Smart toys designed for detecting developmental delays

In this paper,we describe the design considerations and implementation of a smart toy system,a technology for supporting the automatic recording and analysis for detecting developmental delays recognition when children play using the smart toy. To achieve this goal,we take advantage of the current commercial sensor features (reliability,low consumption,easy integration,etc.) to develop a series of sensor-based low-cost devices. Specifically,our prototype system consists of a tower of cubes augmented with wireless sensing capabilities and a mobile computing platform that collect the information sent from the cubes allowing the later analysis by childhood development professionals in order to verify a normal behaviour or to detect a potential disorder. This paper presents the requirements of the toy and discusses our choices in toy design,technology used,selected sensors,process to gather data from the sensors and generate information that will help in the decision-making and communication of the information to the collector system. In addition,we also describe the play activities the system supportsAuthors would like to thank the National Programme for Research, Development and Innovation, oriented to Societal Challenges, of the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness that supported the results of this paper through EDUCERE project (TIN2013-47803-C2-2-R), and to Universidad de Alcala that supported them through EDUSENS project (CCG2014/EXP-008

Behavioral and Psychological Aspects of Physical Education and Coaching

This Grants Collection for Behavioral and Psychological Aspects of Physical Education and Coaching was created under a Round Eleven ALG Textbook Transformation Grant. Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process. Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials: Linked Syllabus Initial Proposal Final Reporthttps://oer.galileo.usg.edu/education-collections/1009/thumbnail.jp

Electronics and control technology

Until recently, there was no requirement to learn electronics and control technology in the New Zealand school curriculum. Apart from isolated pockets of teaching based on the enthusiasm of individual teachers, there is very little direct learning of electronics in New Zealand primary or secondary schools. The learning of electronics is located in tertiary vocational training programmes. Thus, few school students learn about electronics and few school teachers have experience in teaching it. Lack of experience with electronics (other than using its products) has contributed to a commonly held view of electronics as out of the control and intellectual grasp of the average person; the domain of the engineer, programmer and enthusiast with his or her special aptitude. This need not be true, but teachers' and parents' lack of experience with electronics is in danger of denying young learners access to the mainstream of modern technology

Solar tracker

The global energy system is currently undergoing a significant change from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Depending on the country and its resources, one of the most efficient, reliable methods of producing energy is obtaining electricity from the sun. Going a step further, most typical solar farms are not using the full potential of solar panels. This study aims to determine why solar farms are widespread in some countries and some other countries do not use them at all. Specifically, it investigates whether and how much the geographical location affects the performance of the solar tracker. In this context, a solar tracker is defined as a device, which directs solar panels or modules toward the sun’s radiation. By changing its orientation throughout the day, the solar tracker follows the sun’s path on the horizon to maximize electricity production. To test the hypothesis that how fast the costs of the self-designed solar tracker can be reimbursed, depending on its geographical location, first, the solar tracker was designed and tested against possible loads. For controlling the dual-axis solar tracker, a programmable logic controller with a self-programmed algorithm for tracking the sun was chosen. Next, the solar tracker’s production costs were estimated, and with data about sun hours in two individual places, the reimbursement times were calculated. The results showed a significant difference in produced energy between these two chosen locations within Europe, which resulted in much deviated times needed to reimburse the solar tracker costs. These results suggest that the performance of the solar tracker strictly depends on its geographical location. On this basis, it can be concluded that the solar tracker doesn’t do good at all the destinations, and the potential future investor should consider all possible options before deciding on such a solution

Connecting Couples in Long-Distance Relationships : Towards Unconventional Computer-Mediated Emotional Communication Systems

