Project > Milestones

This project involves a number of challenging topics on which basic research will be conducted throughout the project period. However, our focus will be on the system as a whole. Thus, we intend to have a skeletal proactive computing system in operation in year 2 to allow work on its overall interaction. We will then 'grow' system sophistication by incorporating other modules, or more sophisticated modules, as they become available.

Year 1:

  • Videotape 6 children in Mindstorms tasks, analyze tapes to establish user and task state categories.
  • Develop scheme for training undergraduates in video-tape analysis procedures
  • Construct time-synchronized data acquisition system: 6 video cameras, voice input, eyetracking
  • Algorithms for tracking human states and the task activities. (Will continue throughout the grant period.)
  • Computer learning: study models for learning to map from human states to computer activity. (Will continue throughout grant period.)
Year 2:
  • Collect and analyze videotapes of 35 children; create labeled corpus for computer learning.
  • Employ computer learning methods to develop conditions for inferring appropriate computer actions.
  • Implement affective face and voice displays in proactive computer system.
  • Complete a skeletal proactive computing system.
Year 3:
  • Complete the initial proactive computing system for a simple Lego task, and begin evaluation with children.
  • Develop algorithms to classify beginning subjects by their learning styles as identified in analyses of base corpus; computer adapts to a child's personality based on this information.
Year 4:
  • Integrate more, and more robust, state detectors into the proactive computing system.
  • Enhance proactive computing system to work with Lego task involving programming.
  • Evaluate alternative methods of computer decision-making.
  • Evaluate success of personality detection and adapting to personality differences with students who are first beginning to use the system.
Year 5:
  • Complete a full implementation of the proactive computing system.
  • Evaluate the full system and its components in terms of its effects on student behavior and performance.

 
Copyright 2001 Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign