Development of visual memory training tool based on mechatronics system embedded building blocks

摘要

Playing building blocks has good features such as growing up children's intellect and finger manipulation abilities. To enhance good features in playing with building blocks, various mechatronic toys inspired by building block have been developed and released. We have developed mechatro-tsumiki, a kind of building blocks made of cube shape wood materials in which a mechatronics system is embedded. These blocks can react with players' operations and can interact with each other. These functions can derive players creativity and imagination more than ordinary building blocks. We attempt to apply the mechatro-tsumiki system to rehabilitation and training and as an application we developed a training tool for visual memory. This tool includes a set of mechatro-tsumiki building blocks and a mechatronic-system-embedded board. The board consists of a wooden plate with grid square dents and mechatornics circuit board under the wooden plate. A computer with digital input/output interface is used to control the tool and record how a player completes the assignment. We introduce detail of the training tool and experimental results of preliminary experiments targeted for healthy adults.