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Robot Toys for Children with Disabilities

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Computing in Smart Toys

Abstract

Toys and games have an important role in the developmental context of children in terms of the cognitive, social, motor, psychological and sensory aspects. The use of toys has also demonstrated to be useful in medical and therapeutic applications, becoming a pleasant and motivating tool for supporting rehabilitation and several kinds of therapies of infant-juvenile patients. Smart toys, such as robots, and virtual reality games are being increasingly used as supporting tool for therapists, once they are able to aim the learning, attentional and focus control, as well as cognitive flexibility, perception and task switching, permeating a diversity of developmental disorders. This chapter approaches examples of robots designed to help children with motor and neurobehavioural disabilities. The main goal of these robots is to help children feel more independent and, specially, to help them in their therapies and in their social skills development. In addition to the robots themselves, this chapter also shows some experiments conducted with physically impaired and ASD children using qualitative to quantitative scales, which are used to quantify the quality of the experiments and the usability of the robots.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    OpenCV Library: http://opencv.org/

  2. 2.

    NyARToolkit lybrary: http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wp/

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank all the volunteer children and theirs parents for participating in the tests, the Associations and their therapists, for helping in conducting the tests, the Brazilian agencies that promote research (CNPq/CAPES, FAPES and FAPESP), for the technical, scientific and financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Assistive Technology Centre, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, 29075-910, Vitória, ES, Brazil

    Carlos T. Valadão, Christiane M. Goulart & Teodiano F. Bastos-Filho

  2. Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, University of Toronto, 5 King’s College Road, M5S 3G8, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Silas F. R. Alves

Authors
  1. Carlos T. Valadão
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  2. Silas F. R. Alves
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  3. Christiane M. Goulart
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  4. Teodiano F. Bastos-Filho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silas F. R. Alves .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing and Information Sciences, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong

    Jeff K.T. Tang

  2. University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

    Patrick C. K. Hung

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Valadão, C.T., Alves, S.F.R., Goulart, C.M., Bastos-Filho, T.F. (2017). Robot Toys for Children with Disabilities. In: Tang, J., Hung, P. (eds) Computing in Smart Toys. International Series on Computer Entertainment and Media Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62072-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62072-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62071-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62072-5

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