Feed aggregator

Children with special needs often face problems in communication and language development and parents are ignorant of the fact that speech could be developed through everyday activities at home because they have more opportunities and time to interact with the child. Therefore, an awareness programme was conducted at our Centre for the parents on 30/3/2015. An experienced Speech Language pathologist Mrs. Anuja officiated to guide the parents to understand the child’s difficulties and improve their child’s communication and language development. The programme paved way for the parents to initiate intervention for their children from home.

International free software conferences are being held to highlight Kerala’s achievements in the domain of Free software, as well as to bring together the community to discuss priorities and action items. The fifth International Free software conference of Kerala, Swatantra 2014 was held from 18 to 20 December 2014 at Thiruvananthapuram. The theme of the conference was “Free software for a Free World.” Insight was represented in the conference under the topic “Computing for the Differently abled.”

Insight organized a programe for the students and parents of Insight on the occasion of International Day of persons with disability on the 6th of December, 2014. The highlight of the programme was an interactive session by Mr.Brahma Nayakam Mahadhavan a Social Activist / Special Educator / Independent Education Management Professional. He is also a recipient of the prestigious National Youth Award in the year 2000. He motivated the parents to bring out the innate potential of their children. In another session in the afternoon, Dr. Manju, a parent and a Paediatrician enlightened the participants on various disciplines of parenting. The programme came to an end with a skit by our students which had the participation of all our students.

International symposium on ‘Assistive technology for Rehabilitation and Disability Management’ was organized by Centre for Disability studies, Poojapura to commemorate International Day of persons with disabilities from 2nd to 4th of December, 2014 at Mascot Hotel. Insight got the opportunity to put up a stall on the occasion and demonstrate the activities of Insight to people of other Centres of Kerala and from other countries. The stall was visited and appreciated by the participants of the symposium.

Ability to communicate is the key to social participation. Speech impairment can be source of behavioral issues and social exclusion among autistic children. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a form of communication that enhances or replaces speech. It helps those with serious speech impairments, like non-verbal autistic children develop language skills, decrease frustration and finally and most importantly, increase socialisation and participation.

In mid 2014, Insight introduced AAC tool based on mobile devices, to Sherin Mary Zacharia,, the 12-year-old autistic child from Kochi. Improvement in her quality of life is a testimony to the positive changes that AAC can bring in the life a cognitively-challenged person. Affected by Pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS), a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum, Sherin hardly speaks three sentences a day. She started writing at an early age of four and later was introduced to communication boards with minimal options like food, water, toilet etc. Then she started picking up writing in limited way. In case of emergency she writes with her fingers on her mothers hand. But all these provided only limited scope to express herself.

Nowadays with a tablet and AAC software, she communicates more easily and frequently through the device and successfully communicates what is in her mind. “It helps her reply to a large set of questions, using a limited set of words; a very happy Sherin now tries to communicate a lot now ,” testifies her mother, Sangeetha. Ability to communicate better, improved her engagement with world around her and there by making her life pleasant and richer. In fact she speaks more now.

Insight has been exploring possibility of equipping non-verbal autistic children with, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). As the name indicates, AAC is a form of communication that enhances or replaces speech. It helps those with serious speech impairments develop language skills, decrease frustration and finally and most importantly, increase socialisation and participation. It not merely helps them reply to the questions posed to them, but even equip them to initiate a communication, thus increasing participation in social activities.

AAC aid can be accessed using computer or mobile phone, thus making its use more convenient even during travels. Symbols are integral part of an AAC device and they represent objects, actions and concepts which in turn help user convey his message. AAC symbols can be graphic, auditory or textural according to the needs and ability of the user. Depending on the user’s needs and learning symbols can be increased or decreased.

If you are interested in knowing more about AAC software let us know

SPACE organised a three day Workshop series on “Popularisation of free software for scientific research” supported and sponsored by KSCSTE, from 29th September 2014 to 1st October 2014 in Malabar Christain College, Kozhikode. Mrs. Pavamani Mary Gladys, the Principal, Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode inaugurated the programme. Dr. Sasikumar (Board of Directors, FSFI), Mr. Rajmohan, Mr. Binu Abraham and Mr. Rijoy V(Coordinator, Freeelectron) handled the workshop. More than 15 students from the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics attended the workshop. Freesoftware and science, Introduction to Gnu/Linux, Datavisualisation using Gnu plot, Typesetting using LaTeX, Molecular Workbench, Scilab, Contextfree Art and other free software tools for scientific computing were introduced.

