The present invention relates to the field of education of human subjects, and more specifically to a computer program for training the brain development disorder where in human subjects are impaired of social interaction and communication. The program deliver animated content to the subject and varies the size, clarity, colors, background images, animated characters, sound with animation, method of instructions, so they would be more easily distinguished by the subject and thereby gradually improves the subject's neurological processing and memory of the elements through repetitive stimulation. Thus the system, method and apparatus of the present invention maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of learning by adding a reward delivery system to deliver the object of the student's interest upon achieving the goal set by the trainer.
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood. The two other autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are asperger syndrome, which lacks delays in cognitive development and language, and PDD-NOS, diagnosed when full criteria for the other two disorders are not met.
As per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 million children are born in the United States every year. Approximately 36,500 of these children will eventually be diagnosed with an ASD. Recent studies have estimated that the lifetime cost to care for an individual with an ASD is $3.2 million. Assuming the prevalence rate has been constant over the past two decades, we can estimate that about 730,000 individuals between the ages of 0 to 21 have an ASD.
More children are diagnosed with autism each year than cancer, aids and diabetes combined. 1 out of every 150 children born today is on the autism spectrum. In New Jersey the rate is an incredible 1 out of every 94 children. Tragically, the needs of children with autism are often not met in a traditional special education environment, and parents are unprepared to deal with the daily challenges of having a child with autism. For years, different modes of technology have been used to improve the quality of life of people who have various developmental disabilities. However, the varied use of technology for children with autism continues to receive limited attention, despite the fact that technology tends to be of interest for some of these children. It is well known that children with autism have defects on their social skills but not in the skills that do not have a social component. The use of new technologies which do not rely on social figures like teachers) may be better able to induce information and facilitate learning. Following are the issues as a major challenges and deficiencies in the education of autistic students:
For the student with ASD and their family, the education intervention and research on the therapeutic solution to achieve their highest level of independence within their home, school and community is equally as important as the research on the cause and prevention of autism. The improvement in educational interventions in autistic students will directly help hundreds of thousands of students in the United States and millions globally.
There are few standalone supportive technologies available for autism. Technologies such as videotaping, computers and adaptive hardware, complex voice output devices have the potential to transform the education of autistic students.
Videotaping: Children with autism are often highly interested, motivated and thus attentive to videos. Many children enjoy repetitive viewing of videos due to the “predictability” of the information given; that, knows what's coming up next. Thus videotaping can serve as an excellent tool with which to teach numerous skills to children with autism. Simon Baron-Cohen, one of the world's preeminent autism experts, developed the DVD, and he says his research shows that it brings significant improvements to children with autism, a syndrome that has stubbornly resisted treatment after treatment. Called The Transporters, the DVD aims to teach kids on the higher level of the autistic spectrum a key skill that many of them find nearly impossible: how to understand emotions. There are different kinds of DVDs available in the market that Teaches Kids with Autism to Understand Emotions. The emotions are portrayed with the help of an animated cable car with a live-action human face and the emotions are explained by a narrator. The final product comprises of 15 five-minute episodes along with 30 interactive quizzes and a written guide for parents. Watch Me Learn is video based program teaches social skills.
Computers: Research on the use of computers with students with autism revealed the following: Increase in focused attention, overall attention span, in-seat behavior, Increase in fine motor skills, generalization skills (from computer to related non-computer activities), agitation and decrease in self-stimulatory behaviors and preservative responses. Computers are commonly infused into the child's daily curriculum for reward and/or recreational purposes.
Adaptive Hardware and Software: In order to access the computer, some children with autism are using a standard computer adapted with certain devices for easy access to the computer like Touch Window to “navigate” and “interact”, Intellikeys as an alternative keyboard for easy connection to a computer, Big Keys and Big Keys Plus an alternative alphabet keyboard that has been specifically designed for young children, Trackballs to move the mouse around the screen by rolling a stationary “ball” around with fingertips or hand and some software that focuses on a variety of skill.
