The Future Book for the Future Einstein: A Proposal
Think of “A night from Christmas past”- Well the virtual reality book would be an imitation of that. Instead of illustrations on a page, we are actually in the book, interacting with characters and objects. The reader will be introduced to a new environment in the realms of this book, as the narrator reads the words aloud. The reader will be directed to explore items by simply touching or tapping them.
Imagine! It’s a warm and sunny day. The air is filled with the song of two love birds in a ballad (the reader is seeing and hearing this). You look down and you find that you are in a field of flowers, flowers of all kind. Look up and you’ll see big white fluffy clouds. Touch the grass, it’s really real. Feel it! You touch and you feel it between your fingertips. The narrator, who is directing your attention, may be an audio voice or a simulation of an actual person who is walking through this book with you. You see a huge tree in the distance; it’s a great big oak tree. The narrator gives you history about the and instructed you to touch or place your hand on the tree, once you do that you get a vision of the tree’s past. Or maybe there is a girl sitting under the tree. She’s humming and seems happy. The narrator tells you to touch or tap the girl on the shoulder to get her attention. Playing off this idea, there are opportunities for new books to be written and translated into this program. The programs created for this book are intended for children with autism and a variety of intellectual disabilities. There will be a variety of different stories/ programs that will simulate “real-world” experiences. For instance, My First Trip to the Grocery Store, would be a book that teaches children coping with severe autism, or behavioral problems, how to behave in public settings. Within the story settings there will be a specific tab to set and adjust external stimuli such as sound. This way the parent or therapist can adjust the book’s settings to the child’s needs at the current moment, and introduce stimuli, moderately.
My audience would be geared mostly toward children with autism, as well as a wide range of other intellectual disabilities as the book evolves. The purpose of this new technology is to provide children with autism (specifically those with problem behaviors such as aggressive and self-injurious behaviors) learn socially desired coping skills and mechanisms in a fun and educational way. The program will also include positive reinforcement in the form of coins, tickets, or currency (depending on the setting) for following directions. For highly aggressive children, the virtual reality goggles and gloves must be able to detect AGGs and SIBs. The equipment must be nearly indestructible. My hopes for the new book is that children will take what they have learned and apply it to real life scenarios, thus decreasing problem behaviors and increasing social, communicative skills.
What excites me most about this project is the potential benefits it would offer, and the current needs that it would help fulfill. The idea of highly integrated positive reinforcement seems like it would really help keep kids engaged, especially kids that normally wouldn’t be interested in reading.
I’d want to see more information about how books would be written or translated, as you said, into the program. It seems like there would need to be a whole team working on these new books/programs and it would be a fairly labor intensive effort to get one into production.
The only additional evidence I can think of that would strengthen your argument would be citing some sort of study that shows the benefits of VR in autistic kids and others with learning disabilities. This would help drive the point home and prove that this technology could be really important in the future.
What excites you about this project and why?
I like the idea of full immersion and the almost 4D experience of the product and that it can be easily adapted from being purely educational to being made for anyone to use.
What do you want to see more of and why?
I want to see more of how the program itself works, how do you move? How do you hear? Are there particular books? What will the gloves be made out of? How do you plan to make sure it doesn’t overwhelm the children?
What additional evidence does the audience need to be convinced that this research is complete?
Research of the gloves and see if it’s possible to do the heat and cool. What will be the best way to make sure the program doesn’t overwhelm the children? Is there any possible way for it to be used for non-vocal autistic kids to use this to communicate better with their parents?
(Also I hope you don’t mind, I re-tagged your post to make sure everyone can find it easily that way you don’t miss any feedback)
What excites me about the project is the new way of learning and reading by actually being in the book. I think there is a lot of potential benefits to this technology especially if it’s being geared towards children with disabilities.
I want to really see is the new type of children’s books that will be created for the sole purpose of this technology. Will it only be one style of book, or will there be different types of subtopics that a child might experience.
i think you would have to do more research on what type of stories have the best effect on autistic children. Also, if maybe there are certain colors or sounds that might create a negative effect on the child.
What excites you about this project and why?
It’s very imaginative yet relies on technology that exists, so it’s realistic and very doable.
What do you want to see more of and why?
This should be for adults as well.
What additional evidence does the audience need to be convinced that this research is complete?
Autistic people may have sensory issues with virtual reality and may be bothered this technology. Do research on this or change the target market.