. This resulted into the elaboration of functional
and non
-
functional requirements allowing the definition of interaction scenarios within the
context of AmI environments. Regarding the framework implementation, a service
-
oriented
architecture was conceived, along with the elaboration of various subsystems. The various
components were designed and built based on a generic architecture, so as to support
knowledge management annotation and extraction, alternative
ambient interaction
techniques, personalization and adaptation. Furthermore, the proposed framework facilitates
the automated extraction of knowledge regarding children’s skills, abilities and overall
development based on interaction monitoring, so as to
offer indications regarding the children
developmental state, maturity level and skills. As a result, the provided technological
infrastructure allows the detection of potential developmental issues to be further
investigated and diagnosed if necessary. To
this end, the parents are provided with general
information (in a pleasant and practical way) about their child’s physical and mental
development progress, as well as indications of a possible skill immaturity. Finally, early
intervention professionals are provided with extensive data in addition to the full interaction
history for reasoning about whether the child is meeting all the necessary developmental
milestones. At the same time, this technological infrastructure is employed with the help of
occupational therapists to create innovative ways to use new technology in their practice.
In the context of an AmI environment, the practical usage of the framework has been
validated through the design and implementation of a number of augmented artifacts to act
as physical or digital means facilitating interaction between children and the system. These
artifacts include an augmented interactive children’s table, an augmented chair, a digital pen,
digital dice, etc. Furthermore, several physical artifacts such
as puzzle pieces, identity cards,
toys, etc., that typically contain no technology, were augmented using the framework. For the
provision of augmented interaction channels several applications were created including a
three
-
dimensional virtual playfellow,
digital reproductions of famous games such as puzzles,
card games, etc. These applications act as the required software layer to host the novel
interaction channels proposed by this research work. For both parents and early intervention
professionals to administer these applications and the system, several content editing and
interaction monitoring tools were implemented to support each stakeholder group’s needs
based on the extracted requirements. Finally, the framework itself is a ready to use tool for
developers who wish to develop novel applications to support playful interaction within AmI
environments. In this respect, the framework provides a number of tools for the creation,
interaction scripting, monitoring and integrating of augmented artifacts,
so as to radically
decrease the required development effort.
The aforementioned framework was deployed within a simulation space in the FORTH’s AmI
Facility and a two
-
phase evaluation with children, parents and early intervention professionals
was
conducted in order to identify potential usability barriers prior to the practical
exploitation of the concepts. The first phase of the evaluation was conducted early on and
after implementing the basic technological infrastructure, so as to primarily measure user
acceptance as well as the ergonomic design of the settled artifacts. Participants of this
evaluation were children aged from three to six years old. The second phase of the evaluation
was conducted after the complete deployment of the framework, i
n order to assess its value
for each targeted stakeholder. Therefore, the evaluation user base was expanded, including
young children in the age range of three to seven years old, their parents and early
intervention professionals.
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