An experiment of low cost entertainment robotics

International audienceThis paper reports about the robotic installation set up by the Rhoban Project in the French pavilion of the Expo 2012 of Yeosu, Korea ([6]). The installation has consisted in a humorous show involving humanoid robots and anthropomorphic arms, with the illusion of life as a guideline. We emphasized natural compliant motion and physical interaction in order to make the show attractive. The design raised some issues dealing with robustness of robots, but also with the realism of the motions and the synchronization of the robots with the music

Using humanoid robots to study human behavior

Our understanding of human behavior advances as our humanoid robotics work progresses-and vice versa. This team's work focuses on trajectory formation and planning, learning from demonstration, oculomotor control and interactive behaviors. They are programming robotic behavior based on how we humans “program” behavior in-or train-each other

Persuasive Design in Teaching and Learning

The EuroPLOT project (2010-2013) has developed Persuasive Learning and Technologies (PLOTs) and has evaluated them in four real-world case studies, which cover the widely different teaching scenarios of university education, adult learning in industry, informal learning at a museum, literature studies, and language learning. At the International Workshop of EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013), the results of the project were presented, and an overview of related research was given. One of the main conclusions of EuroPLOT has been that the specific learning context has to be considered when applying persuasive designs. At IWEPLET 2013, both the theoretical background as well as evaluations of persuasive technology demonstrations were presented. This paper provides an overview of these presentations

Floffy: Designing an Outdoor Robot for Children

In our research we utilized the domain of entertainment robotics to educate children on the principles of environmental awareness by playful means outdoors. Our research revolved around the iterative design of Floffy: the environmental robot, which was essentially a playful toy robot that would respond positively to interaction that was beneficial for the environment and the child’s own well being and negatively to interaction or behaviour that was detrimental to the surroundings. We conducted an explorative, informal evaluation of Floffy with two small groups of children and they rated their experience with it positively. Our results show that there is potential in utilizing entertainment robots to educate children on serious and critical issues such as saving our environment and being sustainable

Effects of Short-Term Training of Community-Dwelling Elderly with Modular Interactive Tiles

Objective: The objective of this study is to test for the increased mobility, agility, balancing, and general fitness of community-dwelling elderly individuals as a result of short-term training involving playing with modular interactive tiles (Entertainment Robotics, Odense, Denmark) at two community activity centers for the elderly. Three different tests from the Senior Fitness Test were used in order to test a variety of health parameters of the community-dwelling elderly, including those parameters related to fall prevention. Materials and Methods: Eighteen community-dwelling elderly individuals (63–95 years of age; mean, 83.2 years of age) were assessed in one intervention group without the use of a control group. The intervention group performed nine group sessions (1–1.5 hours each) of playful training with the modular interactive tiles over a 12-week period in two community activity centers for the elderly. Data were collected using pre-tests and post-tests of the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), the 8-foot Timed Up & Go Test (TUG), and the Chair-Stand Test (CS). Data were analyzed for statistically significant differences and increases of means. Results: The 6MWT, TUG, and CS measurements showed statistically significant differences and increases of means between the pre-tests and post-tests with the 6MWT (P<0.001) (means difference, 22.4 percent), TUG (P<0.001) (means difference, 15 percent), and CS (P<0.002) (means difference, 14 percent). Fifty-six percent of the elderly progressed from one health risk level to a better level, according to the three tests. Conclusions: Statistically significant increases in scores were found across all tests, suggesting an improvement of many different health parameters for the elderly. Well-established research has shown the relationship between such test scores and fall incidents, balancing, mobility, agility, etc. This significant improvement in the health status of the elderly is obtained in as few as nine training sessions over a 12-week period of “playing” exergames with the modular interactive tiles

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

How Visual Stimuli Evoked P300 is Transforming the Brain–Computer Interface Landscape: A PRISMA Compliant Systematic Review

Non-invasive Visual Stimuli evoked-EEGbased P300 BCIs have gained immense attention in recent years due to their ability to help patients with disability using BCI-controlled assistive devices and applications. In addition to the medical field, P300 BCI has applications in entertainment, robotics, and education. The current article systematically reviews 147 articles that were published between 2006-2021*. Articles that pass the pre-defined criteria are included in the study. Further, classification based on their primary focus, including article orientation, participants’ age groups, tasks given, databases, the EEG devices used in the studies, classification models, and application domain, is performed. The application-based classification considers a vast horizon, including medical assessment, assistance, diagnosis, applications, robotics, entertainment, etc. The analysis highlights an increasing potential for P300 detection using visual stimuli as a prominent and legitimate research area and demonstrates a significant growth in the research interest in the field of BCI spellers utilizing P300. This expansion was largely driven by the spread of wireless EEG devices, advances in computational intelligence methods, machine learning, neural networks and deep learning

Study protocol: effect of playful training on functional abilities of older adults - a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Loss of functional capabilities due to inactivity is one of the most common reasons for fall accidents, and it has been well established that loss of capabilities can be effectively reduced by physical activity. Pilot studies indicate a possible improvement in functional abilities of community dwelling elderly as a result of short-term playing with an exergame system in the form of interactive modular tiles. Such playful training may be motivational to perform and viewed by the subjects to offer life-fulfilling quality, while providing improvement in physical abilities, e.g. related to prevent fall accidents. The RCT will test for a variety of health parameters of community-dwelling elderly playing on interactive modular tiles. METHODS: The study will be a single blinded, randomized controlled trial with 60 community-dwelling adults 70+ years. The trial will consist an intervention group of 30 participants training with the interactive modular tiles, and a control group of 30 participants that will receive the usual care provided to non-patient elderly. The intervention period will be 12 weeks. The intervention group will perform group training (4–5 individuals for 1 h training session with each participant receiving 13 min training) on the interactive tiles twice a week. Follow-up tests include 6-min Walk Test (6MWT), the 8-ft Timed Up & Go Test (TUG), and the Chair-Stand Test (CS) from the Senior Fitness Test, along with balancing tests (static test on Wii Board and Line Walk test). Secondary outcomes related to adherence, motivation and acceptability will be investigated through semi-structured interviews. Data will be collected from pre- and post-tests. Data will be analyzed for statistically significant differences by checking that there is a Gaussian distribution and then using paired t-test, otherwise using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. “Intention to treat” analysis will be done. DISCUSSION: The trial tests for increased mobility, agility, balancing and general fitness of community-dwelling elderly as a result of playing, in this case on modular interactive tiles. A positive outcome may help preventing loss of functional capabilities due to inactivity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: Nr. NCT02496702, Initial Release date 7/7–2015