Final Ideas: Word Scanner

One of our final ideas was to design a hand held device that could be swiped over a word and the apparatus would then read the word out through an inbuilt speaker.

This device would be helpful in teaching young children to read and help spell out words to aid in their understanding. The device could also help children with longer and more complex words by saying the word out phonetically when the device is scanned across the word.

There are several devices on the market today that will scan characters for different purposes. A lot of flatbed A4 scanners these days come with some form of optical character recognition (OCR) software that would use the scanner to take in a document and would interpret each character in the document and produce a pdf or word document allowing a user to edit the scanned in document on their computer.


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There are also devices on the market that are very similar to our idea, which are designed for young children. There are several devices of this nature created by Leap Frog, one of which is called “My First LeapPad Learning System”. This piece of equipment requires a cartridge and a special book designed for the device. There are many books in shops today created for the LeapPad Learning System.


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The machine has an inbuilt pen, which can be used to scan a word in the book and will read out the word to the user. It will also read out the word phonetically if the user passes the pen over a word slowly. Leap Frog have also used this technology to create interactive games with the selected book and teach young children numeracy.

Information is from here

This device is available from www.amazon.co.uk from £16.49

Here is an example of a book and cartridge that can be bought for the LeapPad Learning System. These are also available from www.amazon.co.uk and are priced at £7.99


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Another device on the market that is also made by Leap Frog called the Fly Pentop computer can be used as an ordinary pen, but when the pen is used on ‘special paper’ that is provided with the pen, the user can write words in their own handwriting and the pen will pronounce these words back.


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The pen also has many other features such as a user can draw out an outline of a calculator and do basic maths on it. A user could also draw out a piano and play tunes on it using the inbuilt speaker. It can also read out location names on specaily provided maps.

Information is from here

From all the information gathered you can see that there are many concepts on the market based on word and character recognition.

The Leap Frog LeapPad Learning System incorporates everything that we originally discussed in our initial ideas for such a device. The main draw backs to the LeapPad is that it may say on their website that it is a portable device, it isn’t really a handheld gadget that can be put in a pocket which is something our group was interested and keen on developing with this idea. Also the LeapPad will only work with books that were designed for the device and not just any text from different sources.

Our idea could involve creating a handheld device that can fit in the pocket, which can be used to scan any piece of text from any source and the device would then pronounce the text that has been scanned through an inbuilt speaker. In addition to this basic functionality the device could also pronounce words phonetically if scanned across a word slowly and also have inbuilt handwriting recognition for reading handwritten words. This concept could have many extra features in addition to the basic functionality, which is why this idea is in our final selection. A device of this nature could be used by children to help them with reading difficulties and learn new words that they have come across in their reading.

Physical features include:

1. Handheld and portable.
2. Large coloured buttons.
3. Few Buttons for device controls.
4. Inbuilt speaker for audio.
5. USB connector for PC connectivity.
6. Memory storage for scanned words.
7. LCD screen for status information and options.
   
8. An LED light on the tip to show what area is being scanned.
   
9. Pen shaped.

There are some issues though with such a device, if a child were to use the apparatus on a word in a classroom while a teacher was teaching, the audio generated might be heard by everyone. Also there are words which have the same spelling which are pronounce differently such as 'invalid' meaning not valid or incapacitated.

Final Ideas: Taste Manipulator

The basic tastes are the commonly recognized types of taste sensed by humans. Humans receive tastes through taste buds, concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue. Scientists describe five basic tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and savoury.
There is scientific dispute as to whether basic tastes exist, or are simply an "overly reductionist" concept. There is also philosophical dispute between biochemists, who believe evidence for a chemical reaction in tongue tissue means there is a basic taste, and psychologists, who see taste as much more based on psychological states and experiences.

There are 2 ways that humans can taste flavours - through the nose and through the tongue.
The receptors in the nose are around 10,000 times more sensitive than those in the mouth, which is why when you have a "blocked nose", you lose almost all sense of taste.

A common misconception is that certain areas of the tongue are responsible for different types of taste. On the contrary, all taste buds can detect all 5 types of taste, but some are more responsive to different types than others.

The 5 types of taste are as follows:
--Saltiness
Saltiness is a taste produced by the presence of sodium chloride, and can pass directly through ion channels in the tongue, leading to a wave of electrical discharge that travels along the membrane of a cell. Action potentials are an essential feature of animal life, rapidly carrying information within and between tissues.

