MindHabits' Happy Games Paired with Pharrell William's "Happy" Music!

We all could use more smiling people and happy music!

If you are looking for a short burst of happiness, try playing the free MindHabits demo games. I recommend the Matrix Trainer for starters. You can uncheck the "email" box if you don't want to sign up for the newsletter.

The games have upbeat music playing in the background, but you can listen to your own music. In the Matrix game, the objective is to tap as many happy faces that you can find, out of a number of frowny or sad faces.   The research shows that this is an effective way of reducing stress.  I have used the on-line version for years with students who have autism, and it is a fun and effective way of "training" them to focus on facial features and expressions.

The desktop version of the suite of games is just under $20.00, and is available for Windows and Macs.   The desktop version tracks data and and allows users to customize the games with their own photos.   

I am about to explore MindHabit's new mobile apps: Psych Me Up PRO! and Happy Cat! 

If you work with young people - special needs or otherwise, try playing the on-line demo with Pharrell William's "Happy" song in the background (see music video embedded below). 

 This is something that wouldn't hurt to try at home!  

You are playing the MindHabits Trainer online demo. Your progress will not be logged beyond this session. Copyright © 2008 MindHabits inc. inc l rights Reserved.

Note: 
I am sharing information about MindHabits because I have been following this company since 2005, when Dr. Mark Baldwin, the lead creator of the suite of games, gave a presentation.   Dr. Baldwin is a psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has devoted his career to the study of social intelligence, and more recently, how technology can help people reduce stress, build self-confidence, and development, and maintain positive states of mind.



According to the MindHabits website, the Psych Me Up Pro!   ($.99) and PsychMeUp! (free) mobile apps were developed to help people focus attention on positive social feedback. A quiz is included with the application, as well as information about the research that supports the use of the games.  The "pro" version has more options.

The children's version of PsychMeUp! is Happy Cat.  The objective is to find the happy cats and ignore the grumpy cats.  The smiling cat will meow.

HOW MINDHABITS WORKS

RELATED

MindHabits Game Tips

MindHabits FAQ

MindHabits Update
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 2/24/08

McEwan, K., Gilbert, P., Dandeneau, S., Lipka, S., Maratos, F., Paterson, K.B., Baldwin, M. (2014) Facial Expressions Depicting Compassionate and Critical Emotions: The Development and Validation of a New Emotional Face Stimulus Set. PLOS One DOI: 10.1317/journal.pone.0088783

Dandeneau, S. D., Baldwin, M. W. (2009) The buffering effects of rejection-inhibiting training against social and performance threats in adult students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 42-50

Stephane D. Dandeneau, Mark W. Baldwin, Jodene R. Baccus, and Maya Sakellaropoulo, Jens C. Pruessner (2007), Cutting Stress Off at the Pass: Reducing Vigilance and Responsiveness to Social Threat by Manipulation of Attention (pdf) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2007, Vol. 93, No. 4, 651–666 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/07/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.651

Monkeying Around with Autism Assessments: Kinect-based game by Vectorform and Kaiser Permanente therapists offers a barrel of possibilities!

"The goal was to build a game that is extremely accessible, non-complex and includes simple mechanics that children with autism can quickly understand to retain their attention, prevent over-stimulation, encourage play, and prevent frustration." -Vectorform "Monkey Business" Team


I recently had the chance to visit the team at Vectorform's Royal Oak (MI) headquarters and experience a demo of one of their newest applications, a Kinect-based game developed to assist in the assessment of children with autism. The game, known as Monkey Business, was designed in collaboration with physical, occupational, and speech therapists from Kaiser Permanente, a large health care service provider in California. The project was supported by Kaiser Permanente's Innovation Fund for Technology group.

I was impressed!

As I watched the demo, it was clear that much time and attention was given to the input of the therapists at Kaiser Permanente. The avatar in the game is a friendly monkey who embodies the mannerisms of a friendly, curious child.  The artwork is visually appealing and not too busy. The sound effects relate to the interaction at hand and provide feedback to the child as they engage in various game-like tasks designed to assess visual-motor, gross motor, and basic receptive language skills.  Another good feature of this application is the simplicity of the screens designed for input of the child's information and viewing data regarding progress.