Research shows Animation DVD helps children with autism to recognize human emotions. Children with autism tend to avoid looking at human faces and find it hard to understand why facial features move in the way that they do. This inability to read emotions on the human face impairs their ability to communicate with other people. This inability impairs their ability to learn and get training from the teacher where they have to utilize their social skills. Researchers believes a customized training offered and delivered by non humans in a repeated manner using prefer predictable patterns to teach social skills and language will be effective using animated material combined with sound effect and interesting audio commands and/or information. Subject with autism are often fascinated by rotating wheels, spinning tops, rotating fans, and mechanical, lawful motion. Subject with autism love watching films about vehicles because, according to one theory children and adults with autism spectrum conditions are strong ‘systemisers’.
There has thus been a need in the art to develop a method and apparatus that allows a subject is drawn to predictable, rule-based systems, whether these are repeating patterns in the trial/game/lesson and utilize autistics subject's affinity towards lawful repetitions. Whereby it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus which effortlessly delivers training material that does not change and they are the same every time. Moreover the present invention provides a program which disables difficulty in dealing with the social world because it is always changing unpredictably and is different every time for kids with autism, wherein the program would deliver combination of 3D/2D content dynamically based on the student's skill level, area of interest and mental age of the subject and adjust the type of the delivered content material based on the input received from the subject and/or subject's behaviors and body movements.
It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide to a system, apparatus and method for training individuals with disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which reduces the social interaction and provides the repetitive interactive training anytime anywhere using computer and save all the activities in a centralized database.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method that incorporates a number of different programs to be played by the subject.
It is another object of the present invention to provide computer programs for training the brain development disorder where in human subjects are impaired of social interaction and communication.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the programs deliver animated content to the subject and varies the size, clarity, colors, background images, animated characters, sound with animation, method of instructions, so they would be more easily distinguished by the subject, and thereby gradually improves the subject's neurological processing and memory of the elements through repetitive stimulation.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the program delivers combination of 3D/2D content dynamically based on the student's skill level, area of interest and mental age of the subject and adjusts the type of the delivered content material based on the input received from the subject and/or subject's behaviors and body movements.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the adaptive adjustments encourage the subject to continue with the repetitions, and the number of repetitions should be sufficient to develop the necessary neurological connections for normal temporal processing of concept.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the program provides encouraging animation in the event of success and delivers entertaining content material in the event of the expiration of the attention span of the subject.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the attention span is measured based on the subject's profile, past history using camera and motion detector and the timer used in the system.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the method and apparatus utilizes a touch screen technology and colorful customized animation that attracts the attention of students with autism and significantly enhances the ability of the training material to provide needed educational interventions.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the method of intervention relies exclusively on the teacher for implementation.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the method of information delivery is used for subject with ASD, science, math, engineering and engineering related topics for education and training.
It is another object of the present invention, wherein the method and apparatus delivers therapeutic 3D/2D animated learning models to the subjects with autism through the World Wide Web network for autism therapeutic educational intervention.
Thus according to basic aspect of the present invention there is provided a computerized method of improving a Subject's cognitive, language and social skills using a series of audio-visual content that are modified by computer processing, the method comprising:
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the visual content comprises:
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the audio content comprises:
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the method further comprising:
upon completion of the trial and based on the score achieved by the Subject, Subject gets rewarded based on the selection made by the Subject or surprised reward based on their likings defined by the trainer administrator or randomly decided by the computer,
wherein the said reward includes a physical object, printed material, toy, food and game.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the graphical component of the logical construct comprises color, size, density, background, type, method, visual effect and shape.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for the improvement of the Subject's cognitive, language and social skills that utilizes delivery of audio-video content comprising:
