Gather Ring

Gather Ring: measuring and promoting social inclusion on the playground
 
Team Members: Jordan Arnesen, Justin Sampson, Ben Sun, Christopher Fan
 
Our project is a bracelet designed to monitor and enhance adolescent social development through capturing data during the recess of elementary schools. Every student would be given a device that is unique to them so that it can measure data over time. While the students are at recess our device tracks certain behaviors, gestures, and locations to infers kinds of cooperative play and activities that the children are engaged in. One key aspect of our project is to incentivize inclusion among students. As students exhibit desired behaviors a visible peripheral indicator in the classroom, the “Pizza-O-Meter,” fills up with points they earn, and when full the class receives a reward - a pizza party in our example.
 
To do this we utilize several sensors that send information back to a server to be analyzed. A near field communication (NFC) device would be used to determine where a student is relative to other location points as well as relative to other students. The bracelet would glow, using LEDs and diffusors, growing more intense as more students are in each other’s broadcast vicinity and engaged in cooperative activities. Additionally there are non-diffused LEDs on the bracelet that assist students in the formation of teams at the beginning of a game as well as to communicate with the student-user. Motion and force sensors would then be used to track gestures that suggest inclusion of latecomers to any game, and general social inclusion, such as high-fiving or first bumping.

Finally after the inputs are collected, statistical analysis of the information would allow the bracelet to put out specific daily challenges that promote variety and inclusion for students to complete. Completing these challenges give a boost to points earned towards filling up the “Pizza-O-Meter.” With the help of this bracelet the teacher would have the ability to be more aware of the social dynamic and development by monitoring who is playing with each other and what activity they are playing in the schoolyard.