During the month of September 2014, two workshops for the teachers in the field of special education was conducted. The first programme was conducted at Rotary Institute for Children in Need Of Special Care, Vazhuthacaud, Trivandrum. 12 teachers were introduced to the new pedagogy of teaching children with special needs.

The second programme which was conducted at Mridula Sparsham, Tripunithura showed new dimensions in teaching special children with the free software. 8 teachers and one parent participated in the programme.

The two programmes have facilitated to prove that technology can be used more effectively to teach children with special needs.

HackerSPACE Trivandrum celebrated Arduino day, 29th of March 2014 with a free public workshop on Arduino for girls and a hackathon to develop sensory interactive tools for autistic children. Four girls joined for the workshop including one from neighbouring state TamilNadu. Workshop was followed by the Hackethon.

Aim of the Hackethon was to develop a set of interactive activities for autistic children. Members of HackerSPACE and new comers joined together to discuss various ideas.

“Bird Nest”, was artificial birds nest. Bird will sing when a child come near to it. A model was created with Proximity sensor, and Mozzi arduino library for audio synthesis. We could complete prototype.

Another group came up with an arudio based controller for RGB LED strip. They started working on a sound visualisation tool with Processing and Arduino. It could not be completed by evening.

Blending up of a workshop and hands on development made “Arduino day” exciting for new comers.

Participants:

Sangavi

Rency Amir

Nirupama Mariam Abraham

Reshma. R

Sairath. N

Anoop

Kevin Martin

Renjith Rajkumar

Rijoy. V

Binu Abraham

Ganesh. H

Mohammed Shameer

A Sensory room is launched under Insight project of SPACE in Trivandrum. The room is setup with financial support from SBI Life. Room contain sensory equipments to stimulate visual, audio, and tactile senses.

Sensory rooms are special area with sensory stimulating equipment. The room is used for various sensory integration therapies. Room will contain electronic and non-electronic devices and toys that can provide various stimulations to children. This include, visual, auditory, tactile, motion and olfactory sensations. Sensory Integration Therapies are essential for children with Autism and
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Facility is free for the public. Children in need are provide 30 to 45 minute sessions. For those who would like to make use of the facility can call +91 471 2318997.

HackerSPACE Trivandrum is holding a hackathon and Arduino workshop on 29th of March, Arduino day. The celebration marks 10 years of Arduino, free hardware initiative. The Arduino workshop will be exclusively for girl students and will be free of charge (+2 or above).  As part of hackethon, developers will build sensory interactive installations for children with autism. Those who want to attend the programme shall register by calling 0471 2318997/9495619169.

Arduino is a free electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

HackerSPACE is a community operated workspace in Trivandrum where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialize and/or collaborate. It is located in SPACE office, Vellayambalam, Trivandrum.

Arduino Day is a worldwide celebration of Arduino’s first 10 years. It’s 24 hours full of events – both official and independent, anywhere around the world – where people interested in Arduino can meet, share their experiences, and learn more.

SPACE conducted three day workshop on “popularisation of free software for scientific Research” at Farook College on 12th, 13th and 14th of March 2014 supported and sponsored by KSCSTE(Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment). Sri. E. P. Imbichikoya, Principal, Farook College inaugurated the workshop. Dr. Sasikumar (Board of Directors, SPACE) and Mr. Rijoy V(Coordinator, Freeelectron) handled the sessions. Freesoftware and science, Introduction to Gnu/Linux, Datavisualisation using Gnu plot, Typesetting using LaTeX, Contextfree Art and other free software tools for scientific computing were discussed.  This is the third workshop of Freeelectron Workshop series. The first two workshop were conducted in SB College Changanassery and Govt. Brennen College Thalassery.

SPACE conducted three day workshop on “Popularisation of Free Software for Scientific Research” at Govt. Brennen College Thalassery from 27th February 2014 to 1st March 2014. Dr. Sasikumar (Board of Directors, SPACE), Mr. Rijoy V (Coordinator, FreeElectron, SPACE), and Mr. Raj Mohan took sessions on Introduction to Free Software, Gnu/Linux, LaTex, GnuPlot, Scilab, Context Free Art and so on. Around 20 students from Govt. Breenen College, Thalassery, S.N College Kannur, Nirmalagiri college, Kuthuparamba, Krishna Menon Memorial Govt. Women’s College, Kannur attended the Workshop.