input devices; and
output devices,
wherein the input device comprises of camera, touch screen, identification card, mouse, keyboard, joystick, fingerprint scanner, paper scanner, motion detector, microphone, video camera and motion detector,
wherein the output device further comprising vending machine or dispenser system or printer or combination of multiple delivery systems (output device) connected to the computer through local area network or worldwide web network or directly connected to the computer for immediate dispensing of the reward to the Subject,
wherein the reward delivered to the Subject gets recorded in to the database,
wherein the vending machine mechanism is used for the storage and delivery of the tangible items,
wherein the apparatus delivers audio-video content based on the responses of the Subject to the programmed parameters,
wherein the responses of the Subject is captured using the input devices, recording of video and monitoring of the activities from the Subject,
wherein the apparatus processes the requests from the user and communicates with the artificial intelligence processing unit,
wherein the apparatus receives audio-visual content from the artificial intelligence processing unit stored in the content storage unit based on the parameters set, and
wherein the audio-video content comprises 2D and 3D animation and visual presentation of the plurality of animated images with audio from the content library.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the apparatus receives request to print to the printer connected directly or through the local area network and World Wide Web based on the third-party programmed parameters and to deliver tangible item from the storage directly attached or connected through local area network and World Wide Web based on the parameter set.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the apparatus records: all activities from the monitor;
all trial activities in terms of sessions, history of trials, list of delivered content, responses, delivered tangible and non-tangible items, date and time for all actions and responses in the form of numbers and text; and
the actual body movement and voice in the form of video stream using installed video camera,
wherein the recorded information is sent to the artificial intelligence processing unit for storage.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the monitoring of the activities is done by sending notification of the activity result and activity related information to parties involved with trial using email, fax, instant messenger, text message or SMS.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for improving a Subject's cognitive, language and social skills using a series of audio-visual content that are modified by computer processing comprising:
centralized database;
one or more apparatus;
one or more printing devices;
one or more artificial intelligence processing unit;
storage unit;
local area network;
world wide web;
one or more output devices; and
one or more trainer administrator administrators,
wherein the apparatus is connected to the artificial intelligence processing unit using the local area network and world wide web for the delivery of the series of audio-visual content for the trial and capture responses from the users,
wherein the printing device is connected to the apparatus either directly or using the local area network and world wide web for obtaining a printed output,
wherein the vending machine is connected for obtaining a tangible item from the storage as an output;
wherein the trainer administrator administrators is connected to the artificial intelligence processing unit through local area network and world wide web to setup the parameters related to the trial management and to monitor, view, compare and analyze data,
wherein the user is connected using any apparatus on the local area network and world wide web to attend assigned trial by the trainer administrator,
wherein the artificial intelligence processing unit comprises of an application server and a web server for the delivery of the animated content with audio visual effects, and
wherein the trainer administrator administrators set the trainer administrator programmed parameters for the user.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the artificial intelligence processing unit is connected to the content storage unit which comprises of databases server for the storage of the data and media server for the storage of the audio-visual content.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the trainer administrator is anyone connected to the system using local area network and World Wide Web.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the system documents all the steps and history of the trial in the centralized database where the recorded data can be retrieved using local area network and World Wide Web.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the delivery of the series of audio-visual content includes sequence, type, recurrence, and length in terms total time, color, volume of the delivered audio-visual content and output type like print, tangible item, audio-visual content, audio-visual interactive content like game.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the trainer administrators can view the recorded information sent to the artificial intelligence processing unit by the apparatus.
The present invention as discussed hereinbefore relates to a method and apparatus to improve a subject's learning ability by utilizing a computer/kiosk system and reducing the social the element from the intervention. The method provides a plurality of content type in terms of training skill levels, subject or subject's known individual's avatar or picture, voice, topics of interest and/or content of the subject's interest. This plurality differs from each other in the form of animated content, and in the amount of audio processing applied to the speech commands and/or information. The method also selects from the plurality of content type based on the needs and training skill level to be presented to the subject that is associated with, or corresponds to, the subject's ability.
