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BalanSAR - Using Spatial Augmented Reality to Train Children’s Balancing Skills in Physical Education Danica Mast 1,2
[email protected]
Michel Bosman 1,3
[email protected]
Sylvia Schipper 1,4
[email protected]
Sanne de Vries 1
[email protected]
The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Netherlands 1) Research Group Healthy Lifestyle in a Supporting Environment 2) Communication & Multimedia Design, User Experience Design - Faculty IT & Design 3) Physical Education & Motor Learning - Faculty Health, Nutrition & Sport 4) Industrial Design Engineering - Faculty Technology, Innovation & Society
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Abstract Balancing is one of the essential motor skills to adopt and maintain an active lifestyle in child- and adulthood. Visual perception plays an important role in learning balancing skills. Current balancing exercises, however, offer few opportunities for practicing visual perception. A technology we consider promising for Physical Education (PE) is Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR), the projection of (interactive) animations onto threedimensional surfaces. We present BalanSAR, a novel combination of SAR, existing PE balancing exercises and traditional PE gym equipment. By projecting animations onto the gym floor and existing equipment, visual perception in balancing exercises can be practiced more effectively. We propose a study to investigate the feasibility and the effect of using SAR on the efficiency and effectiveness of PE in terms of children’s motor skills and their motivation in PE and physical activity in general.
Author Keywords Physical education; balancing; motor skills; spatial augmented reality; projection mapping; exertion; motivation
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ACM Classification Keywords H.5.2 Information Interfaces and Presentation: User Interfaces - Miscellaneous. H.5.2 Information Interfaces and Presentation: User Interfaces—evaluation/methodology; interaction styles H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems: Artificial, augmented and virtual realities
Introduction In this project, existing knowledge about motor skills learning, visual perception, spatial augmented reality, exertion interfaces and gym equipment are linked to the wishes, needs and experiences of the current generation of children. Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) is applied to existing balancing exercises using traditional equipment, transforming it into a novel application: BalanSAR. By projecting (interactive) video images onto the gym floor and equipment in these exercises we can improve experience and stimulate visual perception and implicit learning. This technology offers the opportunity to stimulate the visual perception of children while balancing and hereby improving the motor skills learning process. For example, by projecting bubbles and fish swimming at various speeds along with the child during the exercise, the visual perception can be stimulated during the exercise, making the exercise more challenging and allows for different levels of difficulty. Applying (interactive) SAR, balancing exercises can automatically adapt to a child’s particular motor skill level and stimulate their imagination and preferred learning style. BalanSAR capitalizes on the needs of both PE teachers and children. Through interactive video projection and sensor technology it will become possible to:
• Improve balancing skills of children • Positively influence the motor learning process of children • Better differentiate and connect to the motor skill level of individual children • Address the self-regulation learning process of children • Letting children have control over their own learning process • Appeal to the experiences and imagination of children The purpose of our study is to investigate the feasibility and the effect of using spatial augmented reality on the efficiency and effectiveness of PE in terms of children’s balancing skills and their motivation in PE and physical activity in general.
Related Work Several related research areas were examined to gain necessary insight to develop and design BalanSAR. Healthy Lifestyle & Motor Skills The majority of children in the Netherlands don’t meet the 60-minute physical activity guideline [9] [22]. Children are also significantly less fit, have poorer motor skills and are heavier than 30 years ago [21]. The control of fundamental motor skills is associated with children’s physical activity level [2] [11] [15] [28]. There are also strong indications that there is a longitudinal relationship between mastery of fundamental motor skills at age six and physical activity at age 26 [1] [5] [10]. Children with good motor skills often have an active lifestyle, perform better cognitively and are less likely to be overweight and have falling accidents than children with poorer motor skills, both on the short and long term [1] [5] [10]. Practicing motor skills could lead to a healthier lifestyle on the long term.
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Balancing Fundamental motor skills can be divided into balancing, locomotive and manipulation skills. Balancing skills are conditional for the other two categories and the acquisition of more complex and context-specific motor skills [3]. Visual perception plays a crucial role in learning balancing skills. When a child balances, he will look at a fixed point (central observation), but from the corners of his eyes he will unconsciously register the moving environment (peripheral observation). Both sight and balancing affect each other in a cycle called the perception-action cycle [16]. PE teachers attempt to stimulate an active lifestyle. They do this (among other things) by focusing on motor skills development of children, a key objective of PE. During current PE lessons children often perform traditional balancing exercises; walking or doing exercises on floor lines, the bench (positioned normally, inverted or tilted against the wall rack) or on the beam. Fundamental balancing motor skills are practiced in this manner, but implicit ways to influence the visual perception are hardly taken into account. Technology & PE A national survey in 2013 shows PE teachers would like to gain more insight into children’s motor skills and methods that can help develop those skills [19]. Co-creation sessions conducted with children (part of the NRO-NWO project 'Co-design with kids’) show that children think of technological solutions when given design assignments to improve PE. Nevertheless, the gym space has hardly changed over the last decades., Even though technology has made its way into our daily lives and into the professional sports setting over the last few decades, within PE the use of technology is still very limited.