In my opinion, the Monkey Business assessment game has the potential for use in school settings, and would be enhanced if additional assessment activities are provided in the application.  Expanded activities within the Monkey Business environment could support a range of treatment, education, and related intervention efforts. In addition to supporting assessment and intervention of children with autism, the Monkey Business concept would be especially useful in working with children who have experienced a traumatic brain injury.


Below are screen shots and descriptions of a few activities from the Monkey Business game:

Lily Pad Jumping Test
In the jumping test, the child is asked to jump across a pond, from one lily pad to another.  The child is provided with a set of toy lily pads on the floor.  As the child jumps, the Kinect sensor picks up movement and displays the jumps on the screen in the form of the monkey.

Balance Beam Test
The following screen shot depicts the monkey avatar crossing a stream on a balance beam. The monkey's movements reflect the child's movements across a real balance beam in front of the Kinect sensor and a large screen display.

Block Building Test
In the block building test, the monkey avatar encourages the child to build a tower of blocks to match the one displayed on the large screen.  The child uses real blocks, placed on a table, to build a tower while the monkey provides encouragements.  Objects other than blocks can be used, as the Kinect sensor is capable of identifying a variety of objects that can be use for building and stacking.

Clinician Screens
The screens designed for inputting and reviewing data regarding the child are designed with simplicity and ease-of use in mind, as shown in the pictures below:

In the present version of Monkey Business, a TV remote is used to control the application. It is possible that future versions of Monkey Business could integrated with a Smartwatch to input student information and control the activities in the application.  


Comment: As a school psychologist who works with children, teens, and young adults with autism and other significant disabilities, I know how difficult it can be to conduct assessments using traditional test materials.  If a student has difficulty interacting with unfamiliar adults, has communication challenges, or has motor difficulties, it may not be possible to administer an assessment that generates meaningful or valid results.  Even if the student is capable of completing some of the traditional test tasks, much time and effort is required on the part of the evaluator to sustain their interest, effort, and attention.   

To get a better picture of a student's emerging skills, I use interactive multimedia applications during my assessments of children with autism.  Newer technologies such as interactive whiteboards, larger touch-screen monitors, and tablets have proven to be useful tools in assessment.   A significant drawback to my approach is that it is cobbled together and might be difficult to replicate by other evaluation teams.  I see a growing need for a range of technologically-enhanced tools for assessment, including applications that offer opportunities for playful engagement.  Monkey Business holds potential to fill the bill.

What next?

I'd like to share some stories about the people who make things come to life at Vectorform. During my visit, I learned that they are involved in a number of projects related to health care and are always brainstorming new ways to harness technology for their various clients.  

Over the past several years, I've followed Vectorform's journey as they've jumped off of the desktop and transformed from web-developers to Post-WIMP explorers of natural user interfaces and interaction.  The most recent area of exploration is Google Glass. 

Intrigued by Google Glass?  So am I.  

During my visit to Vectorform, I had a chance to see the world - or rather Vectorform's basement conference room - through Google Glass.  As soon as I put them on I was flooded with ideas, and will expand on my ideas, and those of others, in future posts.

In the meantime, take the time to read an excellent post by Kevin Foreman, Vectorform's Director of Product Vision.  In "The Glass Experience", Kevin provides an in-depth reflection of his experience wearing Google Glass throughout his daily routine.  He also explains the inner workings of the hardware, the strengths and limitations of the Glass system, details about the user interface, the "on-board" accessories, and a few comments about what it is like to be a new Glass-wearing celebrity.


RELATED
Here are just three of the innovators I met during my recent visit to Vectorform, left to right: Jennifer Tonio, Marketing Manager, Kevin Foreman, Director of Product Vision, and Patric Samona, Director of Health Solutions.

