Media Interview on NTU AI for Societal Good and Yoozoo DSAI Gold Medal Sponsorship

Project officer Ivan Yew (left) and Professor Ong Yew Soon at the NTU Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Centre where they developed the three applications.

Together with the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) and Yoozoo Games, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has jointly created three artificial intelligence-based apps to help special needs students in learning to express their emotions and to better engaged them in class.

The apps are also customisable by teachers to fit each student’s learning needs through adjustment of difficulty levels and different scenario and images settings.

After a successful test in a nine-week-long pilot run last year among 140 students, the Apps will be rolled out to more students in three APSN schools next year. The schools involved are APSN Katong, Tanglin and Chaoyang schools.

The three mobile apps, EmojiCapcha, Happy Bird and Betterfly are avenues for students to better express themselves emotionally.

The apps, designed for iOS and Android devices, were demonstrated to the media in a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, 17 November 2020.

EmojiCapcha allows users to match their facial expressions to the one shown on the screen, while Happy Bird uses facial expressions to control the bird's movements on screen. Betterfly uses facial expressions to create different coloured butterflies that move differently.

The project was led by NTU Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Centre’s Professor Ong Yew Soon with the aim to use AI for societal good. 

For further reading, please click on the following links:

1. Harnessing AI, NTU creates apps to help people with special needs learn social, emotional skills Today, 17 Nov 2020
   
   
2. NTU Singapore teams up with Association for Persons with Special Needs and YOOZOO Games to create apps that aid Miragenews, 17 Nov 2020
   
   
3. 南大研发新手游 助特需生学习社交和培养情商 Channel 8 news online, 2020年11月17日
   
   
4. Three mobile games developed to help special needs students learn social, emotional skills Channel NewsAsia online, 17 Nov 2020
   
   
5. Artificial intelligence-based apps help special needs students learn about emotions The Straits Times, 17 Nov 2020