Team Futurewei (Stanford/NTNU) Design Documentation

Children are increasingly being exposed to technology, whether that is through their entertainment mediums, social engagement platforms, or daily information consumption. Inherently with an increase in device use comes a decrease in human-to-human interaction. With children largely conversing with one another over technology, communication becomes more impersonal. There is a disconnect between the sender and the receiver and with that, a lack of empathy between parties. We aim to combat this issue with eCue.
The need that eCue is addressing is helping children develop empathy in response to children’s increased exposure to technology. Our target application focuses on school settings, where children’s interpersonal dynamics and the presence of varied adult stakeholders (e.g. parents, teachers) makes for an ideal environment in which to develop uses for the product. Schools are beginning to tackle social issues with kids by including wellness hours and classes on internet etiquette. eCue is an educational tool that fits well into these evolving curriculums and allows a student to sit down and interact with characters in a short story as they go through a given situation. The student’s individual and varied responses to the characters allows the story to unfold in various ways that validate the student. In other words, we are creating an interactive environment for the student to have a voice in the story and learn about a situation that he or she will likely face in the future. The student can then leave their interaction with eCue with the know-how to face those situations.
eCue uses OpenCV to track the user’s nonverbal cues and facial expressions and a speech-to-text API to interpret what the user is saying. By using those two forms of AI, we are ensuring that the program registers both what the student says, and how the user says it. The program also uses AI to track the emotional response of the user as they move through the story. By using technology that kids are fluent with (laptops and tablets) and also crafting relevant short stories that resonate with the children, we aim to give them the necessary skills to be successful in their future careers and relationships… leading to a more balanced life.