Below are a few links related to the use of games for the assessment and intervention of autism, along with links to information about the use of games and emerging technologies for rehabilitation, health care and health promotion:

Vectorform Partners with Kaiser Permanente to Assess Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Innovation  Patrick Samona, Vectorform Blog, 7/10/13


Kaiser talks up monkey game, talks down EMR integration Jonah Comstock, Mobihealth News, 7/9/13

Using Kinect and Happy Action Theater as therapy: how one school is reaching autistic children Ben Kuchera, The Penny Arcade Report, 11/19/12

Microsoft Kinect and Autism (SlideShare) Susan McCarthy, Little Angel's School 2/09/13

Hacking for autism: Apps to help everyone on the spectrum Donna Tam, CNET, 2/22/13

Italian Team Uses the Kinect to Treat Autistic Children Andrea Lorini, Epoch Times, 12/13/12

Microsoft Surface Multi-touch Application for Pediatric Neuropsychology Assessment (Featuring Vectorform) Lynn Marentette, TechPsych Blog, 8/26/09   

Video: http://vimeo.com/4141208

Microsoft Gaming Technology Helps Children with Cerebral Palsy eHealthNews, 8/16/12

Should We Integrate Video Games Into Home-Based Rehabilitation Therapies for Cerebral Palsy? Elaine Biddiss, Future Neurology, Medscape Today, 7/2012

Xbox One, Kinect 2.0 and the future of health technology Marcelo Calbucci, Mobihealth News, 5/26/13

Games for Health Website

Kinect: Interactive Multimedia Technology Posts

Accessible Games for Health and K-12 Education: Lessons from the Classroom (SlideShare) Lynn Marentette, 5/9/08, Games for Health Conference Presentation

Researchers: Microsoft Kinect is a Money-Saving Telemedicine Device Gabriel Perna, Healthcare Informatics, 2/15/13

Lowes, LP., Alfano LN, Yetter BA, Worthen-CHaudhari, L, Hinchman W, Samona P, Flanigan KM, Mendell JR Proof of Concept of the Ability of the Kinect to Quantify Upper Extremity Function in Dystrophinopathy

PLoS Curr. 2013 Mar 14; 5   doi:  10.1371/currents.md.9ab5d872bbb944c6035c9f9bfd314ee2

Interactive Displays and "Billboards" in Public Spaces; Pervasive Displays 2013

The 2013 International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (PerDis 2013), recently convened  in Mountain View, California.  Since I couldn't attend this conference, I was happy to learn from Albrecht Schmidt that the conference proceedings were recently uploaded to the ACM Digital library.  There are many exciting things going on in this interdisciplinary field!

Researchers involved with the Instant Places project, described in the video below, presented their work at PerDis 2013. The Instant Places project was part of PD-Net, a series of research efforts exploring the future of pervasive display networks in Europe. (See the "Related" section for additional references and links.)


Instant Places: Tools and Practices for Situated Publication in Display Networks

Below is information from the Instant Places video and website:
"The video describes a novel screen media system that explores new practices for individual publication and identity projection in public digital displays." 

"Instant Places has been developed by the Ubicomp group of the Information Systems Department, at the University of Minho, and has been funded within the scope of pd-net: Towards Future Pervasive Display Networks, by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 244011."

Saul Greenberg was the keynote speaker at PerDis 2013.  His keynote, "Proxemic Interactions: Displays and Devices that Respond to Social Distance", highlights how far off-the-desktop our digital/physical lives have become, and how this has influenced recent research in human-computer interaction. Saul is a professor at the University of Calgary and leads research in Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and Ubiquitous Computing.

Although the video of Saul Greenberg's presentation below is not from PerDis 2013, it touches on the same topics and is worth taking an hour to watch.  In this video, Greenberg presents an overview of the history of human-computer interaction. He also offers up a discussion how an understanding social theory, perception of spatial relationships, and embodied interaction can be applied to the design of natural user interfaces and interactive systems.  Useful examples of interaction design explorations, within an ecological context, are provided later in the video.

Proxemic Interactions: the New Ubicomp?

