ACM IDC 2019 Design Contest Finalists ... The Future of Children's Future Well-Being

A graduate student design team led by Dr. Alissa Antle tackles escalating violence, inequality and marginalization in schools by envisioning a futuristic learning environment for children. The team’s 2019 design competition entry at ACM Interaction Design for Children involved a concept and research paper, three design fictions and video for children. EmotoTent is a holographic, interactive, socio-emotional, learning environment for primary school children. Children interact by re-imagining emotionally salient moments and practice self-regulation and empathy as they interact with each other and the holographic objects they’ve created from their emotions. A key player in EmotoTent is Nana, the AI-empathetic dog agent who coaches and monitors children’s well-being during gameplay. In the Adventure Game children find their way through the haunted forest by supporting each other to re-embody specific emotions that unlock new pathways, gain quest items and affect the actions of npc’s.