Interação multimodal adaptativa embarcada em robótica assistiva para comunicação com pessoas com deficiência

Abstract

People facing communication difficulties in their daily activities, because they have special needs to see or hear, are a significant portion of the Brazilian population. Robotic assistive techniques have been developed to support this public in certain activities, with good results being observed. However, assistive robotic devices available for communication are generally oriented to give heed to a specific audience and do not meet the needs of a mixed audience, composed of people with different needs. While there are versatile models in terms of input and output channels, the implementation of the resources in order to attend a wide range of needs is not seen. Given this context, this work proposes a model of Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction System, embedded in an assistive robot, able to adapt the set of interaction means for communication according to the type and degree of user needs, providing relevant information through appropriate channels according to each disability. The model also includes a set of features to obtain information from various sources and provide these results to users. The proposed approach emphasizes user management and adaptation of the use of interaction channels to their characteristics. A prototype with a set of services in the context of a university campus and capable of meeting the questions and needs of this environment was developed. The experiments with this prototype involved a group of 14 (fourteen) handicapped users and elicited positive attitudes towards usability aspects as ease of use, utility, comfort and efficiency.