by danielleboyer
 
 
Robot Friend Teaches Indigenous Language: A Minority & Youth-Made Experience Raising awareness about Indigenous cultures and combating language loss with a robot friend. Language revitalization is vital to preserving Indigenous cultures and identities—but resources are dwindling and hard to access. My own language, Ojibwemowin, is considered an endangered language and the lack of tribal school funding and other systemic obstacles like geographic isolation only exacerbate the issue. It begs the question: giga-wanishinimin ina? Will we be lost? I am Anishinaabekwe, an Ojibwe woman, and this problem has plagued my people for hundreds of years now. We are an Indigenous people group from present-day Ontario in eastern Canada all the way into Montana. My goal is to revitalize language using accessible technology and I’m doing it through a robot sidekick. The Community We created a lens based on a real-life robot I invented named SkoBot, a wearable 3D printed Indigenous language learning robot that has reached hundreds of youths for free and is a modern-take on my culture. The robot has been an engaging friend my community loves that has helped us all keep learning, and I wanted to bring that memorable experience to even more people to make Indigenous representation and education accessible. The Functionality Using the front and back camera, users can wear or place their AR robot friend and learn how to introduce themselves traditionally by clicking through introductory phrases and facts. World Camera We use the back camera’s World AR capabilities by using plane detection to place the robot on a surface which users can tap on. The user can then resize the robot by pinching the screen. By pressing the buttons that appear on the world camera, users can scroll through phrases. Users can physically walk around the robot in their surroundings. Front Camera Using the front camera, users wear their own robot and swipe through information. The robot is placed using the face tracking feature which is used for estimation in anchoring the robot to the user’s shoulder. Smiling triggers the robot to flip, showcasing the 3D model. If the user holds down their finger (long tap) the translations appear as a speech bubble above the robot. We believe in the power of AR. Upon polling 142 of my students, only six knew what augmented reality was. When we asked them how they learn best, they mentioned social media. This lens is a useful tool that Ojibwe youths can resonate with and all users can connect with to learn more about Indigenous communities. The Creators This lens was created by Danielle Boyer (Enrolled Citizen of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe – Ojibwe) and Kevin Villanueva both BIPOC youth technologists who have reached millions with their advanced and award-winning technical solutions all around the world. Danielle is a two-time invitee of the White House in 2022, is a MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellow, Teen Vogue Indigenous Youth Changemaker, and has won awards from Verizon, the Clinton Foundation, PEOPLE Magazine, L’Oreal Paris, EdTech, and more. She just finished shooting a documentary for MIT Solve on her community work and has reached over 600k youths with technical education. Kevin has been awarded scholarships and awards from organizations such as Great Minds in STEM, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Microsoft, Google IO, Facebook Data Challenge, Verizon, the Clinton Foundation and more. Kevin’s AR experiences have reached over 3 million people. In case of link issues.