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Virtual Playroom Enhances Learning and Entertainment

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 12-08-10 | Comments

A new virtual playroom being developed by MIT researchers combines robotics, virtual reality and other technologies to improve learning and get children moving around.

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Virtual Playroom Enhances Learning and Entertainment
Despite their sophistication, most forms of educational children's media�from television shows to audio recordings to computer games�require children to sit still, usually for long periods of time. A new, interactive system being designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory applies virtual reality to playtime, allowing children to move around while they learn and develop life skills.

Called Playtime Computing, the system combines several technologies to improve learning and attention levels. Three tall panels display a virtual world, which a set of ceiling-mounted projectors also cast onto the floor to create a 3D space. A cube-shaped, remote-controlled robot�called the Alphabot�emits infrared signals that are detected by cameras on the ceiling.

The Alphabot robot lets children choose from a large array of symbols and shapes (source: David Robert/MIT).

The different components are designed to blur the boundary between virtual and real. For example, when the Alphabot nears the panels, it camouflages its real shape into the scenery while a virtual version appears to continue moving within the virtual landscape.

"We kind of see it as one reality," says Adam Setapen, a graduate student at MIT who helped design the system, according to a release.

"One of the things we're really excited about is having two of these spaces, one here and maybe one in Japan, and when the robot goes into the virtual world here, it comes out of the virtual world in Japan. So that kind of fits in with that one-reality concept, that there's one robot, and whether it's physical or virtual is based on the state of the robot in the Playtime Computing system."

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