Kirana: A Gesture-Based Market App For Life Skills Learning For Individuals With Developmental Disabilities

Kirana is a gesture-based application that simulates purchasing experience at a local Indian grocery store. It provides individuals with developmental difficulties a safe and controlled environment to explore the processes of purchasing an item: namely, deciding items to buy (decision making), calculating costs and balance (mathematical skills), and interactions via pointing (social interaction). Previous research has established that gesture-based interaction has the potential to enhance social, motor and cognitive skills for individuals with developmental disabilities. Currently, translating learnings from gesture-based virtual applications to real world scenarios is underexplored. Kirana is an approach to simulating practical real interactions, by breaking down complex tasks that require social, mathematical and decision-making skills, and encouraging self-efficacy. Skills learnt by purchasing items with Kirana, are potentially transferable to a real world store.