EAGER: The LIT ROOM - A Networked Suite of Architectural-Robotic Artifacts Embedded in the Library for Advancing Literacy in Children

为了培养读写能力，美国的公共图书馆采用了数字技术，主要是在图书馆工作人员的支持下，以加载软件的公共访问计算机的形式。 但是，与“键盘-鼠标-屏幕”的互动可能无法提供与印刷页面互动的即时性，而且这两种互动形式都远离幼儿成长的物理、有形和社会世界。 PI认为，识字可以在一个既物理又数字的空间中培养，并唤起正在阅读的书籍。 为此，在这个项目中，PI将探索LIT ROOM，这是一个房间级的识字支持工具，由一套新颖的用户友好的、网络化的、嵌入图书馆日常物理空间的“建筑机器人”工件组成。 这种物理数字环境被年轻游客阅读的文字所改变，因此图书馆的日常空间与书的想象空间“融合”;书变成了房间，房间变成了书。 如果LIT ROOM的智能重新配置与年轻读者想象的空间不匹配，他们可以通过有形的界面“微调”房间。 这项工作将分两个阶段进行。 首先，PI将要求孩子们决定什么是一个引人注目的照明室。 他将向4-8岁的孩子们展示图书馆空间内的低保真度“建筑机器人”文物，以帮助捕捉孩子们如何定义和使用这个数字物理套件来“创造书籍”。“然后，他将反复开发和评估套件作为一个充分的工作环境，体现了从以儿童为中心的参与式设计过程中学到的东西。 试验台的实施将设在南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚的里奇兰县公共图书馆，这是该州最大的公共图书馆，该州的科技指数最低，文盲和生活在贫困线以下的人数最多。 为了应对这一挑战，该跨学科团队包括两名在连续体和建筑机器人以及扫盲教育方面具有互补专业知识的研究人员。更广泛的影响：由于原型实施将位于现实世界的公共空间，因此将有大量的观众。 项目成果还将推动机器人系统在现实环境和应用中的起步，使用传感/致动和可变形连续表面的混合。 研究结果将通过研究和提供关于有形环境技术在促进儿童识字方面的功效的实验数据，进一步增进对识字的认识和理解。

In an effort to cultivate literacy skills in the United States the nation's public libraries have embraced digital technologies, mostly in the form of public-access computers loaded with software, supported by library staff. But interacting with a "keyboard-mouse-screen" may not offer the immediacy of interacting with the printed page, and both forms of interaction are far removed from the physical, tangible and social world in which young children thrive. The PI argues that literacy can be cultivated in a space that is at once physical and digital and evocative of the book being read. To this end, in this project the PI will explore the LIT ROOM, a literacy support tool at room-scale that consists of a novel suite of user-friendly, networked, "architectural-robotic" artifacts embedded in the everyday physical space of the library. This physical-digital environment is transformed by words read by its young visitors, so that the everyday space of the library "merges" with the imaginary space of the book; the book becomes the room, the room becomes the book. And should the LIT ROOM's intelligent reconfigurations not match the imagined spaces of young readers, they can "fine-tune" the room through tangible interfaces. The work will proceed in two phases. First, the PI will ask children to decide what makes for a compelling LIT ROOM. He will present to children, ages 4-8, low-fidelity "architectural-robotic" artifacts within a library space to help capture how children define and employ this digital-physical suite to "create the book." Then, he will iteratively develop and evaluate the suite as a fully-working environment that embodies what was learned from the child-centered participatory design process. The test bed implementation will be situated in the Richland County Public Library of Columbia, South Carolina, the largest public library in a state that ranks among the lowest in the State Technology and Science Index and the highest in numbers of people who are both illiterate and living below the poverty line. To tackle this challenge, the interdisciplinary team includes two investigators with complementary expertise in continuum and architectural robotics, and literacy education.Broader Impacts: Because the prototype implementation will be located in a real-world public space it will have exposure to a large audience. Project outcomes will also advance the start-of-the-art of robotic systems for a real-world environment and application, using a mix of sensing/actuating and deformable continuum surfaces. The findings will further advance knowledge and understanding in literacy by studying and providing experimental data on the efficacy of tangible environmental technologies in promoting literacy in children.