Sensor mat with activity monitor both adults and children to keep fit

People move less and less. Fraunhofer Researchers have now developed an interactive learning system that is supposed to motivate more movement in a playful way: One Sensor mat is with one Activity monitor combined. With the system, children and adults can keep fit and build up knowledge at the same time. The solution records the intensity of movement and displays it immediately.

Stay physically and mentally fit - with the interactive learning system Hopscotch all age groups can do this in a playful way. It consists of a sensor mat divided into nine fields, each field has several letters and a number. The mat is connected by cable to an activity monitor on which tasks from various fields of knowledge appear.

From heaven and hell game to activity monitor 

To solve a task, the user taps the fields on the sensor mat in the correct order and enters words or numbers. Had the idea for the mat dr Martina Lucht, Media scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau, when she saw a heaven and hell game painted on the street.

Together with researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Lucht and her team have further developed and converted Hopscotch Actisens, a Accelerometer of Fraunhofer IIS, added. This records all movements, records their intensity and then evaluates them. The module determines whether the user only tapped the fields with his foot or actually jumped and hopped. The corresponding feedback appears in real time in the form of five bars on the monitor.