At the ZEP Rehabilitation Centre in Chinchwad, near Pune, Children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Attention Deficit, HyperActive Disorder, Learning Disability and other associated conditions find a space to grow, with the therapy they need to help them live fulfilling lives.
Now, this therapy takes a technological leap forward with Immersive Large Scale Augmented Reality.
In a Pilot Project, this technology is being used to help the children learn how to cross a road safely, watching for vehicles, recognizing their sounds, learning how traffic signals work, and understanding what various Traffic Signs mean.
Three precisely angled projection surfaces, and three projectors beaming carefully calculated scene imagery on them make up the Immersion Room, creating the illusion of being present at an intersection in traffic, and yet, visually removed enough from reality to be non-threatening and friendly.
A camera captures the child undergoing the learning exercise, and includes the child in the scene when appropriate, completing the immersion in the child’s mind, and providing a visual language to communicate with children whole ability to communicate verbally might be restricted.
Within a short while since the deployment of this technology, ZEP has seen a sharp uptick in both the receptivity of the children to the therapy as well as the speed with which they learn and adopt new behaviours, beginning with the safe crossing of roads, and moving on, in future, to all sorts of everyday challenges that these children will face in their lives.
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