Análisis de uso de un juego de realidad aumentada en la creación del hábito de la caminata en niños con necesidades especiales

El estilo de vida sedentario es peligroso para la salud, y jugar videojuegos en muchos casos contribuye a este problema. La evolución de los teléfonos inteligentes y el avance de la tecnología de realidad aumentada, permiten el desarrollo de nuevos juegos combinando la diversión y el entretenimiento con el ejercicio físico. Este trabajo presenta un análisis del comportamiento de los usuarios de un juego de realidad aumentada para incentivar la actividad física en los niños, especialmente aquellos con diagnósticos dentro del espectro autista, diabetes, parálisis cerebral, sobrepeso, obesidad infantil; donde el sedentarismo tiene graves consecuencias.XVII Workshop Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación (WTIAE)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Análisis de uso de un juego de realidad aumentada en la creación del hábito de la caminata en niños con necesidades especiales

El estilo de vida sedentario es peligroso para la salud, y jugar videojuegos en muchos casos contribuye a este problema. La evolución de los teléfonos inteligentes y el avance de la tecnología de realidad aumentada, permiten el desarrollo de nuevos juegos combinando la diversión y el entretenimiento con el ejercicio físico. Este trabajo presenta un análisis del comportamiento de los usuarios de un juego de realidad aumentada para incentivar la actividad física en los niños, especialmente aquellos con diagnósticos dentro del espectro autista, diabetes, parálisis cerebral, sobrepeso, obesidad infantil; donde el sedentarismo tiene graves consecuencias.XVII Workshop Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación (WTIAE)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Análisis de uso de un juego de realidad aumentada en la creación del hábito de la caminata en niños con necesidades especiales

El estilo de vida sedentario es peligroso para la salud, y jugar videojuegos en muchos casos contribuye a este problema. La evolución de los teléfonos inteligentes y el avance de la tecnología de realidad aumentada, permiten el desarrollo de nuevos juegos combinando la diversión y el entretenimiento con el ejercicio físico. Este trabajo presenta un análisis del comportamiento de los usuarios de un juego de realidad aumentada para incentivar la actividad física en los niños, especialmente aquellos con diagnósticos dentro del espectro autista, diabetes, parálisis cerebral, sobrepeso, obesidad infantil; donde el sedentarismo tiene graves consecuencias.XVII Workshop Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación (WTIAE)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

An application to improve emotional skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia de Eletrónica Industrial e ComputadoresThis dissertation presents a project developed with the aim of promoting emotional skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The project involves a serious game and a playware object, which is a physical component that acts as the game controller and allows the user to interactively play the serious game. The playware object has six pressure buttons, each one showing an emoji with a specific facial expression and communicates wirelessly via Bluetooth with the serious game app installed in an Android device. The facial expressions used are: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and neutral/normal. They were applied to the three game activities (imitation, recognition and storytelling). The chain of tests started with an online questionnaire to validate the avatars created to represent the previously mentioned facial expressions in the game (with 114 answers and a mean success rate of 96.2%), which was followed by a usability test of the application (serious game and playware object) with six typically developing children (with 94.4% answer accuracy). Finally, the three game activities were tested with six children with ASD in three/four sessions. Due to the small group test and the short number of sessions, the goal was to test the acceptance of the game rather than the users´ improvement in the activity. It is worth referring that both the serious game and the playware object had a high level of approval from the children and they expressed their interest during the activities. With this project it was intended to contribute to the development of pedagogical resources to be used by professionals and families in the support of children with ASD.Esta dissertação apresenta um projeto desenvolvido com o objetivo de promover capacidades emocionais em crianças com Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo. Este projeto envolve um jogo sério e um objeto playware, que é um componente físico que funciona como controlador de jogo e permite que o utilizador jogue o jogo sério de uma forma interativa. O objeto playware tem seis botões de pressão, cada um com um emoji com uma expressão facial específica, e comunica sem fios por Bluetooth com a aplicação do jogo sério instalada no dispositivo Android. As expressões faciais usadas são: felicidade, tristeza, medo, raiva, surpresa e neutro/normal. Estas foram aplicadas às três diferentes atividades de jogo (imitar, reconhecer e contar histórias). A cadeia de testes começou com um questionário online para validar os avatares criados para representar as expressões faciais previamente mencionadas no jogo (com 114 submissões e uma taxa média de sucesso de 96,2%), seguido de um teste de usabilidade da aplicação (jogo sério e objeto playware) com seis crianças tipicamente desenvolvidas (com 94,4% de respostas corretas). Por fim, as três atividades de jogo foram testadas com seis crianças com Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo durante 3 a 4 sessões. Devido à pequena dimensão do grupo de teste e ao baixo número de sessões, o objetivo foi testar a aceitação do jogo em vez da evolução das capacidades dos utilizadores na atividade. É importante referir que tanto o jogo sério como o objeto playware tiveram um alto nível de aprovação por parte das crianças que expressaram o seu interesse durante as atividades. Este projeto pretende contribuir para o desenvolvimento de recursos pedagógicos a serem usados por profissionais e famílias no apoio a crianças com Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo

