The KidsRoom: A Perceptually-Based Interactive and Immersive Story Environment

Abstract

The KidsRoom is a perceptually-based, interactive, narrative playspace for children. Images, music, narration, light, and sound effects are used to transform a normal child's bedroom into a fantasy land where children are guided through a reactive adventure story. The fully automated system was designed with the following goals: (1) to keep the focus of user action and interaction in the physical and not virtual space; (2) to permit multiple, collaborating people to simultaneously engage in an interactive experience combining both real and virtual objects; (3) to use computer-vision algorithms to identify activity in the space without requiring the participants to wear any special clothing or devices; (4) to use narrative to constrain the perceptual recognition, and to use perceptual recognition to allow participants to drive the narrative; and (5) to create a truly immersive and interactive room environment. We believe the KidsRoom is the first multi-person, fully-automated, interactive, narrative environment ever constructed using non-encumbering sensors. This paper describes the KidsRoom, the technology that makes it work, and the issues that were raised during the system's development. 1 1 A demonstration of the project, which complements the material presented here and includes videos, images, and sounds from each part of the story is available at .

Ambient intelligence: Technologies, applications, and opportunities

“…By automatically monitoring kids' interaction with blocks on a table surface, the Smart Table enables teachers to observe learning progress for children in the class. Children respond particularly well to such natural interfaces, as in the case of the KidsRoom at MIT [22]. The room immerses children in a fantasy adventure in which the kids must work together to explore the story.…”

Clover: Connecting technology and character education using personally-constructed animated vignettes

“…KidsRoom is a physical playroom that immerses children in an interactive adventure story [7]. Children interact with virtual characters and physical objects to become part of the story itself.…”

“…In particular, it is needed to help address the alarming rates of bullying and peer victimization that pervade K-12 schools [3]. Our work targets kids in upper elementary and middle school (grades [5][6][7][8] because they are at the most formative years of character development [36].…”

Designing Smart Environments: A Paradigm Based on Learning and Prediction

“…For example, the Aware Home [1,21], Adaptive House [26], and MavHome [9,32] use sensors to learn models of the inhabitants and automate activities accordingly. Other designs include smart offices, classrooms, kindergartens, tables, and cars [1,3,13,22,30]. Connected homes with device communications capability have become the focus of companies such as Philips, Cisco [5], Verizon, Sun, Ericsson, and Microsoft [4].…”