The spread of technological innovation, of high-speed Internet and mobile devices have transformed societies around the world. Not only adults, but also children have increased access to ICTs and use of smart tools. In particular, in recent decades, also kids have tended to adopt these technologies from the early ages of life, until they become embedded in their lives. This phenomenon goes hand in hand with the problem that children more and more seem to prefer indoor activities (such as playing with video-games and watching TV) instead of outdoor games. This thesis tries to exploit the attraction that children have towards technology to motivate them to go outdoor and explore nature. It promotes the transparent use of technology by means of a screen-less, tangible smart objects, and also introduces a Web environment to make the devices configurable by non-expert users. In this way, the device can be adapted for its use in different, variable usage situations. The device is called GAIA, Get out kids And InterAct, and it is equipped with some elements that favour the exploration of outdoor environments and the socialisation among different children. After the design and the evaluation of the GAIA interactive game, it was necessary to make GAIA configurable by users that have no knowledge in technologies (e.g., parents and educators). For this reason, we designed a visual environment supporting an easy configuration of the device. This visual interface was specifically applied to the configuration of GAIA; however it is flexible enough to be adapted to the configuration of any kind of smart objects that embed electronic components (sensors and actuators) exposing events and actions that can be combined to program smart interactive behaviours.
La diffusione dell’innovazione tecnologica, di Internet ad alta velocità e dei dispositivi mobili hanno trasformato la società in tutto il mondo. Non solo gli adulti, ma anche i bambini hanno aumentato l’accesso alle tecnologie e all’uso di smart tools. In particolare, in questi ultimi decenni, i bambini hanno iniziato ad adottare queste tecnologie fin dalla tenera età, fino a che queste non sono diventate propri delle loro vite. Questo fenomento va di pari passo con il problema che i bambini preferiscono sempre di più attività al chiuso (come giocare ai video-game e guardare la TV) invece di giocare all’aperto. Questa tesi, oltre ad analizzare il problema descritto sopra, si propone di fornire una soluzione tangibile e renderla configurabile da utenti non esperti. Perció la tesi é centrata sulla progettazione di GAIA (Get out kids And InterAct), un dispositivo smart il cui scopo é motivare i bambini a giocare all’esterno e spingerli a socializzare con gli altri. Dopo aver realizzato e testato il gioco, è stato necesario rendere GAIA configurabile anche da utenti che non hanno conoscenza in ambito tecnologico, quali possono essere le maestre e i genitori interessati a definire situazioni di gioco diverse. Per questa ragione, è stato progettato un ambiente visuale che rende possibile la configurazione del dispositivo senza richiedere l’uso di linguaggi di programmazione.
A visual environment for the end-user development of smart objects for nature exploration
MANZI, GIUSEPPE;MENABUE, VALENTINA
2018/2019
Abstract
The spread of technological innovation, of high-speed Internet and mobile devices have transformed societies around the world. Not only adults, but also children have increased access to ICTs and use of smart tools. In particular, in recent decades, also kids have tended to adopt these technologies from the early ages of life, until they become embedded in their lives. This phenomenon goes hand in hand with the problem that children more and more seem to prefer indoor activities (such as playing with video-games and watching TV) instead of outdoor games. This thesis tries to exploit the attraction that children have towards technology to motivate them to go outdoor and explore nature. It promotes the transparent use of technology by means of a screen-less, tangible smart objects, and also introduces a Web environment to make the devices configurable by non-expert users. In this way, the device can be adapted for its use in different, variable usage situations. The device is called GAIA, Get out kids And InterAct, and it is equipped with some elements that favour the exploration of outdoor environments and the socialisation among different children. After the design and the evaluation of the GAIA interactive game, it was necessary to make GAIA configurable by users that have no knowledge in technologies (e.g., parents and educators). For this reason, we designed a visual environment supporting an easy configuration of the device. This visual interface was specifically applied to the configuration of GAIA; however it is flexible enough to be adapted to the configuration of any kind of smart objects that embed electronic components (sensors and actuators) exposing events and actions that can be combined to program smart interactive behaviours.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2019_07_Manzi_Menabue.pdf
accessibile in internet per tutti
Descrizione: Testo della tesi
Dimensione
65.75 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
65.75 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/148527