Impedance mismatch: some differences between the way humans and robots control interaction forces

In over forty years of research robots have made very little progress still largely confined to industrial manufacture and cute toys, yet in the same period computing has followed Moores Law where the capacity double roughly every two years. So why is there no Moores Law for robots? Two areas stand out as worthy of research to speedup progress. The first is to get a greater understanding of how human and animal brains control movement, the second to build a new generation of robots that have greater haptic sense, that is a better ability to adapt to the environment as it is encountered. A remarkable property of the cognitive-motor system in humans and animals is that it is slow. Recognising an object may take 250 mS, a reaction time of 150 mS is considered fast. Yet despite this slow system we are well designed to allow contact with the world in a variety of ways. We can anticipate an encounter, use the change of force as a means of communication and ignore sensory cues when they are not relevant. A better understanding of these process has allowed us to build haptic interfaces to mimic the interaction. Emerging from this understanding are new ways to control the contact between robots, the user and the environment. Rehabilitation robotics has all the elements in the subject to not only enable and change the lives of people with disabilities, but also to facilitate revolution change in classic robotics.

From hieroglyphics to Isotype: a visual autobiography (Otto Neurath)

Otto Neurath (1882–1945) wrote From hieroglyphics to Isotype during the last two years of his life and this is the first publication of the text in full, carefully edited from the original manuscripts. He called it a 'visual autobiography', in which he documents the importance of visual material to him from his earliest years to his professional activity with the picture language of Isotype. Neurath draws clear links between the stimulus he received as a boy from illustrated books, toys and exhibitions to the considered work in visual education that occupied him for the last two decades of his life. This engaging and informal account gives a rich picture of Central European culture around the turn of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of Neurath's insatiable intelligence, as well as a detailed exposition of the technique of Isotype, a milestone of modern graphic design. This edition includes the numerous illustrations intended by Neurath to accompany his text, and is completed by an extensive appendix showing examples from the rich variety of graphic material that he collected.

LEGO® bricks as building blocks for centimeter-scale biological environments

LEGO bricks are commercially available interlocking pieces of plastic that are conventionally used as toys. We describe their use to build engineered environments for cm-scale biological systems, in particular plant roots. Specifically, we take advantage of the unique modularity of these building blocks to create inexpensive, transparent, reconfigurable, and highly scalable environments for plant growth in which structural obstacles and chemical gradients can be precisely engineered to mimic soil.

Um estudo empírico sobre a construção da identidade social do consumidor de toy art

O objetivo deste trabalho é compreender como os consumidores de Toy Art utilizam o seu bem para constituir a sua identidade social, além de explorar este relacionamento de consumo, investigando os fatores que desencadeiam o processo de extensão de si no Toy Art. A sustentação teórica deste trabalho se deu pelo aprofundamento dos temas já levantados anteriormente por Campbell & Barbosa (2006) e McCracken (2003), em seus estudos sobre cultura e consumo; Schouten & McAlexander (1995) em sua pesquisa sobre subculturas de consumo; Hall (2005), que expôs suas teorias sobre a formação da identidade no mundo moderno; Douglas & Isherwood (2004), que estudaram os rituais de consumo; Belk (1988), com suas pesquisas sobre a extensão do self. Este estudo é de caráter exploratório, e foi conduzido com entrevistas em profundidade com o intuito de deixar emergir os sentimentos e emoções dos respondentes, para uma melhor orientação na direção das análises dos dados obtidos. Os dados foram coletados junto a 14 consumidores de Toys, de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 19 e 38 anos, residentes nos estados de Belo Horizonte, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo e o Distrito Federal, durante os meses de julho e agosto de 2009. Para atingir os objetivos propostos, o método de pesquisa adotado foi qualitativo, com priorização do sujeito e da subjetividade, utilizando-se uma forma interpretativa para a análise dos dados. Os resultados demonstraram que os consumidores de Toy Art utilizam o seu bem para constituir sua identidade social e como uma forma de diferenciação e expressão. A extensão de si se dá exatamente durante essa busca pelo incomum, por um bem que o distinga dos demais. Conclui-se o trabalho, fazendo-se recomendações gerenciais com o intuito de beneficiar e desenvolver a indústria deste segmento.