RELATED

My Backstory

Regular readers of this blog know that to subject interactive displays in public spaces holds my interest. When I was taking computer courses during the mid 2000s, I focused some of my energy on projects designed for large interactive displays, inspired by reading articles like "Physically Large Displays Improve Performance on Spatial Tasks" (Desney S. Tan, Darren Gergle, Peter Scupelli, and Randy Pausch) and "Dynamo: public interactive surface supporting the cooperative sharing and exchange of media" (Shahram Izadi, Harry Brignull, Tom Rodden, Yvonne Rogers, Mia Underwood).  

Jeff Han's 2006 TED talk was another inspiration. I remember my excitement as watched his demonstration of an interactive multi-touch touch screen the size of a drafting board, before the iPhone/iPad was born.  Another inspiration was Hans Rosling's TED Talk  about health statistics, with his animated interactive data visualizations presented on a huge screen.

The following year, I stumbled upon the  NUI-Group while searching for information about multi-touch displays, and was inspired by many of the early members of the group.  I also became acquainted with a world-wide network of people who share similar interests, such as Albrecht Schmidt and his team of researchers at the Unversity of Stuttgart. This busy group recently presented at PerDis 2013 and at CHI 2013 and are involved in a wider range of ongoing projects.

INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS

Alt, F. Sahami, A., Kubitza, T., Schmidt, A.  Interaction Techniques for Creating and Exchanging Content with Public Displays. In: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 

Hinrichs, U., Carependale, S., Valkanova, N., Kulkkaniemi, K., Jacucci, G., Moer, A.V., Interactive Public Displays   Computer Graphics, Vol. 33(2) IEEE Computer Society (25-27)

The International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (PerDis 2013)

PerDis 2013 Program
Sample Papers:
Otero, N., Muller, M., Alissandrakis, A., and Milrad, M. Exploring video-based interactions around digital public displays to foster curiosity about science in the schools. PerDis 2013 (pdf)
Alt, F., Schneegass, S., Girgis, M., Schmidt, A. Cognitive Effects of Interactive Public Display Applications. Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays. 2013
Langeinrich, M., Schmidt, A., Davies, N., and Jose, R.  A practical framework for ethics: the 

Note:  Members of ACM have access to all of the proceedings of PerDis2013 in the ACM Digital Library. Non-members have access to the abstracts.

PD-NET

PD-net approach to supporting ethics compliance in public display studies. Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays. 139-143
PD-Net 
PD-NET Publications - a great reference list, with links to many papers
Reading List on Pervasive Public Displays
About Instant Places
About the Living Lab for Screens Set

DOOH-DIGITAL OUT-OF-HOME

Digital Out of Home (DOOH): Screens Large and Small at the Mall (and some touch-screen Coke machines!) Interactive Multimedia Technology, 1/1/10

Daily Digital Out of Home post "Billboards That Look Back" : Could miniature cameras embedded in ads lead to Big Brother at the mall? The World Is My Interactive Interface, 5/28/08
J. Müller et al., "Looking Glass: A Field Study on Noticing Interactivity on a Shop Window," Proc. 2012 SIGCHI Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 12), ACM, 2012, pp. 297–306
Michelis, D., Meckel, M. Why Do We Want to Interact With Electronic Billboards in Public Space?  First Workshop on Pervasive Advertising, Pervasive 2009, 5/11/09
The Rage of Interactive Billboards
The Print Innovator, 11/28/12
10 Brilliant Interactive Billboards (Videos)
Amy-Mae Elliot, Mashable, 8/21/11

SOME INTERESTING EARLIER WORK

Jeff Han's 2006 TED Talk (This is worth revisiting, as it came out before the iPhone, iPad, etc.)

Tan, D.S., Gergle, D, Scupelli, P., Pauch, R. Physically large displays improve performance on spatial tasks. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, V13(1) 2006 (71-99)

Revisiting promising projects: Dynamo an application for sharing information on large interactive displays in public spaces (blog post)
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 09/16/07

Brignull, H., Izadi, S., Fitzpatrick, G., Rogers, Y., Rodden,  T. The introduction of a shared interactive surface into a communal space. Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW'04), Chicago, ACM Press, 2004 (pdf)

Izadi, S., Brignull, H., Rodden, T., Rogers, Y. and Underwood,M. Dynamo: public interactive surface supporting the cooperative sharing and exchange of media. In Proc. User

Interfaces and Software Technologies (UIST’03), Vancouver, ACM Press, 2003, 159-168. (pdf)

Proxemics (Wikipedia)

Why Do We Want to Interact With Electronic Billboards in Public Space? 

