TY - GEN
T1 - KidConnect VR
T2 - 21st ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC 2022
AU - Ho, My Linh
AU - Ratakonda, Dhanush Kumar
AU - Fails, Jerry Alan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Owner/Author.
PY - 2022/6/27
Y1 - 2022/6/27
N2 - Having a healthy social life is an important part of our mental health, especially when it comes to children. Kids need to feel a connection between the environments in which they both live and play. In the last two years, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives both personally and professionally. Because of the pandemic, meeting people in physical locations has been problematic. This situation has only amplified the need to foster connections. Technology plays a crucial role in helping children stay connected, however, we have found that children are more accepting of this when they are allowed to be able to take more active role in developing these platforms. Creating virtual environments, for example, has been shown to increase the interest of children in reaching out to their friends and family, and connecting with others across time zones, languages, and cultures. The children's Idea Booklet, from the 2022 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Research & Design Challenge identified significant interest in children using VR headset technology to connect with friends and family. Our research team, KidsTeam, built on these ideas to design KidConnect VR. KidConnect VR allows kids to connect with others via a virtual environment. This environment can be built to look like their surrounding area. In the virtual world, children can play, chat, and even study with friends.
AB - Having a healthy social life is an important part of our mental health, especially when it comes to children. Kids need to feel a connection between the environments in which they both live and play. In the last two years, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives both personally and professionally. Because of the pandemic, meeting people in physical locations has been problematic. This situation has only amplified the need to foster connections. Technology plays a crucial role in helping children stay connected, however, we have found that children are more accepting of this when they are allowed to be able to take more active role in developing these platforms. Creating virtual environments, for example, has been shown to increase the interest of children in reaching out to their friends and family, and connecting with others across time zones, languages, and cultures. The children's Idea Booklet, from the 2022 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Research & Design Challenge identified significant interest in children using VR headset technology to connect with friends and family. Our research team, KidsTeam, built on these ideas to design KidConnect VR. KidConnect VR allows kids to connect with others via a virtual environment. This environment can be built to look like their surrounding area. In the virtual world, children can play, chat, and even study with friends.
KW - Children
KW - Connected
KW - Participatory Design Sessions
KW - Robots
KW - Virtual Reality Technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134156101&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3501712.3536391
DO - 10.1145/3501712.3536391
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85134156101
T3 - Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2022
SP - 645
EP - 648
BT - Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2022
Y2 - 27 June 2022 through 30 June 2022
ER -
