AraBoard

AraBoard is an Open Source assistive Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) computer application, designed to support functional communication provided by using pictos (images and sounds). It is aimed to help users with difficulties for oral communication due to different disabilities: autism, aphasia, cerebral palsy, etc. Thanks to a very simple user interface, AraBoard can be used to quickly compose communication boards with simple routines or “in advance” activities to help users to know the different steps needed to accomplish a task. AraBoard supports boards sized from one cell to thirty two, in different combinations: 1 row X 2 columns, 2 rows X 2 columns, 3 rows X 4 columns, …, 4 rows X 8 columns. Araboard enables to create, edit, use and share them in different devices (desktop computer, Smartphone or Tablet), as well as in different Operative Systems; currently, Araboard runs in MS Windows and Android, and soon, in iOS (iPhone and iPad). AraBoard is composed of two complementary applications:

• Constructor: this applications is used to create and edit communication boards.
• Player: this application is used to play the previously created boards.

For more information: http://giga.cps.unizar.es/affectivelab/araboard.html (Spanish)

ACoTI

ACoTI is a software application designed to create and run computer interactive educative activities in the NIKVision tabletop device. This application supports the work of educators in their classrooms, by enabling them to create different computer supported learning activities integrating their own physical and digital educative materials, without computer programing skills. The process of creating games for the NIKVision tabletop using ACoTI is fast and easy. The games can be also adapted to context straight during the educative activity in the classroom.
In order to create a game, first, educators sign up each toy of physical piece involved in the game in ACoTI. With this data, ACoTI prints a especial marker to each toy to be glued to the base of the object, which with enable NIKVision to identify and track each toy when placed on the tabletop surface. Thanks to this technique, educators can reuse a maker with different educative materials, enabling activities to be played in different abstraction levels (toy, picto, word).
Next, educators compose the virtual environment of the game, by importing into ACoTI images, animations, videos and sounds, and arranging them is the stage that is showed in the tabletop surface. Next, educators defines different interactive areas where children can place toys, listing for each are which ones are rightly placed and which are wrong, linking feedback sounds and animations to each event.
Once the game has been created, it can be straight placed in NIKVision by the children.