Exergames provide an interesting addition to PE that can motivate children into exercising. When taught within a learning framework, exergaming can help children to understand the effects of exercise and may motivate them to exercise and adopt a healthy lifestyle on the long term [8]. Furthermore, exergaming can improve balancing skills and exergames can be a practical tool in PE to improve postural stability of 9 and 10 year old children [24] [25]. Nintendo's Balance Board introduced balancing as a form of input for playing games. In WiiFit players can play multiple balancing games such as Hula Hoop, Snowboard Slalom, Tightrope Walk, Soccer Heading, etc. These games are nevertheless aimed at entertainment; motor learning is not a key objective. A technology that seems promising for enhancing physical education is Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR, also known as projection mapping) [12]. SAR can provide an extra motivation when applied to traditional exercises. Hanging off a bar [13] shows that a projected animation of a river and a raft on the floor can motivate people to hold on to the bar above the projection longer than without the animation.
Prototype BalanSAR consists of three balancing exercises that are frequently used in PE. A video of our prototypes can be found at: https://youtu.be/2bduhPHjWX4 Hardware A video projector projects (interactive) animations on various undergrounds (gym floor, bench, equipment). The video projector is placed at an angle in front of the setup to make sure as much floor space as possible can be projected upon with a minimum amount of shadowing.
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BENCH-BALANCING
(Figure 1) A traditional exercise where the bench is either put normally, upside down, at a vertical angle, partially or fully on a moving surface, to vary the difficulty of the exercise. BALANCING STONES Figure 1: Bench-Balancing
(Figure 2) A similar exercise to the previous one, but with balancing stones instead of a bench. This allows for different balancing skills. ROPE-SWINGING
(Figure 3) An exercise where two benches are used with swinging ropes in between. The goal of this exercise is to swing from one bench to the other.
Figure 2: Balancing Stones
Figure 3: Rope Swinging
Software We developed software in Processing that generates an animation of fishes and bubbles. This corresponds with the theme that is already being used in PE classes for these exercises (PE teachers tell the story that the bench is a bridge in a pond, surrounded by sea creatures). Variables that can be adjusted are the quantity, speed, size, direction and background color of the animated objects. The generated animation is streamed via Syphon so that it can be received by projection mapping software (MadMapper).
Proposed Study We will study usability, user experience, the short and long-term effects (on user experience, motivation, motor and balancing skills) by testing the exercises over a period with multiple classes in primary education with children aged 4 to 8 years old. These tests will result in iterations to refine BalanSAR and gain ideas for further application of SAR in PE.
Usability We will conduct usability tests to make BalanSAR fast and easy for PE teachers to use and intuitive for children to play. By conducting play tests, observation and interviews we will determine possible improvements User Experience User experience tests will give insight in the effect of SAR on the experience of children, making BalanSAR better targeted at their imagination and more motivating. By observing, video analysis and user experience testing methods such as the Smileyometer [18] [17] and FunSorter [20] [26] we will test both long and short-term user experience: • How do children experience BalanSAR when first encountered? • How do children experience BalanSAR on the long term? Measuring Balancing Skills By testing the prototype with children, we aim to gain insight into the impact of SAR on the motor skills learning process. We will measure how well the children can balance by performing measurements pre and post intervention. Balancing as a skill can be divided in static (standing) and active (moving) balancing [24]. Functional assessment of balancing skills can be done with tests such as the timed Up & Go test (TUG) [14] [27], Functional Reach Test [7] [6] and the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) [23]. For Quantitative (computerized) assessment, the Wii Balance Board has proven to be a valid inexpensive device [4]. We will have to examine the validity for using these instruments to measure children's balancing skills.
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Further Work Software Variables we consider adding to the software are: • Various thematizations o Canyons to address vertigo and possible fearfulemotions o Adding scary animals (crocodiles, sharks) to make the exercise more exciting for older children • Adding helping 'friends' or animals for emotional support and feedback • Giving children control of thematizations and level of difficulty Based on the results of user tests we will decide which additions will be made to the current software. Interaction By adding interaction to our prototype, we can make the exercises more challenging and improve the user experience. An interactive feature we are considering is to have the animation react to the user movements to adjust the level to the child’s skills, for example touching physical or projected objects while balancing like adding interactive fishing rods to catch fish. Gamification By turning some of the mentioned interactive features into games, having a goal and possibly keeping track of progress, we expect we can motivate children to keep practicing longer. We are planning to research the effects of gamification on user experience, motivation and learning effects in a future study. Realization We are working together with a gym equipment manufacturer/supplier and a company that provides technical projection solutions to work towards a production model that can be used in PE practice. When
realizing BalanSAR as a product we have to take into account the needs of PE teachers, schools and children. A technological product that can be used in a PE setting by PE teachers needs to be: • Easy to use (No complicated interface, no programming, no time-consuming setup) • Versatile (Usable for various age categories and various exercises) § Affordable (Schools have limited budgets, no expensive computers or hardware, preferable using equipment already owned by schools or available in the gym space) These needs were collected during a brainstorm session at the 2016 ‘from playing tag to tagging’-event (van tikken naar taggen) where we demonstrated our early prototypes to PE teachers.
Conclusion Balancing is an essential motor skill for a child’s ability to adopt an active lifestyle. Balancing is frequently practiced during PE, but the role of visual perception on this skill is rarely taken into account. BalanSAR creates an environment that interacts with the child, supporting the (motor skills) learning process. The current prototypes give us the opportunity to test if Spatial Augmented Reality is a useful addition to PE.
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