Investigators:
Carlos Aguiar (PI)
Art and Design - ID | Information Science - Informatics | University of Illinois Ubana-Champaign
Students: Maryam Jahadakbar
PhD student at Informatics | UIUC
Cindy Su
Undergrad in Computer Engineering | UIUC

Publications:
[1] Maryam Jahadakbar, Carlos Henrique Araujo de Aguiar, Arman Nikkhah Dehnavi, and Mona Ghandi. 2023. Sounds of Play: Designing Augmented Toys for Children with Autism. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 338–346. https://doi.org/10.1145/3594806.3594859

[2] Carlos Henrique Araujo De Aguiar, Cindy Su, Jennifer Gaw, Weiheng Huang, Kennedy Walker, and Yexin Lu Lu. 2023. Nurturing Eco-Consciousness: The Journey of the EcoMorph Guardian in Shaping Tomorrow's Stewards. In Proceedings of the 2023 Symposium on Learning, Design and Technology (LDT '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 119–122. https://doi.org/10.1145/3594781.3594804

Artifacts for Children

Sounds of Play: Designing Augmented Toys for Children with Autism

Keywords: Tangible User Interface, Interactive Toys, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Educative Serious Games

This research project focused on designing augmented toys to address sensory, perceptual, cognitive, and communication needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study aimed to develop interactive games that could enhance social interaction and cognitive skills while offering an accessible, technology-rich toy for these children. Two design iterations were proposed: the Music Wheel and the RanGo.

Music Wheel (right): Consists of a panel of multiple spherical silicon modules that emit sounds and change colors as they're rotated. It targets tactile, visual, auditory, fine motor skills, attention, concentration, and communication skills. It uses visual and auditory-based tasks that encourage children to rotate the modules to achieve specific visual patterns or music notes.

RanGo (left): A tabletop game with a xylophone, color bucket, LCD monitor, and digital pen. The child plays simple music notes on the xylophone, and the color bucket indicates the color assigned to the digital pen, which they use for coloring on the monitor. It targets perceptual and visual skills, fine motor skills, eye contact, and socialization.