European Projects
· Metaverse1
InventiaPlus participates in the METAVERSE1 project, directed in Spain by the Innovalia Association and in Europe by Philips Research.
The Metaverse1 project is an ITEA2 project:
ITEA2 is an investigation and development programme geared towards the industry made up of members of this industry, universities and investigation institutes in strategic projects.
The Metaverse1 project will provide a standard global framework that will offer inter-operations between virtual worlds (such as Second Life, World of Warcraft, IMVU, Active Worlds, Google Earth y many more) and the real world (sensor, monitors, vision and representation, social system and well being, banks, insurance, travel, real estates and many more).
· Neurona
InventiaPlus is a participating partner in the European Neurona Project. It has been financed by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade which forms part of the National Scientific Investigation Plan, technological development and innovation 2008-2011 and the Regional Development Fund FEDER, under the name of "Interconnection of open infrastructures to validate the latest generation of convergent mobile services".
· Kinder
El enfoque actual que se le da al aprendizaje consiste en alumnos yendo al centro de estudios a recibir la formación. En este contexto, existe una problemática asociada a los alumnos que por diversas causas no pueden acudir al centro, ya sea por enfermedad, por trabajo o por otras causas. Dando por supuesto que estos alumnos que pierden la clase pueden acceder al contenido de la materia posteriormente, pierden la explicación del profesor, las diferentes dudas que surjan y, en definitiva, una parte importante del contenido educativo. Sabido es que existe una gran diferencia entre los contenidos estudiados directamente de un libro y los aprendidos desde un profesor que se apoye en esos libros.
Dentro de esta problemática, cabe destacar un sector que resulta afectado en gran medida: los niños que tienen que pasar largas temporadas en hospitales por razones médicas. Estos niños, debido a que no pueden acudir al colegio de forma normal, sufren un retraso académico que repercute en gran medida en su futuro progreso educativo. Por ello, a lo largo de los últimos años se han desarrollado varias soluciones que ayudan al alumno a disminuir ese retraso académico. Una de estas soluciones son las Aulas Hospitalarias, que ayudan al alumno a seguir estudiando asistiendo a clases impartidas por profesores en el Hospital. El mayor inconveniente de esta solución es que los niños deben aún desplazarse al aula hospitalaria y existen casos en los que esto no es posible, dadas las restricciones de movilidad de ciertos alumnos.
En el proyecto KINDER se pretende desarrollar una plataforma que permita a los niños hospitalizados asistir a clase de forma virtual, representándose a sí mismos con un avatar personalizado y pudiendo contemplar el aula de clase, sus compañeros y profesores, virtualmente. De este modo, el alumno se SIENTE como si estuviera en la propia clase, de forma que se consigue que la interacción del alumno con la plataforma (y, por lo tanto, con el profesor y sus compañeros) se realice de forma más cercana y personalizada, con la componente de integración social que eso supone: el niño no está físicamente en la clase, pero sabe que está formando parte de ella.
Además, este Aula Virtual permitirá que el alumno refuerce su formación con actividades escolares adicionales y pueda acceder a otras actividades más dirigidas al ocio en un Patio de Recreo Virtual. Todo esto se llevará a cabo haciendo uso de tecnologías innovadoras, vídeo streaming, contenidos reales, etc.
The current focus that is given to learning is about students going to a centre to receive their education. There is a problem associated with students that can not go to those centers’ for different reasons, whether it be health, work or other issues. The students that lose these classes can access the subject matter at a later date, yet they lose the teachers explanation, as well as different doubts that arise and in fact an important part of the study content. As everyone knows there is a big difference between the content studied from a book and what is learnt from a teacher that uses those books as a basis.
Within this problem there it is important to mention a sector that is affected significantly: children that have to spend long periods in hospitals. Due to the fact that these children can not attend school in a normal way, they suffer an academic set back that has repercussions in their educational progress in the future. This is the reason that for the last years different solutions have been developed that can help a student reduce that academic set back. One of these solutions is Hospital Classrooms that help students continue their studies by attending classes given by teachers in the hospital. The biggest inconvenience of this solution is that the students have to still make it to the classroom and in the case of students that are physically handicapped, this option is not viable.
In the KINDER Project, the idea is to develop a platform that allows hospitalized children attend class in a virtual scenario, representing themselves through a personalised avatar and where they can see their own classroom, their class mates and teachers in virtual reality. This way the student FEELS as if they were in the classroom itself. This provides the student with a means to interact with the platform and therefore with teachers and class mates in a closer and personalised way. There is also an element of social integration, which means that although the student is not physically in the classroom, he/she feels they form part of it.
In addition this virtual classroom gives the student the opportunity to reinforce their education with additional school activities and can also participate in other activities geared towards entertainment through a virtual playground. All this can be done using innovative technologies, video streaming, real contents, etc.
InventiaPlus has participated in parts of the project such as analysis, design and development.