Zirkus Empathico 2.0, A serious game to foster emotional and collaborative skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Autismus-Spektrum-Störung (ASD) ist eine neurologische Entwicklungsstörung, die durch eine Reihe von Entwicklungsstörungen gekennzeichnet ist, die zu einem Mangel an sozialen, kommunikativen und kooperativen Fähigkeiten führen. Sozio-kommunikative Beeinträchtigungen können durch von Verhaltenstherapeuten konzipierte und durchgeführte Trainingsprogramme für soziale Kompetenzen verbessert werden. Computergestützte Therapien zur Lösung sozio-kommunikativer Schwierigkeiten bei Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen mit ASD haben ermutigende Ergebnisse gezeigt. Das Serious-Game-Format ist eine Form der Intervention. Seriöse Spiele sind pädagogisch wertvoll, aber oft attraktiver als offensichtliche pädagogische Hilfsmittel. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 ist ein Serious Game für mehrere Spieler mit verschiedenen Levels und Bühnen in einer Zirkusumgebung. Die Auswertung erfolgte über einen Zeitraum von acht Wochen. Sechzig Kinder mit ASD im Alter von fünf bis elf Jahren wurden vor und nach der Behandlung untersucht. Zu den primären Ergebnissen gehörten die Empathiebewertung durch die Eltern und objektiv gemessene Fähigkeiten zur Emotionserkennung. Die Bewertung der Effektivität und Verwendbarkeit des Spiels für das Training sozialer Kompetenzen zeigte, dass es eine plausible Lernumgebung schuf, indem es das Bewusstsein der Studienteilnehmer für Fähigkeiten und neurotypisches Verhalten steigerte und ihre vorhergesagte Angst in zukünftigen sozialen Situationen verringerte. Nach der Behandlung wurden signifikante Behandlungseffekte festgestellt. Sowohl bei Kurz- als auch bei Langzeitbeurteilungen. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 ist erfolgreich bei der langfristigen Verbesserung der sozio-emotionalen Fähigkeiten in realen Situationen. Zukünftige Forschung sollte sich auf die spezifischen Prozesse konzentrieren, die den Übertragungs- und Aufrechterhaltungsvorteilen von Empathie und Emotionserkennung zugrunde liegen.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a spectrum of developmental abnormalities that result in a lack of social, communicative, and collaborative abilities. Socio-communicative impairments can be improved through behavioral therapist-designed and delivered social-skills training programs. Computer-based therapies to resolve socio-communicative difficulties in children, adolescents, and adults with ASD have demonstrated encouraging outcomes. The serious game format is one type of intervention. Serious games are educational but often appeal more than overt pedagogical tools. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 is a multi-player serious game set with various levels and stages in a circus environment. It was evaluated over eight weeks. Sixty children with ASD aged five to eleven years were evaluated before treatment and post-treatment. Primary outcomes included empathy rating by parents and objectively measured emotion recognition abilities. Secondary outcomes were assessed as emotional awareness, emotion management, well-being, and personal therapy goals. The assessment of the game's effectiveness and usability for social-skills training indicated that it established a plausible learning environment by boosting trial participants' awareness of abilities and neurotypical behavior and decreasing their predicted fear in future social situations. Following treatment, significant treatment effects were detected. In both short- and long-term assessments, moderate impacts were observed on emotional awareness, emotion management, and autistic social symptomatology. Parents reported that therapy goals were met, and that treatment was transferred well. Zirkus Empathico 2.0 is successful at improving long-term socio-emotional abilities in real-world situations. Future research should focus on the specific processes behind empathy and emotion recognition's transmission and maintenance benefits

Tobias in the Zoo – A Serious Game for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Nowadays ubiquitous technology can be a suitable way to motivate and engage children in interactive learning activities in order to promote their cognitive and social skills. Technologies, like augmented reality (AR), have the ability to catch the children’s imagination and to promote their attention, as they can experiment artificial, safe and fascinating environments. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) usually have difficulty to recognize facial expressions and to understand associated emotions. We propose to design and develop an innovative GameBook to assist children with ASD to recognize and acquire emotions by engaging their attention and motivation, increasing their competence on this handicap. The GameBook will contain a story that can be read by text or listen by audio. The story will describe some scenarios and real world situations which will conduct the children to become involved on fictional contents associated with emotions. The child will have to interact with these scenarios, by playing with one 3D AR avatar with different facial expressions and choosing the correct one to the right situation and environment described in any page of the GameBook. This GameBook will promote the interaction between the child/storyteller and his/her imagination as well as will help the child to identify the correct emotional face to the situation. The GameBook can be played on any mobile device, such as a tablet, a smartphone or a laptop, with either an external web camera or an inbuilt camera. In order to test it, an exploratory study in a classroom context with ASD children will be performed. We also intend to observe the impact of the game on children interaction, as well as to quantify and evaluate their performance, assess the usability of the technology, and evaluate how it affects the child emotion reactions and the benefits it offers