A indústria do brincar

O brincar é uma atividade construtiva através da qual a criança elabora a sua percepção do mundo e, conseqUentemente, a estruturação de sua personalidade. Os brinquedos podem ser utilizados como instrumentos de criação, quando permitem ã criança liberar suas fantasias, ou de dominação, ao reforçarem a reprodução de idéias, valores e papéis sociais. ~ preciso conhecer o universo circundante da criança: a família e a sociedade na qual ela vive, para se poder avaliar os brinquedos que são colocados no mercado, o comportamento dos pais em relação ao brincar da criança e a opção de escolha que os pais fazem ao presentearem os filhos com brinquedos. Atualmente, a sociedade coloca ã disposição da criança brinquedos que trazem em si mensagens que reforçam condutas sociais, atuando, desde cedo, no estabelecimento de um modo de pensar tipicamente capitalista. O objetivo é desenvolver nas brincadeiras um tipo de "modelização do comportamento" da criança que é, ao mesmo tempo, lúdico e semiótico. Para melhor entender "as regras deste jogo", as características da sociedade foram examinadas com base nas categorias marxistas: trabalho, alienação e mercadoria. Na tentativa de se interpretar esta versão do "brincar da criança" utilizou-se, ainda, os referenciais tempo, simulacro, publicidade e consumo. Este com destaque, por ser a base de sustentação da sociedade capitalista. Consumir passou a ser um imperativo do nosso tempo. Todas são capturados: homens, mulheres e crianças. O desejo é a matéria-prima geradora de consumo. ~ ele que conduz o homem na sua busca incessante pelo objeto ideal. O desejo pode ser visto como formação de uma carência, constituída nos primeiros anos de vida da criança, que arrasta o indivíduo numa procura in[indivel (visão psicanalítica), ou como produção coletiva do homem, processo de ruptura do sistema que o oprime, de acordo com Deleuze e Guattari. A "apropriação" do desejo da criança através do brinquedo é, certamente, um instrumento poderoso, que leva não só à exploração do consumo mas, principalmente, a uma subjetividade construída sob valores que estão voltados, unicamente, para a economia de mercado.

Motivating sustainable goal choices and providing effective feedback

Overconsumption of natural resources and the associated environmental hazards are one of today’s most pressing global issues. In the western world, individual consumption in homes and workplaces is a key contributor to this problem. Reflecting the importance of individual action in this domain, this thesis focuses on studying and influencing choices related to sustainability and energy consumption made by people in their daily lives. There are three main components to this work. Firstly, this thesis asserts that people frequently make ineffective consumption reduction goal choices and attempts to understand the rationale for these poor choices by fitting them to goalsetting theory, an established theoretical model of behavior change. Secondly, it presents two approaches that attempt to influence goal choice towards more effective targets, one of which deals with mechanisms for goal priming and the other of which explores the idea that carefully designed toys can exert influence on children’s long term consumption behavior patterns. The final section of this thesis deals with the design of feedback to support the performance of environmentally sound activities. Key contributions surrounding goals include the finding that people choose easy sustainable goals despite immediate feedback as to their ineffectiveness and the discussion and study of goal priming mechanisms that can influence this choice process. Contributions within the design of value instilling toys include a theoretically grounded framework for the design of such toys and a completed and tested prototype toy. Finally, contributions in designing effective and engaging energy consumption feedback include the finding that negative feedback is best presented verbally compared with visually and this is exemplified and presented within a working feedback system. The discussions, concepts, prototypes and empirical findings presented in this work will be useful for both environmental psychologists and for HCI researchers studying eco-feedback.

Escola e gênero : representações de gênero na escola

The study Escola e Gênero: representações de gênero na escola show us the social man made, starting of an analysis in the having fun time in the children´s life and how it´s an important aspect of the building childish universe simbolic. My analysis started in a children´s daily at school and how they noticed the play value od dominant society. Our propouse is think about the linking between ideology, representations and gender like the children´s knowledge in the school activities. The toy, an instrument which is noticed and exist in the funny activities, is full of cultural concepts of male and female parts. Your color, lines, functions and the way you manipulate is driven of gender cathegories. In the scool, the ideological concepts have it´s important way which is to domesticate the feelings, the desires; categorize and normalize them without be known by the educational employers. In the children´s education, the funny time is noticed by others ways and turned as important as others subjects. By the way it´s not noticed by the school, like another thing which isn´t a funny moment. And it´s exactly here in the school funny time, the school did your cultural power of separete the gender and your extencions, feed by the society, generaly, in favor of the man whose woman is your subordinate. This ways of analysis help the society and the school universe about the funny time e how they are important in the Man made life. And how the toys bring the concepts and addicted thinking, ideological which put the power in the stages, without equal, addicted feelings around the gender concepts. I read and used the theories of Kishimoto, Berger & luckmann, Brougère, Sousa Filho, Bourdieu, Badinter, Geertz, Grossi, Louro, Foucault, among others

Educação escolar para crianças: o que dizem sujeitos deste direito?

