본 연구에서는 4명의 ADHD 아동을 대상으로 동화 게임 읽기를 5주간 시행하고, 이야기 감정이 아동의 읽기 태도에 미치는 영향에 대해 살펴보았다. 본 연구에 활용된 동화 게임은 아라비안나이트의 <어부와 지니>를 인터랙티브 동화로 개발한 것으로, 모션센싱 디바이스로써 마이크로 소프트(Microsoft)사의 키넥트(Kinect)와 BCI(Brain Computer Inface)로써 뉴로스카이(NeuroSky)사의 마인드웨이브(MindWave)를 Unity 3D 게임엔진과 연결하여 사용자가 읽기, 행동, 집중력을 사용하여 플레이하도록 디자인된 것이다. 본 연구에서는 <어부와 지니> 게임 동화를 읽는 동안 아동이 감정적인 텍스트를 읽을 때 보인 집중도를 추적하고, 보호자의 아동의 읽기 태도 변화에 대한 인터뷰와 비교하였다. 그 결과 상위 75%의 집중도를 보인 텍스트 중 다양한 이야기 감정 텍스트를 포함하고 있는 아동이 그렇지 않은 아동에 비해 읽기 태도에서 긍정적인 변화를 보였다는 점을 확인할 수 있었다.

This study designs an interactive serious game for children with ADHD to sustain attention concentration and improve their reading comprehension skill. This serious game enables to read fairy tale interactively. The fairy tale consists of 6 sequences and the game assigns tasks for concentration training to 2, 4, 5, and 6 sequences. Executing concentration task, MindWave BCI is used to measure brain waves and to judge success of failure of the task with that measurement. Game play data and concentration data were stored in a sever real time. As the experiment progressed, the concentration levels of the participants are sustained stable. The results of paired t-test on pre- and post- reading ability, short reading comprehension, and story understanding are significant. It is expected that this study will help game design for children with ADHD as well as reading disability.

This research is the preliminary study for development of narrative contents for improving reading skills and behavior controlling capabilities of children with ADHD. Microsoft's Kinect, a non-contact motion sensing device, and NeuroSky's MindWave, a BCI device, are connected to Unity 3D engine to capture user's motion and brainwaves, respectively. The given narrative contents interactively respond to children with ADHD while they are reading the contents and performing the given tasks presented in the behavior training game system. This study examines whether the contents are suitable for the first and second grader children. For this, The interaction with the contents is first observed by five adults and two children. Then the system is tested by three ordinary first graders. During the experiments, the children easily figure out the given texts and do what the game contents drive for the player to react. All three kids concentrate on the reading contents without leaving their seats for average 37 minutes. This experiment shows that the contents are properly designed for the first and second graders in terms of reading speed, reading completion time, complexity level, and task performance. Based on this experimental study, the interactive narrative contents will be used to conduct full-scale experiments with children with ADHD.

This research introduces the interactive fairy tale system based on BCI and Motion Sensing Technology for Children with ADHD. ADHD is a specific disorder which shows deficits in sustained attention, behavioral inhibition, resistance to distraction, and the regulation of one’s activity level to the demands of a situation (hyperactivity or restlessness). The interactive fairy tale system implemented on the Unity3D engine is expected to keep track of a player's time-varying brainwave and motion logs through NeuroSky’s MindWave Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensing technology. The proposed system helps us take a closer look at the player's behavior than performing a video shoot or direct observation. In addition, as the system keeps the observed data, it is possible to constantly track the changes on the player's brainwave and behavior, and synthetically assess the effect of the proposed approach from many different aspects.