The issue
Storytelling is an essential and fantastic way for younger children to develop language and communication abilities. It is also the most effective and natural means of parent-child interaction in a family. Children stories are available most typically in the form of printed books. Online audio stories have become popular, but they are limited in content variety. Working parents may hardly afford the time and energy to regularly interact with their children after a long day of work, let alone telling them stories.
The solution
The latest artificial intelligence and mobile internet technologies are exploited to enhance the public’s accessibility to high-quality audio stories with rich and customisable content. The team is developing a new mobile application to achieve instantaneous generation and modification of personalised stories. Users can put their own names into a selected story and modify specific content. This provides a brand-new experience for children, parents and teachers, effectively engaging them in the process of story creation and sharing.
Impact
The app will be widely distributed via non-profit organisations to families from all walks of life. It revolutionises experiences of story appreciation and creation for children and their parents. By designing story content based on the language acquisition process of children, the app will also benefit their Chinese language learning.
Beneficiaries
– Children of age 3 to 10 and their parents
– Teachers of kindergarten and primary schools
Project Team
Tan has been working on spoken language technologies for over 20 years. He is interested and specialised particularly in Cantonese speech. His research is highly interdisciplinary, spanning cross humanities, social science, education and medicine.
