details
This project aims to introduce the use serious gaming for immersive environments, as innovative technologies to provide compelling educational content to young students of ages 3 to 10, that can enjoy 3D audio and 3D virtual environments. This new way of experiencing content will convey to the young users spatial perceptions allowing them to explore math / geometry and music.
From a technological standpoint, the approach is to use terminal equipment ranging from 3D immersive environments such as the CAVE (available at ISCTE-IUL, Lousal and CCG) to non-immersive PC-based systems. The project adopts standard 3D authoring and visualization tools, like Unit 3D and also develops own 3D run-time tooling, based in OpenSceneGraph, to drive a multi-projector immersive system, such as a CAVE. Human-computer interaction, favors kids speech recognition (European Portuguese) and body gesture recognition via a RGB-D sensor (Kinect).
The developed serious game, Matemáquina do tempo” (“Math time machine”), is an adventure experience that can be enjoyed in different times and spaces. Here the player, age 3–10, will have to learn different mathematical concepts with the ultimate goal of taking and succeeding in a math quiz. Through a wide range of different types of tasks the user experiences different 3D worlds and use his own body gestures and/or spoken words as tools to interact within the surrounding environment. In this 3D world the user is always accompanied by MAT, an Artificial Intelligence character that will guide the player in the different game stages. More information about this application can be consulted in this news coverage.
Researcher and Coordinator
Partners
Centro de Computação Gráfica , iZone Interactive Media, iZone Knowledge Systems, Microsoft Portugal e Diferenças21, Universidade de Aveiro, Inesc-Porto, FEUP
Financing
The QREN 7943 CNG initiative was co-funded by FEDER European Union program through the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), as part of COMPETE – Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC) and was managed by ADI.
