Working with sensory effects and multimedia experiences for 2D screens or immersive environments—such as those requiring virtual reality headsets—is part of the daily routine of researcher Débora Muchaluat Saade, from the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). She coordinates the Digital Health research line at INCT ICoNIoT.
The Digital World Meets the Physical
Muchaluat Saade develops relaxation environments based on immersive virtual settings. These resources are designed for individuals with neurodivergent conditions, such as people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). They can be integrated with the physical world through IoT devices that enable this connection.
Within this multisensory approach, for example, a drum system was developed that integrates virtual and physical dimensions, combining instrumented drumsticks (physical) with VR headsets for 3D immersion. The movements of the user—playing a virtual drum—generate haptic feedback, meaning that the person feels vibrations in their fingers as if the drumsticks were striking a real instrument. Another project, currently under development in partnership with Professor Marcelo Fernandes (UFRN) and other ICoNIoT institutions, aims to create a piano that operates in a similar way.
Socially assistive robotics is also a highly promising field for therapies such as emotional regulation. These therapies are applied to patients who have difficulty understanding others’ emotions and expressing their own. Robots enable interactive dialogues with children in these conditions, encouraging communication and helping them recognize emotions, including their own.
For elderly individuals, socially assistive robots can be used to stimulate cognition. Memory, for example, can be enhanced through games similar to “Simon Says.” By controlling smart lights, the robot presents sequences of colored lights, while the user must observe and recall the sequence.
Researcher Débora Muchaluat Saade and her team are committed to developing applications that are not only technologically effective but also accessible and low-cost. It is equally important that these technologies contribute to creating open spaces for public experimentation.
Assistive Robotics and Inclusion
Another application of assistive technologies highlighted by Muchaluat Saade is the use of socially assistive robots to promote the inclusion of girls and women in STEM fields. This approach was implemented in the project Include <meninas.uff>, a partner of the Brazilian Computer Society’s “Meninas Digitais” program. It is an extension project at UFF that currently involves 15 volunteers and has had over 50 collaborators throughout its history.
One branch of the project focuses on teaching computing concepts to girls from public schools in Niterói. As part of this initiative, a hackathon was organized using the design thinking methodology to encourage participants to identify a problem and propose a solution.
The challenge proposed was for student teams to imagine a socially assistive robot in a school setting and explore ways it could be useful. The students learned to program using the robot’s language—through a simulator also developed by the UFF team—during a six-week activity. Each week, participants attended sessions at the university, progressing through the stages of the design thinking process. Throughout the program, they developed solutions by programming the robot, and at the end, each team executed its program on the robot.
One of the ideas that emerged from this experience was to use the robot as a tool for teaching computational thinking in schools. This is now a key competency in Brazil’s National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC), which emphasizes the importance of skills such as understanding, analyzing, defining, modeling, solving, comparing, and automating problems and their solutions in a systematic and methodical way through the development of algorithms.