Development and evaluation of a gesture controlled modular construction kit for STEM education

Jasjeet Singh Seehra, Purdue University

Abstract

The combination of technological progress and a growing interest in design has promoted the prevalence of DIY (Do It Yourself) and craft activities. In a similar spirit, this thesis introduces a gesture controlled modular construction kit (HandiMate), a platform that makes it easier to fabricate and animate electro-mechanical systems from everyday objects like cardboard, spoons, pans, etc. without technical expertise. The goal is to encourage creativity and expressiveness through play. In the kit developed, the animated objects are created using everyday materials like spoons, cardboard, milk cartons, etc which are coupled with joint modules using velcro. The joint modules designed are equipped with a micro-controller, actuator, wireless communication and battery, making them physically and computationally complete and extensible. A tablet application helps the user to configure the object once they have built it. The object is animated intuitively using hand gestures through a glove based input device. The glove is integrated with flex and inertial sensors that read signals to understand the pose of the hand. The user can thus assemble their hand crafted creations with our designed joint modules using velcro and animate them via gestures. To test this construction kit we performed studies in the form of a workshop with adults and kids. This demonstrated high level of usability (system usability score - 79.9), emergence of creative ideas and realization of these ideas in a constructive and iterative manner in less than 90 minutes. This thesis work describes the design goals, framework developed, interaction methods, sample creations and evaluations of our framework.

Degree

M.S.M.E.

Advisors

Ramani, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Education|Mechanical engineering|Robotics

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