Aldeberan has announced ASK NAO, an initiative in which it's
kid-sized humanoid Robot interacts with children who experience
difficulties in relating to people.
NAO is a 2-foot tall humanoid robot created and being developed by
the French company Aldeberan. In addition to artificial intelligence
which makes NAO responsive to humans, "he" possesses a vitality and
personality that makes human respond to "him".
We have already seen that he has developed abilities that enable him
to be a good companion for children, with his ability to play Connect 4
and Hangman, but now we discover that NAOs can also make good teaching
assistants.
In unveiling its Autism Solution for Kids program, Aldeberan has
revealed that several NAOs have been playing a valuable role in teaching
communication skills to autistic children.
It is estimated that today autism affects 1 in every 88 children and 1
in every 54 boys and that it is the fastest-growing serious
developmental disability - 10-17% annually of which only half is
explained by a better diagnosis.
Aldeberan aims to revolutionize special needs education by using NAO
as a classroom assistant who, it seems, has a special gift in connecting
with children who have difficulties with normal communication.
According to Olivier Joubert, Autism Business Unit Manager at Aldebaran
whose PhD is in Neuropsychology:
“Most children on the autism spectrum have a natural attraction
towards technology and NAO's humanoid shape creates a perfect link
between technology and humanity.”
NAO at the Topcliffe Primary
As part of the ASK NAO program Aldeberan has developed educational
games that allow children to work on verbal and non-verbal
communication, emotional intelligence, mimicking, and even basic
academic skills. The program has been tried out in three schools, one in
the Birmingham, England the other two in the United States.
A preschool in Haverhill, Massachusetts is the latest to have taken
delivery of two robots. After seeing a report on NBC, see video clip
below, the Moody School, which integrates those with disabilities and
autistic disorders into classes with typically- developing students,
emailed Aldeberan to see if they could be involved in beta testing and
it was judged to be "just right" for inclusion. After only three weeks
the schools staff have seen changes in the ability of the autistic
children to pay attention.
“It was incredible to see how well NAO did with some of our
autistic students, Some students who barely react to people had a great
reaction to the robot.”
Topcliffe Primary in Birmingham, the school featured in this video,
where around a quarter of the children are autistic, has had its two
robots, nicknamed Ben and Max, for over a year and has discovered that
autistic children respond to the robots in a way they would find
impossible with adults.
Head teacher Ian Lowe said in an interview:
"The robots have no emotion, so autistic children find them less
threatening than their teachers and easier to engage with. Children who
first come into school unable to make eye contact with humans start to
communicate through the robots."
In addition to the NAO robot, ASK NAO provides educators with a
online interface for planning, monitoring and analyzing NAO interactions
and their impact on learning. The program has now been launched on a
worldwide basis. Aldeberan, which has donated the robots used in the
pilot schemes, hasn't announced how much the ASK NAO package costs. As a
guide the robot is currently priced around $16,000.
Source : I Programmer Info , 5th May 2013
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