The method is presented to the Subject on a computer and interacts with the Subject via input/output devices like camera, touch screen, ID card, mouse, keyboard, joystick, fingerprint scanner, paper scanner, motion detector, or any body movement detecting device on the computer. The method utilizes the information from the input devices to calculate the needs of the Subject and change the type, quality, method, color, audio and/or visual presentation delivered to the subject. The method further presents as a trial, an audio/visual commands/information from a set of animation and speech commands/information from the selected skill level. The speech command directs the Subject to manipulate at least one of the pluralities of graphical components. If the Subject correctly manipulates the graphical components, the method presents another trial. If the Subject incorrectly manipulates the graphical components, the method presents another trial without giving any discouraging message. As the Subject correctly manipulates the graphical components, new audio/visual command/information from the set of animation and speech command/information from the library gets delivered to the Subject based on the skill and needs of the subject. And, as the Subject incorrectly manipulates the graphical components, the complexity of the trial using audio/visual commands/information is decreased and the entertaining animated content increased. The method is also an attention span measuring tool. The tool measures the Subject's attention span utilizing a motion detector and reads an eye movement using a video camera. Based on the historical attention span of the object, before the expiration of the attention span the method changes the content type delivered to the Subject from educational content to the entertaining content of the Subject's interest. Once the attention is gained, the method delivers new audio/visual command/information from the set of animation and speech command/information from the library to the Subject.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method to improve the cognitive processing system of a subject. The method provides a plurality of stimulus sets, with each of the plurality of stimulus sets having a plurality of command/information sentences. The method also provides a plurality of target graphical images and animation, each of the animation associated with a different one of the plurality of command/information sentences. The method further provides a plurality of distracter images that are not associated with the plurality of command/information sentences. The method then presents to the Subject one of the plurality of command/information sentences from one of the plurality of stimulus sets to the subject, the presented sentence modified acoustically, and presents to the Subject a target graphical image, from the plurality of target graphical images, that is associated with the presented command/information sentence. Along with the presented target graphical image the method presents a plurality of distracter images. The Subject is then required to distinguish between the presented target graphical image, and the presented plurality of distracter images by selecting the target graphical image associated with the presented command/information sentence. Upon successful completion of the one or multiple trials, the Subject will be awarded by some object, toy, food, or item of interest. In yet another aspect, the present invention provides an adaptive method to improve a Subject's willingness to learn the offered topic.
The method according to the present invention utilizes a computer to process and present animated content with sound to the Subject. This method utilizes the World Wide Web network or the local area network to retrieve animated content from the content storage server.
The method displays a plurality of animated images on the computer, the graphical images associated with information and/or some activities related to the topic of interest for the Subject. The method associates in pairs the plurality of animated images with particular activity and/or events such that two different animated images are associated with a particular activity and/or event. Upon the Subject's selection of any of the plurality of animated images, its associated activity and/or event is presented. The method then requires the user to discriminate between the presented activities and/or events by sequentially selecting two different graphical images from among the plurality of graphical images, that are associated with the particular activities and/or event. The audio command/information is modified by stretching them in the time domain by varying amounts to make easy to understand for the object. As the Subject correctly remembers the activities and/or event at one skill level, the amount of stretching applied to the audio command/information is reduced. In addition, as the Subject correctly remembers the activities and/or events, the number of animated image pairs presented to the Subject increases, requiring the Subject to better train his/her understanding on the activity.
This 3D Animated Interactive Individualized Therapeutic Learning Technology for Autistic students will effectively utilize realistic colorful 2D/3D animation with individualized attractive audio effect for intervention. This technology driven approach utilizes various interventions and approaches to measure the effectiveness on different child with ASD. The key technology used is an application delivering educational animation inside a touch screen Kiosk system with camera/s that tracks eye and body movement of the Student to achieve bidirectional activities. Teachers set up the individualized training plan and can track the development progress and help the student to communicate better to develop independent daily living skills. This learning tool utilizes the artificial intelligence to help students with learning disabilities and may help improve their social behavior (because the student is not dealing with individual where they have to make eye contact). This technique utilizes the technology to provide consistent training for extended hours in the same environment. By using the repetitive activities with the Student using the Kiosk based system, teachers can collect the data of the behaviors and response from variety of content like different colors, animation, instructions, audio-music and special effects.
In the general education field, the technology is widely utilized but in the area of Autism the technology is underutilized. The model of a Social Learning Pal not only teaches social skills but also helps the researchers collect data for further analytical purposes for the betterment of the students, the families and the teachers.
This dual purpose technological solution is utilized in the following settings:
According to another aspect, the method is implemented in three phases comprising phase I, phase II and phase III. The key activity during phase I is collecting, populating and verifying subjects' profiles. All the master data for the institute providing this training to the Subject is also populated during this phase. Students' Profile development process is done in three steps.
The phase II generates institute profile
1. Collecting Institute's Profile Info. Includes
In phase II, the right activities for the Students are selected based on their profile by experts. Once the activities are selected, based on the available and collected profile customization of the activity is programmed and configured. Selecting activity process analyzes the profile and selects the suitable activities for the subject. Selected activity is assigned and programmed in the system to the student after reviewing the individual's profile.
a. Capturing Customization Data—During this stage customized data like pictures of familiar people of the students for the activity—‘Identifying familiar people’, are captured and finalized.
b. Compose and Assign—The Trainer Administrator or Teacher composes and customizes selected activities and assigns it to right student.