WHY DO WE WANT TO INTERACT WITH ELECTRONIC BILLBOARDS IN PUBLIC SPACE? from danielmichelis

What happens when a 2-year old wakes up to the sound of the Google Map Lady? "I CAN'T turn left right now!"

Google Map Lady says, "Turn Left", toddler yells from the back seat, "I CAN'T..."

If you are new to this blog, you might not know that I'm the grandmother of a 2-year-old little boy.  Watching him grow in an increasingly technology-enriched world has been an eye-opener at times, from his first interaction with my iPad, fingers-and-toes at 7 months of age, to his attempts at rafting down a digital river, playing the Kinect Adventure! River Rush game. 

Technology is rapidly changing how we learn, interact, and navigate our world.  Designers, developers, and others who are involved in the process of creating for the near future must be mindful of the ways newer technologies might play out in the real world, where the "user" is not always the person intended for the "user experience".  Off-the-desktop technologies are rapidly advancing, and impact people of all ages, wherever they happen to be.

Today's story is just one example.

I'm fortunate to live about a 35 minute drive from my grandson, and for this reason, I sometimes take him out and about, especially when his parents have a lot of errands to run.

After a nice lunch at Amelie's French Bakery  near the NoDa neighborhood (Charlotte, NC),  and exploring the floor murals in the little mall behind the bakery, I told my grandson that we were going to the "Big Park" (Freedom Park). 

He was so excited, but within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

I drove up towards the airport to kill time, thinking that he'd wake up and we'd watch the planes. He was still sleeping.  Now what?

I opened up Google Maps on my cell phone to get directions from the airport to the Carolina Raptor Center at Latta Plantation Park, since I wasn't sure how to get there from the airport.

About 15 minutes later, as the Google Map Lady gave directions, Levi woke up, saying "What's that sound? A lady's voice?". The Google Map Lady spoke again, and said something like, "In 1000 feet, take a left turn." 

Levi replied empathically, "I CAN'T turn left right now!". Google Map Lady responded with the next direction, and Levi replied, "I CAN'T do that!". 

The little guy was visibly upset, because he thought the lady was telling him what to do. It was obvious to him that he could not comply with her request.

What to do?   How do I explain the "Google Map Lady" this to a 2-year old? 

This is how I handled the situation:

I told him that the lady's voice was to help me know where turn so I could drive to the raptor center.  I kindly told him that the directions were just for me, not little boys who can't turn the car because they are in car seats and can't drive. He nodded and said, with relief, "Lady's voice for Mi-Mi, NOT for little boys", and was fine after that.

Note:
Although I did not know it at the time, my grandson had somehow wriggled out of the left harness of his car seat. I discovered the problem as I went to unfasten him from the car seat, and wondered how long he'd not been secured safely.  It hadn't occurred to me that this would happen - everything was in place at the beginning of our ride, as you can see from the first picture.  

As I lifted my grandson out of the car seat, it crossed my mind that it would be a good idea if car seats came with sensors to let the driver know if the car seat straps, snaps, or buckles became unsecured. (Systems like Forget Me Not provide a warning system to parents if the child is forgotten in the car.)

After conducting a quick search, I found that Sherine Elizabeth Thomas has applied for a patent that includes the use of a sensor to alert the adult that a child has unbuckled their seat belt.  I think that a system could be developed to provide an alert if the child was not safely secured, as in the case of my wiggly grandson.  

RELATED AND SOMEWHAT RELATED

Technology for Today's Family (CHI Workshop)

Forget Me Not Wireless Child Tether 

(Self-activating, self-aware digital wireless safety system)

Forget-Me-Not Car Safety Website

How Getting Married and Having Kids Made Me a Better Programmer

John Polaceck, 3/24/13

Grandma Got STEM blog (More info to come on this topic!)