NFC-based pervasive learning service for children

Abstract

In this paper we present the design, development and implementation of the pervasive learning system for children. The required hardware is a Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phone with built-in accelerometer. Trainers (teachers or parents) describe the objects from the learning environment through their voice and associate this voice-based description to a specific object by using the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. They are able to sync their audio recordings, to share and re-associate with their own RFID tags (clone) audio recordings of other trainers through Google App Engine cloud environment. Children can later use the service to scan surrounding augmented objects and verbalize their identity and characteristics. The service allows the development of a variety of learning scenarios, such as getting started with the colors, letters and numbers, shape recognition, recognition of objects from learning environment, learning foreign languages, and many others. Interaction between children and objects from learning environment should be simple and intuitive. To meet this goal for invisible computing, we simulate human-human interaction than use well known human-computer interaction models. We use a tangible user interface (TUI) based on following interaction techniques: touch, gesture recognition, natural voice-based output. Preliminary results show that the service can be used easily by young children, thanks to its tangible interface that is simple, easy to use, useful, accessible and invisible to technology.