--Sourness
Sourness is the taste that detects acids. The mechanism for detecting sour taste is similar to that which detects salt taste.

--Sweetness
Sweetness is produced by the presence of sugars, some proteins and a few other substances. Sweetness is detected by a variety of G protein coupled receptors coupled to the G protein gustducin found on the taste buds. At least two different variants of the "sweetness receptors" need to be activated for the brain to register sweetness.

--Bitterness
Research has shown that TAS2Rs (taste receptors, type 2) coupled to the G protein gustducin are responsible for the human ability to taste bitter substances.

--Savouriness
A subset of savoury taste buds responds specifically to glutamate in the same way that sweet ones respond to sugar. Glutamate binds to a variant of G protein coupled glutamate receptors.

From these descriptions, you can see that the basic ways in which the taste is detected, is a chemical reaction causing electrical impulses to be sent to the brain.

Taste from smell works in a similar way - electrical impulses are sent directly to the brain via nerves directly connected to the emotional centre of the brain. This is explains why sometimes childhood and other important memories can be triggered from scents or flavours.

In terms of a device that could be used to "alter" the taste of foods, it could be fitted into either the nose or the tongue, as both have a say in what you taste, however, if it were to be used with the receptors in the nose, it would be more effective in terms of overriding the existing taste of the food.

A tiny device that could be clipped to the nose at meal times and could be recharged between usage would be ideal for this application, and this could be used as a training device to "trick" a childs brain into liking a type of food that they previously wouldn't eat.

Final Ideas: Sports Training Tool

Overview:

Healthy living is a trend that has swept the country. On top of this, child obesity and fitness levels have come into question, leading to many predicting large-scale obesity levels in the future. Everyone agrees that more needs to be done to encourage children to lead healthier lives.

The team agreed that we should consider developing tools to battle the nation’s child health crisis. The Sports Training Tool will do this.

The Nintendo Wii is a new games console, which is aiming to revolutionize the way people play computer games through the use of their innovative Wii controllers. Nintendo have skilfully combined several pre-existing technologies into their lightweight remotes, namely an accelerometer, a gyrometer, infrared and Bluetooth technology. The accelerometer and gyrometer measure the motion and tilt of the controller whilst the user moves and swivels it. The infrared and Bluetooth technologies are used to interact with a sensor bar (placed by the T.V.) and to send information to the console. It also has a rumble facility like most modern games controllers. As IGN concludes “All of these technologies combine to deliver users a level of precision and interactivity not possible”. Nintendo are already working on improving the technology.

The group decided that they would like to consider developing a Sports Training Tool, which could be used in schools to help teach certain sports indoors. The tool will use technologies similar to the ones used in the Wii remotes. The tool will focus on building skill levels in different sports, thus ensuring that children feel confident taking part in these activities when played outside.

The tool would be most suitable for sports such as tennis, badminton, baseball and cricket. For each sport the system will have different settings to test/teach the children about different parts of the game e.g. how to strike the ball to create spin, how to hit the ball into certain areas and speed/power.

The child will place the base controller into the corresponding sport’s racket/bat and then attempt to strike the ball as normal, whilst following direction from the tool.

Once the student has finished, he/she can check their feedback on the computer and then continue with the lesson plan.

Brief specification:

Accelerometer
Gyrometer
Infrared
Bluetooth
Sensor bar(s)
Screen
Computer

Strengths:

1. Tools can be used when weather is poor.
2. Feedback from the computer will give the student more direct help.
3. Children love computer games, so would love to use this.
4. Doesn’t promote mindless ‘play’, focuses on building skill.
5. Will build up skill levels that will aid match play.
6. Helps kids build up confidence.
7. Disabled students can take part without feeling left out.
8. Help children’s hand-eye coordination.

Weaknesses:

1. Having enough room at the school to store the tools.
2. The P.E. department will need at least one computer.
3. Students may misbehave further due to having a ‘computer game’ to play.
4. May actually promote computer games rather than sports.
5. Large screens will need to be fitted.
6. More security concerns for the P.E. department.
7. Each school will need at least 6 systems so that there is a minimum wait to use them for the children.
8. Device may get easily damaged.

Some information about the Wii and it’s technology can be found at IGN here.