The text aims to discuss the problems that this would be set: - What are the concepts of public school children about their right to primary education, as required step in the Basic Education? - What are conducted by children on the elementary school, in terms of its structure, teaching, and acquisitions provide for their users, especially when it comes to literacy? In order to answer these questions, we conducted within the qualitative a case study within twenty children of the early years of elementary public school, ten of the School Mauricio de Sousa and ten children of the School Monteiro Lobato. with construction procedures of data, we worked with observation, semi-directive interview, questionnaire and document analysis. In analyzing the data, two categories emerged: right to education and school for children. The first focuses on what children think about the legal guarantee to school, seeking to understand if they understand the educational area as a right and relate what the law says and the reality in which they participate. The category for school children, including their purposes, characteristics, space literacy and its relationship with the teacher. In this sense, we comment, taking as its founding, the speech of children in their schools, focusing on how they perceive the school in terms of its structure and functioning, relations with the knowledge and the other children. With regard to child rights, the appreciation of Brazilian children should be the basis of the struggle for a more just, democratic, nondiscriminatory. However, children show not recognize education as a right, but as one who deserves the credit, that is, those children who are always attentive, do not fight and do not complain. In interviews, children express a simple wish child that the school had toys. A school for children should be a place with its own characteristics: cheerful, lively, colorful, which included the same time, security and challenges. Children point to the hope that the course of action the teacher was guided by respect their differences in a more emotional, especially with regard to issues of authority and discipline of the group. The most important learning is for all subjects learning to read / write, differing in the idea of how to learn. Unfortunately, for some students, learning reading and writing appears as a difficult and enjoyable process is not perceived by some subjects up to recognize the instrumental writing. Finally, we point to the actors of the school to launch a more accurate to say that the children and how to outline your main locus of learning

Um estudo sobre o estágio supervisionado na formação inicial de professores de matemática na Bahia

This work arose from our concerns with the issues of teacher training for early childhood education. From the difficulties encountered as a novice teacher in elementary, we deem important to research training needs of these professionals. Thus, we define the objective of this research to investigate the training needs of novice teachers teaching Early Childhood Education/Elementary school. Our work fits in Educational Research Qualitative Approach, and its construction procedures of the semistructured interview data and document analysis. Our empirical field was made up of schools in the metropolitan region of Natal / RN, offering kindergarten / elementary school. The subjects are five teachers who act as holder of the elementary school class and have 0-3 years of teaching practice, characterizing the second Huberman (2007) as novice teachers. Data analysis, based on principles of content analysis, three themes emerged: Beginner Teaching Professor in Early Childhood Education / Preschool; Reasons explaining the difficulties Faculty / Formative Needs Teaching and Training in Early Childhood Education / Elementary school, from the Training Needs Analysis, with their respective categories, subcategories, contributing to our understanding of the subject matter. The entry into the profession is marked by mixed feelings of euphoria and fear, where there seems to be a "clash" with reality. The difficulties are related to the planning / execution of activities, meet the individual needs of learning and assessment of children. As a strategy to overcome the difficulties the teachers exercise the action-reflection-action in their practices and seek continuous updates in the theoretical and methodological framework of early childhood education. The reasons that define these difficulties may be related to the teacher, school, family, and students of these institutions. In experiencing these difficulties has outlined the need for teacher training, among which stand out studies on ethics in teaching with children, the concept of children and their childhoods, peculiarities of teaching / learning in preschool, toys and legal determinations on early childhood education, multi-language and expressions in early childhood education, specific content areas of knowledge, among others. Furthermore, studies on the theoretical as Piaget, Vigotsky, Maria Carmen Barbosa and Emily Smith. For these professionals to be a professional early childhood education is: like children, be patient and careful, have specific theoretical and practical training for teachers in kindergarten, being able to improvise with seriousness and competence and get updates on continuing education. The surveys, together with the authors and teachers, to confirm our understanding that the training needs of beginners may be related to shortcomings in the initial and continuing education

Necessidades de formação de professoras principiantes da educação infantil/pré-escola

