SIRIN & CHRISTA & VIDYA (THE BMME KIDS) THE INTERACTIVE PLAYPEN We heard that Richard Goldberg’s students had designed a sort of sound mat for visually impaired toddlers. We want to take that one step further and design an interactive playpen for visually impaired babies. Our goals are to encourage these babies to build the muscle coordination that is required to be able to interact confidently with their environment as they grow. To this end, we would like to design toys that would encourage babies to reach overhead and to roll over, we would like to encourage them to be curious and explore their environment, and promote awareness of people, places and things in their environment. All of the toys that we will make will be designed specifically for use in the playpen and under parent supervision. All the toys will be detachable from the playpen. FOR INFANTS - Retractable overhead mobiles in high contrast colors (ie black, white, and red) to promote reach. - Make not only squeaky toys, but rattles of rice, sugar, and pebbles (ie rain sticks) FOR TODDLERS - Sound cubes: Put sound cubes in all four corners of the playpen. When you turn them on, one cube will play a sound to encourage the toddler to crawl in that direction. The toddler can turn off that cube by pressing a large button. When that cube is turned off, another cube in another corner will turn on. - Sound mat: The mat could line the floor of the playpen. Different sounds will be triggered as the toddler crawls over different areas. - Huge Legos: One mother of a visually impaired baby wrote that her toddler loved to build things using oversized legos. Roll back the lining of the playpen could produce a base for building these huge legos. - Braille mat: The mat would hang over the edge of the playpen. As the toddler runs its fingers over each Braille letter, for example ‘A,’ the mat would say ‘A is for Apple.’ - Large clock: The toddler could move the arms of the clock, press a button, and have the time be read back to them. WHERE DID OUR IDEA COME FROM? I first became interested in assistive technology after hearing a presentation by Professor Richard Goldberg in a Biomedical Engineering Seminar last semester. Students in Goldberg’s class developed projects specifically designed to help disabled children. The topic of Goldberg and his students came up again this semester as I discussed the enabling technologies course with the professor for whom I baby sit. She works in the therapy department at UNC Hospital and thus had received emails regarding project ideas in Goldberg’s class. She mentioned to me a sound mat that had been designed for blind babies to play on. That same evening, I helped her twin four-year old boys play with two electronic cubes. Each side of the two cubes had half a picture of some kind of transportation vehicle, such as a fire engine. When the two halves of the fire engine were placed in order side-by-side, the blocks made the sound of a fire engine siren. Having taken electronics, I was interested in the way the blocks worked. After examining them, I realized it was a simple circuit in the first block that was being completed by a thin wire in the second block when the blocks were placed alongside one another. Though the blocks had sounds, it would be impossible for a visually impaired child to play with them due to the importance of picture recognition. Thoughts began to run through my head as to how I could change this toy so that a blind child could use it. Earlier that same week I had listened to the presentation Diane Brauner gave regarding teaching blind children orientation and mobility. I had remembered her mentioning that often it was hard for young students to use a cane because they lacked the muscle development of other children their age. The sound mat Goldberg’s students developed was designed to give a baby or toddler an incentive to push up on their arms or crawl around. I had an idea to take the sound mat on step further and design an interactive playpen to help blind infants and toddlers gain strength, learn to crawl, and eventually learn to stand. WHERE WE WANT TO LOOK FOR ANSWERS We have a contact in Toledo, Ohio named Jason. Jason is a recovered paraplegic (with almost full recovery except in his feet) and currently runs a health promotion company, which does a lot of web design and programming. ason also is very involved in improving conditions for the disabled in his community. I learned about him through someone who runs a communications company in Raleigh. Jason is one of her clients. We hope that he will give us ideas and feedback into the practical aspects of our project as well as the technological aspects. We also know of someone who recently gave birth to a visually impaired baby, and we hope to contact her and seek her ideas for ways to add to and improve our project. We also plan on getting feedback from Dr. Richard Goldberg, who teaches a class on assistive technology, as well as our past and current teachers in instrumentation and electronics I and II. Our written resources consist of articles and magazines oriented towards visually impaired children. An inspiring article by Helen Keller, “Seek the Cause,” was published in Home magazine in 1933. The gist of the article is the need for stimulating activities for a child’s mental and physical development. She emphasized the need for a child to learn by encouragement and curiosity rather than coercion. Another great resource that we found is a site put together by SmarterKids, a company that makes educational children's books, software, toys, and games. This contains a list of things to look for in toys for VI children. These are features like bright and contrasting patterns, a variety of textures and sounds, games to stimulate creativity, encourage movement and exploration, and promote cooperation, sharing, and social growth.