HackerSPACE conducted  a hands-on introductory workshop on MicroHOPE Board, on Monday 24th February 2014. Dr. B. P. Ajith Kumar, a scientist working with the Inter University accelerator Centre, New Delhi handled the session. Around 20 participants attended the workshop. A HackerSPACE meeting held after the workshop. Mr. Rijoy V, SPACE shared HackerSPACE objectives and discussed future events with the participants.

Our first class in hacking, and we were thrilled, thoughts of being able to hack into sites running through our minds. The class started off with discussions on how to spread the reach of SPACE. Next, we were shown a hard disk and asked what we knew about it. That session ended quickly as we, obviously, knew little. Then, we were taught the principle of working of the hard disk, the different parts, and the importance of each part. We all enjoyed it, but what was going through all our minds was ,”What does this have to do with hacking ?”.

      After that, we were given a set of tools and told to open up the hard disk, to take it apart. That got us all very excited and we abandoned our seats to crowd around the hard disk, arguing with each other over who got to work on which part. Soon we had the hard disk completely taken apart, each part separated. From the looks on our teachers’ faces, we could tell that they had not expected us to do it to such an extent.

So our next task was to put it back together to the required form, and honestly, that was a lot harder than taking it apart. But we somehow managed to do it, and funnily enough, there were some extra parts. Luckily, we were laughingly told that sometimes such things happen and that it was okay.

  After all that, we were told, to our delight, that we were going to learn to make a speaker from a hard disk. We were shown the simple connections that were required and were allowed to connect, and solder it ourselves. Once we completed it, we connected it to a laptop and found that it indeed function as a speaker, albeit at a very low volume.

When we voiced our concern over the low volume, we were shown additional connections to make it a bit louder. We completed those connections as well but the volume was still low. And that was when we were told that the sound needed to be amplified, and that even something as simple as a paper cone could be used for that purpose.

Soon the class was over, and we all got ready to leave, happy with what we had learned. That was when we were told that what we had learned was hacking. Upon seeing the confusion on our faces, it was explained to us that what we thought was hacking was actually ‘Cracking’, and that hacking was finding new innovative uses for things, like what we had learned. And surprisingly, we were not disappointed that this was what we were going to learn.

Disney Research, Pittsburgh introduced Touche a new sensing technology that proposes a novel Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing technique that can not only detect a touch event, but simultaneously recognize complex configurations of the human hands and body during touch interaction. The Touché is being developed at Disney Research by Ivan Poupyrev in collaboration with Munehiko Sato (University of Tokyo) and Chris Harrison (HCII, Carnegie Mellon University).

Is it possible to hack this novel technology using an Arduino? We started learning the principle behind Touche sensor and started building a capacitor sensor circuit using Arduino, or Lets say we started hacking.

The Resources and Software Tools we used for making cap sensor include Processing development tool, Arduino IDE Software, Arduino UNO Board, PCB, Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, Soldering Iron and so on.

The first hack-event organised at Hacker Space by the SPACE Team. It was all about turning a hard-drive into a  Speaker!!!..

Excited…?

We were too…

But it is possible… .:)

SPACE conducted three day workshop on “Popularisation of Free Software for Scientific Research” on 28 to 30th Nov 2013 at at SB College Changanassery. Dr. C. Sudarsanakumar, Director SPAP, M G University, Kottayam Inaugurated the programme. Dr. Sasikumar, SPACE gave keynote address after the inaugural ceremony.

Dr. Sasikumar, Mr. Rijoy, & Mr. Shameer from SPACE conducted sessions on various scientific tools in free domain such as LaTex, GnuPlot, Scilab, Arduino and so on. 41 registered students in the Department of Physics, Mathematics & Chemistry from SB College and neighbouring colleges attended the workshop.

There have been numerous discussions on the parallels between science and Free Software in the past. In fact indications on how science and Free Software operate on similar principles can be found regularly.

Fundamentally, science and Free Software have in common that both build upon cooperation of many people that in cooperation achieve more than each of them could have achieved alone. The best quote describing this is by Sir Isaac Newton, who said: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

The advantages of cooperation do not only benefit the scientists or developers involved, but society as a whole — and the notion of society here does include economy. It is characterizing that the advantages are also available to those who have not contributed to them or maybe even fought against them actively (just consider the people who fought the notion that earth was not a disk).

Within these parameters, the connections are pretty clear to most people. But there is yet another, hardly understood connection, resulting from the scientific method.