The number of couples who find themselves in a long-distance relationship (LDR) is increasing for a wide range of reasons, such as overseas employment, academic pursuits, military duty, and similar circumstances. With the myriad of communication channels enabled by the low cost and ubiquity of computer-mediated communication technologies, couples in LDRs are able to stay in touch with each other around the globe. However, recent studies have revealed that the mainstream communication tools are inadequate to support the full spectrum of communication needed in intimate relationships. Emotional communication is one of the fundamental needs in close relationships, as it forms an important part of intimacy. This dissertation argues that there is a gap between what is known about LDR couples’ needs in research and what has been implemented for them in practice. The aim of this work is to bridge this gap by mediating emotional communication through unconventional user interfaces that use interaction solutions outside of the scope of their conventional use, with a particular focus on couples who sustain a committed LDR. Here, taking research through design as a core approach, a variety of qualitative methods were employed to seek answers to the research questions. This dissertation includes eight case studies, each of which is dedicated to answering its corresponding research question(s). Study I presents a systematic literature review which explored the current state of the art and identified the design opportunities. Study II introduces a series of co-design activities with five couples in LDRs to reveal the needs and challenges of users in an LDR. Studies III and IV propose two functional prototypes for unconventional communication systems to connect couples in LDRs. Study V showcases 12 design concepts of wearables created by the participants to support their own LDR. Study VI describes how four low-resolution prototypes created for mediating LDRs by the participants in the workshop would be used in real-world contexts. Studies VII and VIII each present a novel design tool to be used as a scaffold when designing communication systems for supporting LDRs: specifically, a conceptual design framework and a card-based design toolkit. This dissertation contributes new knowledge to the field of human-computer interaction through design interventions. It showcases a spectrum of practices which can be seen as a first step towards mediating emotional communication for couples in LDRs using unconventional communication systems. The findings comprise theoretical and empirical insights—derived from the eight case studies in which the author identified design opportunities and design considerations—relating to how couples in LDRs can be better supported by unconventional computer-mediated emotional communication systems

Multi-Stage Decision Rules for Power Generation & Storage Investments with Performance Guarantees

We develop multi-stage linear decision rules (LDRs) for dynamic power system generation and energy storage investment planning under uncertainty and propose their chance-constrained optimization with performance guarantees. First, the optimized LDRs guarantee operational and carbon policy feasibility of the resulting dynamic investment plan even when the planning uncertainty distribution is ambiguous. Second, the optimized LDRs internalize the tolerance of the system planner towards the stochasticity (variance) of uncertain investment outcomes. They can eventually produce a quasi-deterministic investment plan, which is insensitive to uncertainty (as in deterministic planning) but robust to its realizations (as in stochastic planning). Last, we certify the performance of the optimized LDRs with the bound on their sub-optimality due to their linear functional form. Using this bound, we guarantee that the preference of LDRs over less restrictive -- yet poorly scalable -- scenario-based optimization does not lead to financial losses exceeding this bound. We use a testbed of the U.S. Southeast power system to reveal the trade-offs between the cost, stochasticity, and feasibility of LDR-based investments. We also conclude that the LDR sub-optimality depends on the amount of uncertainty and the tightness of chance constraints on operational, investment and policy variables

Obstacle detection and avoidance by a mobile robot

The project “Obstacle Detection and Avoidance by a Mobile Robot” deals with detection and avoidance of the various obstacles found in an environment. We divided the task of creating the robot into five phases namely LED and LDR component designing, comparator, microcontroller, motor driver and the motor. While designing and construction of the hardware for the robot, we started with the circuit construction of the LEDs and the LDRs, then designed the comparator which does the task of converting the input voltage to a digital output that is fed to the microcontroller. The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) logic in done in this phase, the AI logic is fed to the microcontroller. The robot gathers facts about the scenario through the sensors. It then compares this information to the data stored and decides what the information signifies. The robot runs through the various possible actions and then based on the collected information, predicts which action will be most successful. The motor driver then implements the decided action and the motor helps run the robot. The robot designed was found to successfully run on an obstacle free course after being able to detect obstacles and take appropriate actions. The accuracy of the robot was 86.62% which was determined by testing the robot against various obstacles and calculating the observations. This project describes the basic ground work which when developed further can create more advanced robots which has a wide range of application such as in unmanned vehicle driving which can be useful for space projects, for industrial purposes, in households, etc. The building of such robots will require the developers to tackle problems such as finding efficient, effective design of circuit components keeping in mind a simple and a light-weight model that allows for smooth movement of the robot. The accuracy of the robot is dependent on the accuracy of the sensor