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Oculus Launchpad Dev Blog- 12th Entry- DevLog 757.012

KingHedleyiii
Explorer

With the last post I kind of spoke to where the project of Underdog came from- its motivation to bring it into being. Now I’d like to talk a bit about what it is, and what I hope it can do. Underdog would be a module based simulator so kids (target ages 9-16) on the autism spectrum could practice clinically validated interventions to help them deal with situations where they are being bullied. Modules meaning, the environments where they’re most likely to be bullied in school (gym class, the cafeteria, on the playground, etc.), and categories of bullying (teasing, physical assault, exclusion, cyberbullying, etc.). Kids will be able to select the environment they want to train in, and they will be able to select the type of bullying they will be exposed to. The game will focus on 3 main pillars of learning: facial recognition, body language understanding, and vocal tone recognition. Modules will be set up for learning on an easy, medium, and hard basis. Easy means you would only receive training scenarios focusing on 1 pillar at a time, let’s say facial recognition. So a kid could do the following: select the gym environment. Check. Select teasing. Check. Easy mode (choose 1): facial recognition. The scenario would play out where the Underdog (user) is being teased in gym class, and during the interaction with the bully, the user would focus on identifying facial expressions that could be associated with teasing someone. When the bully speaks, are they snickering? Is their nose crinkled up? Are they smiling with teeth? Are they whispering to others while they are speaking to you?  Things of this nature. After the scene, a survey would appear before the user to identify whether or not they could see specific facial features that occur when people are being sarcastic, rude, or even plain mean. Obviously my logic to bring it about needs work, but I think there’s enough of an idea there to make it workable. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

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