NSF-Funded Student Design Projects:
Radio Frequency Technology for Manipulative Play Version 2.0
Designers: Jeffrey L. Morin and
Vamsi Ramakrishna Penmecha
Client Coordinator: Robert Erlandson,
Ph.D.
The Enabling Technologies Laboratory
Supervisor: Robert Erlandson, Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202
INTRODUCTION
One of the challenges in introducing new
technology into educational environments is that teachers, therapists,
and other support staff are usually unfamiliar with and reluctant to try
the new technology. A previous project created a prototype manipulative
play system based on Radio Frequency (RF) hardware with a Visual Basic
interface. Teachers and therapists who have played with this system had
fun and more importantly, observed how this technology can be expanded
and utilized to help all children develop mathematical skills through manipulative
play. The children who used the prototype system were immediately engaged.
Younger children were caught up in the dialogue and process while older
children wanted to know how it worked.
Testing of the prototype demonstrated the potential of using RF technology with manipulative play to teach students, including those with physical and cognitive disabilities, the concepts of relative size, color differentiation, and other skills. Laws such as IDEA 97 mandate more integration of general education and special education students and require that we develop educational materials and resources that enable diverse student populations to naturally participate in classroom activities. The RF Technology Manipulative Play System addresses this growing need.
Feedback from prototype testing indicated that the implemented activities were too simple to sustain interest. The technology allowed the selection of only one item at a time. Teachers indicated that the development of pattern recognition skills and sequencing skills requires more selections. The original RF tag technology would not support such patterned and sequenced activity. Furthermore, the RF tag manufacturer stopped making the RF tag product line. Fortunately, Microchip recently introduced an inexpensive anti-collision RF tag system. Version 2.0 of the RF Technology Manipulative Play System utilizes this new anti-collision technology to create a system that supports simple selection games as well as a host of pattern recognition and sequencing games.
SUMMARY OF IMPACT
By allowing our target audience—special
education teachers and staff—to see a practical application of RF technology,
they are more comfortable with it and are encouraged to brainstorm over
uses for the technology. In the case of our sample application, our audience
suggested several applications for using RF technology to aid their disabled
students. Version 2.0 of the RF Technology Manipulative Play System is
the result of the previous field testing.
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
Version 2.0 of the Manipulative Play System
uses Microchip 13.56MHz RF anti-collision tags and the associated reader/scanner.
The reader/scanner is connected to a PC via a RS 2323 serial line. Visual
Basic 5.0 is used for the control and user I/O software. To encourage manipulative
play, the interface is designed as a game with several options. The Version
2.0 prototype uses a collection of wooden blocks, cubes, rectangles, triangles,
and circles. The blocks are a variety of colors. An anti-collision
tag is embedded in each block and each tag has a unique code that is programmed
by the manufacturer. A game requires a player to respond to a verbal
or visual instruction from the computer by selecting a specified block
and placing the block on a stand. Figure 1 shows some of the blocks and
stand. Figure 2 shows a block and an RF tag. The stand contains an antenna
which is connected to the scanner/reader. Figure 3 shows the bottom of
the stand where the antenna and reader/scanner are mounted.
There are a variety of single selection game options. For example, the user is prompted to choose a specific color, choose a specific shape, choose the largest, smallest or middle sized cube, choose the largest, smallest or middle sized rectangle. Pattern game options include picking specific combinations of cube or rectangle sizes or colors. For example, select all the circles or select the largest cube and the smallest rectangle. Sequencing game options require an ordered selection process. For example, the user must pick the largest cube, the smallest rectangle, the purple circle, the red triangle, and the green cube. The pattern and sequencing game options can be made more or less difficult depending on the number of selections required of the user.
The RF tag’s anti-collision feature allows monitoring of multiple selections for the pattern and sequencing tasks. The Visual Basic program can monitor which blocks have been selected and in which order. The user can then be provided verbal feedback to support correct responses and notify the user of an error and the need to make a correction.
The cost of the microchip development kit
and RF tags is $1,079.00. The development system has been used for
three student design projects. The RF tags cost about $1.50 each and a
reader/scanner can be purchased for about $300.00.
Figure 1: Colored blocks and stand
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Figure 2: RF tag and opened block |
