Friday 28th November saw the first of the Virgin Atlantic VJAM workshops to brainstorm ways to improve the travel experience for customers. Conchango took the Microsoft Surface unit along and I played guardian and host of this device for most of the day. The attendees included travel professionals, experts in social media and others who have some connection to Virgin. The Surface unit seemed quite at home at a workshop on thought leadership and some fascinating discussions took place around the table during the day.
One conversation which got me thinking was around the use of technology for cognitive behaviour therapy. Dr Mark Jones specialises in using cognitive training to improve behaviour and has developed an interactive learning tool, Animal Agentz, to teach children coping skills. Animal Agentz was the result of his research as a PhD student and tested at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I was particularly interested in how behavioural treatment through digital play could help develop problem solving strategies.
We discussed children with ADHD - I naively thought that children with ADHD would be encouraged to spend less time playing computer games but a carefully balanced media diet can improve a child’s social and coping skills. Computers are playing an increasingly important part for children with behavioural problems.
Animal Agentz plays out real scenarios and uses animal characters to educate a user on the consequences of an action. This software has been proven to hold a child’s attention by engaging them through rich content and interactions. If such software can help mood regulation and self-control then can a natural user interface (yup, Surface) advance this further?
A child with ADHD performs better when they are engaged. A natural user interface (NUI) puts the focus on the software and its content and not on how to interact with the content. Surface computing provides intuitive usability and a more natural way to interact than using a keyboard or mouse.
It is commonsense that technologies that remove barriers by introducing natural gestures can only further engage and keep their attention. Inattention is a major factor in educating users with ADHD so a NUI such as Microsoft Surface offers an intuitive experience that doesn't hinder their creative energy or expression and allows them to focus their energy. Microsoft Surface changes the way that people and technology interact.
Clearly Microsoft Surface has a place in Attention Solutions.
Over the coming months I'll be looking at developing interactive learning tools for surface computing so if you have any ideas on this or would like to get involved then please get in touch .
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Posted by: mnonkyoggag | September 24, 2011 at 08:57 AM