Part of the scientific method is to create new theories and conduct experiments that will verify them. Has a theory been experimentally verified once, any additional verification will not add to the scientific knowledge base.

In other words: By having been experimentally verified, a theorem is considered valid. Additional verifications will not make it “more true than true.”

Another case is disproving a theory by conducting an experiment that contradicts the theory, falsifying it. In that case, the theory in its current formulation is not true. It needs to be modified or discarded alltogether — independent of the amount of verifications that existed for it.

One single falsification can make an unlimited amount of verifications irrelevant. Falsification is an essential part of the scientific process. Without falsification there is no science.

Software becomes a more intrinsic part of science, which does not refer to using text processing tools to write down the results. From the viewpoint of scientific quality it is irrelevant whether a scientist is using plain ASCII text files or a certain word processor for their publication.

Although in the latter case it is probable that in a few years time the results will have to be entered anew because the current program cannot read the old file properly or maybe not even at all.

The connection between software and the scientific method exists when experiments partially or entirely rely on software. This means the software becomes part of the scientific process and result.

And to anyone who has ever developed software it is obvious that knowing an algorithm is not sufficient to provide means for falsification; implementation is equally important and also becomes part of the scientific result.

Proprietary software by nature creates a “black box”. If you wish, you can visualize it as a small, black box with a button and a light. Now someone tells you that when you press that button, a certain experiment is going to be conducted and when the lamp lights up, it was successful.

One could raise the question what knowledge a person could gain From pushing the button and seeing the lamp lighting up.

It gets really fascinating, when a second person comes with a second box, which claims that the same experiment is going to be conducted — but this time the lamp does not light up when pushing the button.

In none of these cases do we have the capabilities to verify or falsify, everything is based upon belief and trust only. This implies a very interesting conclusion.

Additionally, we are experiencing other problems. Science is not only about what we know today, but also how we got there. The way we took, the way a discipline developed, is part of the cultural heritage of mankind and may contain important information for future generations. Results must not be time dependent.

Should anyone wish to repeat an experiment of Leonardo da Vinci today, this can be done. It may require work, but it is possible.

Making the assumption that the software used in an experiment still exists and did not — as usual — get destroyed because after 10 years the last remaining floppy disk containing the program got thrown in the trash. What are the chances for an experiment based upon proprietary software that people will be able to find the specific hard- and software versions that the software depends upon?

That probability is obviously reaching zero pretty quickly, especially when thinking in timescales of generations.

Free Software with its freedom to port it to other platforms really does allow to repeat such experiments and the good or not-so-good ideas people had.

Therefore, Free Software helps archiving the scientific and cultural development of mankind. It allows preserving the way of how we got where we are today.

So when going into detail, it becomes apparent that the connection between Free Software and science is much more intensive than it seemed at first. Also this shows the connection to social and cultural aspects that connect mankind.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this transcript as long as the copyright and this permission notice appear.

October being ADHD awareness month, an awareness programme was organised on the 28th of this month. Dr. Anil Kumar and Dr. Dinesh of Child Psychiatry of Trivandrum Medical College graced the occasion by their presence. Dr. Anil Kumar, the Guest speaker, apprised the parents about ADHD, its features, different forms of manifestations, its management, medication etc through video. Nearly 20 parents got the rare opportunity to listen to such a dedicated and experienced speaker.

Posters on ADHD were printed to spread awareness about ADHD and its characteristics. It was a purple week for the Centre from 13th to 19th to partake in the ADHD awareness programme.

Child Psychiatry update is a regular programme conducted every month by the Psychiatry Department of Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram. Doctors, Medical students, other para medical professionals and students and parents of children treated in their department are updated on the latest news and developments in this field through this programme.

On September 30th, 2013, SPACE was given the opportunity to put across their effort in training the differently abled children through Information and communication technology. The comprehensive and novel programme done at SPACE for the overall development of a differently abled child in the areas such as academic performance, cognitive skills, speech, sensory stimulation, motor and cognitive skills through therapeutic exercises and behaviour modification was presented during the programme and it was followed by a demonstration of therapeutic games using technology as a part of occupational therapy. These therapeutic games are helpful in the development of gross motor skills and cognitive skills through playful and interactive way.
Feedback and suggestions from the distinguished members present there were welcomed and a discussion on the new activities that is being carried out at SPACE  was also dicussed.  This was followed by the launching of  evaluation tool for autism both in English and Malayalam.