Multimodal Ecological Technology: From Child’s Social Behavior Assessment to Child-Robot Interaction Improvement

摘要

The development of sensorimotor coordination in infancy is fundamental for regulating interactional dynamics with peers and adults. In this work we present a multimodal device to systematically assess children’s orienting behavior in social situations. Technological choices are emphasized with respect to ecological requirements. Also ad-hoc calibration procedures are presented which are suitable to unstructured environments. Preliminary tests carried out at a local daycare with 12–36 months old typically developing infants prove the in-field usability of the proposed technology. Considerations on the future development of the device underscore the meaningful contribution that such platform can offer to child-robot interaction research.