Enhanced reach: Assisting social interaction based on geometric relationships

Abstract

Social interaction among children plays a significant role in their social development. Some children, however, find it difficult to initiate interaction and there are only few tools that can create opportunities for children to interact with others. This study presents a small wireless device that can measure and visualize geometric relationships in a gymnasium or playground. The estimation of geometric relationships is proposed based on signal strength of wireless communication, bodily orientation and statistical geometric consistency. A light-emitting visualization method is used in real-time according to geometric relationships among devices. Several wearable interfaces were developed to facilitate communication and social interaction of children by using the developed wireless device. Several experiments were done with typically developing children and children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) to evaluate the proposed technology. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.