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New Trends in Medical and Service Robots pp 205–215Cite as

Give Children Toys Robots to Educate and/or NeuroReeducate: The Example of PEKOPPA

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Part of the book series: Mechanisms and Machine Science ((Mechan. Machine Science,volume 38))

Abstract

Using an InterActor toy robot named PEKOPPA in a “speaker-listener” situation, we have compared the verbal and the emotional expressions of neurotypical and autistic children aged 6–7 years. The speaker was always a child (neurotypical or autistic); the listener was a human or the toy robot which reacts to speech expression by nodding only. The results appear to indicate that minimalistic artificial environments could be considered as the root of neuronal organization and reorganization with the potential to improve brain activity. They would support the embrainment of cognitive verbal and nonverbal emotional information processing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Heart rate is measured in beat per minute (bpm) using a frequency counter ring placed on the index finger of each child. The experiment noted the HR of each child every 5 s. The physiological heart rate limits correspond to 95 bpm (±30) at the age of 6–7 years.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the participants and their parents, The Major, the Pedagogical Inspector, the Director and the team of the principal elementary school of the first district of Paris, the National Department of Education and Research. The research is supported by the Franco-Japanese Foundation of Paris.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IHU-a-ICM Prisme-Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France

    I. Giannopulu

  2. Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Japan

    T. Watanabe

Authors
  1. I. Giannopulu
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  2. T. Watanabe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to I. Giannopulu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LSRO—Robotic Systems Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Hannes Bleuler

  2. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Mohamed Bouri

  3. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Francesco Mondada

  4. Research Center for Industrial Robots, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Doina Pisla

  5. Robotics Laboratory, Mihailo Pupin Institute, Belgrade, Serbia

    Aleksandar Rodic

  6. Force Dimension, Nyon, Switzerland

    Patrick Helmer

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Giannopulu, I., Watanabe, T. (2016). Give Children Toys Robots to Educate and/or NeuroReeducate: The Example of PEKOPPA. In: Bleuler, H., Bouri, M., Mondada, F., Pisla, D., Rodic, A., Helmer, P. (eds) New Trends in Medical and Service Robots. Mechanisms and Machine Science, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23832-6_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23832-6_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23831-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23832-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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