This work arose from our concerns with the issues of teacher training for early childhood education. From the difficulties encountered as a novice teacher in elementary, we deem important to research training needs of these professionals. Thus, we define the objective of this research to investigate the training needs of novice teachers teaching Early Childhood Education/Elementary school. Our work fits in Educational Research Qualitative Approach, and its construction procedures of the semistructured interview data and document analysis. Our empirical field was made up of schools in the metropolitan region of Natal / RN, offering kindergarten / elementary school. The subjects are five teachers who act as holder of the elementary school class and have 0-3 years of teaching practice, characterizing the second Huberman (2007) as novice teachers. Data analysis, based on principles of content analysis, three themes emerged: Beginner Teaching Professor in Early Childhood Education / Preschool; Reasons explaining the difficulties Faculty / Formative Needs Teaching and Training in Early Childhood Education / Elementary school, from the Training Needs Analysis, with their respective categories, subcategories, contributing to our understanding of the subject matter. The entry into the profession is marked by mixed feelings of euphoria and fear, where there seems to be a "clash" with reality. The difficulties are related to the planning / execution of activities, meet the individual needs of learning and assessment of children. As a strategy to overcome the difficulties the teachers exercise the action-reflection-action in their practices and seek continuous updates in the theoretical and methodological framework of early childhood education. The reasons that define these difficulties may be related to the teacher, school, family, and students of these institutions. In experiencing these difficulties has outlined the need for teacher training, among which stand out studies on ethics in teaching with children, the concept of children and their childhoods, peculiarities of teaching / learning in preschool, toys and legal determinations on early childhood education, multi-language and expressions in early childhood education, specific content areas of knowledge, among others. Furthermore, studies on the theoretical as Piaget, Vigotsky, Maria Carmen Barbosa and Emily Smith. For these professionals to be a professional early childhood education is: like children, be patient and careful, have specific theoretical and practical training for teachers in kindergarten, being able to improvise with seriousness and competence and get updates on continuing education. The surveys, together with the authors and teachers, to confirm our understanding that the training needs of beginners may be related to shortcomings in the initial and continuing education

O olhar da criança sobre a brincadeira nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Significados de família para crianças em abrigo

This research explores the meanings of family for institutionalized children. It identifies, more specifically, how the relationship between the child and his/ her family is. The field work was developed at a municipal shelter in Natal/RN, which houses children aged between 7 and 11 years old. The subjects of research consisted of three children: two boys and one girl. Besides age-group criterion, which facilitates the use of oral language and the procedures, we took into consideration another selection criterion: children whose family configurations were similar. In order to achieve the objectives, we used toys, pictures, collages and semi-structured interviews. Data were examined under the Thematic Content Analysis, with three thematic categories previously chosen: Configuration of geographic area, family composition and family s internal dynamics. Among the results, we highlight that, for children, the concept of family is based essentially on existence of affection ties, regardless of kinship. Through this study, we hope to contribute to the discussion on the rights of institutionalized children, concerning their need of experiencing family life and living in community

Recreação hospitalar: o papel do profissional de educação física na equipe multidisciplinar

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the methodological perspective, the contents, possible outcomes and the role of Physical Education professionals in multidisciplinary staff of Recreation in hospitals. The study consisted of a survey applied to 20 adults of both sexes, volunteers, working in multidisciplinary team at a hospital in Leme, SP. Data were descriptively analyzed through content analysis technique, indicating that the time of engagement of that professional in that team was on average 12.8 months. Physical Education Professionals act mainly with joy faced the patients, making them well accepted. In relation to the contents used by these professionals, toys were the most mentioned, followed by books, puppets, role play and music. The team noticed some positive changes in patients after Physical Education Professional performances, and his engagement in the health team was considered very important, highlighting the urgency of new shares to enlarge this Professional participation in health multidisciplinary teams.

Função dos jogos e brinquedos na vida da criança

The author first describes the role of playing games and toys on physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of children. He further discusses how they should be selected in relation to the various stages of child growth.

Utilização do brinquedo terapêutico na assistência à criança hospitalizada

This is an exploratory and descriptive study that was jointly carried out by Nursing Care and Occupational Therapy as part of a Research Project that intended to prepare children for elective surgery at the University of São Paulo's Hospital de Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais. Objective: using toys as a therapeutic resource for relieving the child's real and unconscious tensions concerning hospitalization for surgical treatment at the HRAC - USP. Method: 44 children participated in the study. An observation form was used to collect data and it was applied at two separate times: the first time was the day before the surgery was to take place and the second on the day of the surgery just before the event. Twenty one variables were elaborated by the researchers to categorize behaviors regarding hospitalization. The resources used were: storytelling, dramatization and demonstration of nursing interventions with puppets dressed in surgical garb (gloves, surgical gown, mask and cap) with medical equipment commonly used in hospital. Results: of the 21 variables analyzed, 8 showed statistically significant differences on the McNemar Test (p<0.05). Conclusion: interactive play enables hospitalized children to interact in the hospital environment, so that they can express feelings and emotions and it contributes to humanized hospital assistance.