An Extended Reality Social-Emotional Development Companion Agent Framework and Parental Support for Children

Parenting is challenged by the pace of change in information technology, impacting child development and parent-child relationships. Children learn and grow in online environments and their development, perspectives and understanding of the world are impacted by multiple communities, which creates risks to safety, relationships and experiences. Supporting technologies will help bridge this gap, intervening with an extended reality and internet-of-things, Social Emotional Development Companion Agent Framework and Parental Support for Children is proposed. Objectives for this companion system: i) To design conceptual frameworks for exploring the parent-child needs based on the state of the art emerging technologies and deriving requirements for companion agent systems that support parents and children; and ii) To develop early prototype smart-home conversational frameworks with mixed reality interfaces as future companion systems, designed from ideation sprints with stakeholders. These will contribute to systems that support growth, development, and healthy parenting in a rapid technological environment.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alexis Morris;Nikki Martyn

Student:

Partner:

SZID Inc

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Ontario College of Art & Design University; University of Guelph

Program: