Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which since 2013 is considered as an umbrella term for several disorders such as autistic syndrome, Asperger’s disorder and pervasive developmental disorder, is characterized, among other aspects, by deficits in social-emotion reciprocity. This deficit manifests itself as a reduced sharing of emotions and an increased difficulty in interpreting emotions other people are feeling, which in the end leads to more impairments in social communication. Since it is possible to help a person with ASD (especially children) to improve their ability to understand and detect emotions, we have developed a proposal which integrates emotion recognition technologies, often used in the field of HCI, to try to overcome this difficulty. In this paper, we present a novel software application developed as a serious game to teach children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to identify and express emotions. The system incorporates cutting-edge technology to support novel interaction mechanisms based on tangible user interfaces (TUIs) and emotion recognition from facial expressions. In this way, children interact with the system in a natural way by simply grasping objects with their hands and using their faces. The system has been assessed on the premises of an association with children with ASD. The outcomes of the evaluation are very positive and support the validity of the proposal.

Emerging mobile technologies are being applied successfully in cultural spaces to help users to get the correct information no matter where he is, in such a way that their use result better than traditional guides. Different technologies (RFID, Wi-Fi, etc.) are applied to allow mobile devices, such as PDAs or smart phones, interact with their environment in order to provide users with updated information regarding his physical location. This paper describes a system environment based on both active and passive RFID technology which supports the automatic positioning of mobile devices in closed spaces. This proposal results especially useful to provide location-aware information avoiding the need for users to manually select the desired information they want to view. This proposal has been successfully proved for the location and positioning of PDAs.

We suggest a two-matrix model depending on three (infinite) sets of parameters which interpolates between all the models proposed in Wang et al. (Eur Phys J C 82:902,arXiv:2206.13038, 2022) and defined there throughW-representations. We also discuss further generalizations of the WLZZ models, realized byW-representations associated with infinite commutative families of generators of $$w_\infty $$w∞ -algebra which are presumably related to more sophisticated multi-matrix models. Integrable properties of these generalizations are described by what we call the skew hypergeometric $$\tau $$τ -functions.

In the last few years, in an attempt to further motivate students to learn a foreign language, there has been an increasing interest in task-based teaching techniques, which emphasize communication and the practical use of language, thus moving away from the repetitive grammar-translation methods. Within this approach, the significance of situating foreign language learners in scenarios where they can meaningfully learn has become a major priority for many educators. This approach is particularly relevant in the context of teaching foreign languages to young children, who need to be introduced to a new language by means of very concrete vocabulary, which is facilitated by the use of objects that they can handle and see. In this study, we investigate the benefits of using wearable and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies in streamlining the creation of such realistic task-based language learning scenarios. We show that the use of these technologies will prove beneficial by freeing the instructors of having to keep records of the tasks performed by each student during the class session. Instead, instructors can focus their efforts on creating a friendly environment and encouraging students to participate. Our study sets up a basis for showing the great benefits of using wearable and IoT technologies in streamlining 1) the creation of realistic scenarios in which young foreign language learners can feel comfortable engaging in chat and becoming better prepared for social interaction in a foreign language, and 2) the acquisition and processing of performance metrics.

GPS seems to be the best solution to develop outdoor location systems, but performance of these systems is not good enough to locate entities within indoor environments, mainly if accuracy and precision are required. In this article we propose a tracking indoor system based on passive RFID technology that is able to accurately locate autonomous entities, such as robots, people, etc, within a defined surface. In order to validate the proposal, we compared our system technology performance against other alternatives built on different technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA, ultrasound, etc). We also include the system evaluation and final remarks with future improvements.