José Antonio Borges

RoboFácil: Especificação e Implementação de um Kit de Robótica para a Realidade Educacional Brasileira

Este artigo apresenta as tecnologias associadas a um kit de robotica de baixo custo com fins educacionais desenvolvido com o intuito de promover um maior acesso a esse tipo de recurso didatico nas escolas brasileiras. Para alcancarmos esse objetivo, primeiramente realizamos estudos comparativos entre os diferentes kits comercializados no mercado, focados nos custos e nos recursos de hardware e software desses produtos. Baseado nesse levantamento, que nos proporcionou um maior entendimento das necessidades de projeto e do seu aproveitamento em sala de aula, chegamos a especificacao e a implementacao de hardware e de software do kit de robotica educacional denominado RoboFacil.

Teaching Music to Blind Children: New Strategies for Teaching through Interactive Use of Musibraille Software☆

Abstract This paper presents a methodology for teaching music to blind children, based on the interaction with the Musibraille software, to which specific functions were added so it can support the activities of basic music education. The main activities and related functions are described and illustrated. Some essential project characteristics are also quickly shown, especially to explain the big changes it has produced in the role of Braille Music and in the music education of blind people in Brazil.

New Solutions for Old Problems: Use of Interfaces Human/Computer to Assist People with Visual and/or Motor Impairment in the Use of DOSVOX and microFênix

The article describes two solutions to improve the interface to software tools developed at to Tercio Pacitti Institute – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, for people with disabilities. The first is an interface that allows people with visual impairments who also have the inability to use hands, have access to DOSVOX system, one of the most used Assistive Technologies in Brazil. DOSVOX enables the interaction between the visually impaired and the computer, whose operation is originally performed solely by keyboard, now can be operated via a gyroscope coupled to the user’s head, whose movement is translated into a series of keystrokes. The other interface is a BCI – Brain Computer Interface to microFenix, software designed for helping people with severe motor impairment to interact with a microcomputer.

The musibraille project --- enabling the inclusion of blind students in music courses

The Musibraille Project was created to address the difficulties to include blind students in music courses in Brazil. The strategy of this project involves the development of powerful software for Braille music edition, building of an online library of Braille music and the application of intensive courses on music transcription, both for blind and non-blind people. This project is producing an extraordinary effect on revitalizing Braille Music in this country, with hundred of teachers and students already trained.

Teaching geometry to visually impaired people: the dynamic environment Geometrix

This paper shows an original research on the teaching of geometry for visually impaired people. Geometrix, a new dynamic environment specially designed and implemented for this purpose, is detailed as well as a field research conducted with a control group of sighted people and an experimental group of visually impaired people. The results of this research established the hypothesis that the use of dynamic computing environments in the education of visually impaired people can help the development, retention and application of abstract concepts. The commitment to develop an pragmatic and adequate environment in regard to the sui generis characteristics of its users supported the foremost purposes of providing peremptory and autonomous learning of geometric concepts, as well as providing adequate applications of these concepts in teaching and learning processes. The results also showed that Geometrix can help visually impaired people to improve their spatial positions. Comparative analyses on time of acquisition of geometric concepts by visually impaired people have concluded that the environment has a better performance than the traditional teaching in classrooms.

TUPI - A library of components for accessibility systems for motor impairments

This work reports the computer resources and assistive technologies for motor impaired people currently used in Brazil and proposes an alternative for generating accessibility tools. Then we present the TUPI Toolkit, a library of components to develop accessibility systems for persons with motor impairments. This system enables the creation of versatile adaptive programs relying on very little effort to provide adaptive computer systems at low cost, to be used in schools and universities.