Location

Palermo, Italy

Description

This talk explores the creation and formal evaluation of a developmentally-appropriate, technologically-enhanced playful learning experience for young, preschool-aged children. Rather than focus efforts on designing for two separate spaces, the platform presented computationally models a blended reality context of interaction perceived by the user as a singular, fused and continuous space. Blurring the boundaries between screen-based and tangible robotic media, the Alphabot, a blended reality character appears to seamlessly move on and off the screen fluidly transitioning from a computer graphics character to a mobile robot in physical reality. The technical underpinnings and formative design of the current platform are outlined as well as the challenges and future potential directions for educators and designers interested in this exciting new area of research.