Speaker: Cecilia Sikne Lanyi (University of Veszprém, Hungary)
The multimedia and virtual reality projects of our Laboratory during last ten years can be summarized as follows:
Tutorial and entertainment programs for handicapped children
Rehabilitation programs for stroke patients and persons with phobias
We have developed multimedia software for handicapped children having different impairments: partial-vision, hearing difficulties, loco-motive difficulties, mental retardation, dyslexia, etc. We show the advantages of multimedia software to develop handicapped children.
What are the advantages of multimedia software to develop handicapped children's skills?
It is an audiovisual medium
It is interactive
The treatment or situation can be reproduced, the same condition can be repeated several times.
The display presentation can be set according to the visus. The size, form, contrast, colour, size of line width, etc. of the objects and the background can be selected for best suiting the patient.
It can be adjusted to the individual needs.
Multimedia systems have an effect on more then one sense, and can be more effective.
It can help creativity, it can be varied.
It is like a game: (the child does not find the exercise as penitence, he/she likes it.
The child feels the success.
One can use motivating audio feed-back.
It can be used both in individual and small-group therapy.
Also the parent can use it with success.
Most important is that the child should get interested and his/her interest is kept for long periods of time. This is not an easy task, but multimedia presentations are very effective in this respect too.
One can include in "games" into the multimedia programs.We show the special needs of the handicapped children that have to be considered when developing multimedia software.
What are the user interface design questions in developing multimedia software for handicapped children?
To draw the picture with thick contour lines for low vision -,
Give short sentences for mentally handicapped -,
Design the navigation tools for children with loco-motive difficulties.
The hearing impaired children want the sounds too.
Rehabilitation programs for stroke patients and persons with phobias.
We developed a computer controlled method which enables - as a difference to methods used internationally - not only the establishment of the diagnosis, but permits measurement of the effectiveness of the therapy. It allows
To produce a database of the patients that contains not only their personal data but also the results of the tests, their drawings and audio recordings.
It is an intensive therapeutic test and contains tutorial programs. Now we are collecting the test results in this project. We developed some virtual worlds for treating phobias: virtual balcony, a ten-storied building with an external glass elevator and an internal glass elevator in the virtual Attrium Hyatt hotel. We developed virtual environment for claustrophobia too: a closed lift and a room, where the wall can be moved. For specific phobias (fear of travelling) we modelled the underground travelling in Budapest. For the education we developed virtual shopping software for autistic children too. I show the advantages of Virtual Reality in the investigation, evaluation and therapy of perception, behaviour and neuropsychological studies.