Phase III is the final stage of the implementation where the Subject carry out the activities assigned and programmed. Their performance, progress and acceptance are tracked and analyzed. Following steps are followed as part of the implementation:
1. Operational Setup—This includes the installation and set up of required Hardware/Software.
2. The launch—The Students carry out the assigned activities.
3. Tracking—Progress and performance of students is automatically tracked by the application.
4. Feedback Capture—Feedback from the stakeholders (Teachers/Students/Parents) is captured.
5. Analysis and Documentation—The information related to progress and performance of students will be analyzed and the results documented. Similarly the feedback received is also be analyzed and the outcome of this analysis is documented.
Referring to
Vending machine 500B delivers the physical object based reward to the Subject based on the learning program in a computer program. LAN/WAN Option I 600 connects the computer system to the Data center 900 using wireless network and the LAN/WAN option II 700 uses wired network. The computer network allows information such as animated content, test scores, game statistics, and other subject information to flow from and to the subject's computer 100, to a server in the data center 900. Data center 900 contains storage unit 1000 and artificial intelligent processing unit 1100. The storage unit 1000 has two servers Database server 1200 and Media server 1300. These servers are utilized to store the media used by the computer program. This media includes audio, video and text based media for training Artificial intelligence unit 1100 has two servers, web server 1400 and application server 1500. Web server 1400 delivers training content to the Subject using the internet or LAN/WAN network. The application server 1500 generates deliverable content for the web server using the animated audio and video media delivered by the storage unit.
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The phase II of the proposed method is the Activity Appropriation Analysis 3500. This is done by the Trainer Administrator. Based on the profile and Subject's knowledge proficiency on the topic, Trainer Administrator creates a lesson plan using the library of the offered activities. Based on the lesson plan developed by the Trainer Administrator, the next phase would be to Activity Customization 3600 for the subject using the library of objects and audio visual components to develop customized activity. The Activity Assignment 3700 phase assigns the assignment activity to the Subject for implementation. In this phase the Subject is scheduled for training using the assigned activities in an activity module form. Multiple activities are assigned in an activity module form to the Subject for scheduled delivery on a daily basis. The Trainer Administrator reviews the information on a computer and can upload configuration and control information pertaining to a particular subject. The Activity Implementation 3800 phase is the actual execution of the planed activity under the supervision of the Trainer Administrator. In the Activity Implementation phase 3800, Subject uses the proposed software program on a daily basis for a planed fix time. Based on the programmed profile and assigned assignment, the Subject goes to the next level of complexity and type of the activity. Once all the activity assigned are successfully completed based on the programmed parameters, the Subject gets graduated for the assigned activity module. Throughout the Activity Implementation 3800 phase, the Trainer Administrator manages and monitors the progress of the Subject using the opposed computer program. This phase is the Activity Managing and Monitoring phase 3900. The Result Analysis 4000 and Activity reassignment and adjustment 4100 get the Subject to the final Result 4200.
Referring to
Upon completion of the activity, CPU gets request from the application server 1500 to deliver the reward to the Subject. Based on the request received from the application server 1500, the request to the printer 400 or object based reward system or object based reward system gets transferred for the reward delivery to the subject.
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After end of the each activity round, the activity round score is checked against the No Training Needed count. If the Activity round score is greater than No Training Needed count, the training content delivery is skipped. After end of the each activity, if continue is not selected by the subject, after 1 minute entertaining customized animation is delivered to get the attention of the subject. When the activity round is finished with all activities successfully removed from the current skill level and maximum passing skill level is reached, the reward is delivered to the subject.
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The embodiments of the invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. It should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the invention. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments of the invention may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments of the invention.
It is thus possible by way of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to improve a Subject's learning ability by utilizing a computer/kiosk system and reducing the social the element from the intervention. The method provides consistency in the environment at different locations of home, school, hospital, or any place where the computer or kiosk system is installed and delivers repeated educational material customized or personalized for the subject.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/340,510 filed Mar. 18, 2010 for “Method and Apparatus for Training Brain Development Disorders”, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61340510 | Mar 2010 | US |