NEWS / RESEARCH: Over 1 in 10 Bulgarian teens declare computers are a source of happiness

45.2% of the Bulgarian teenagers consider that friends are most important to them for feeling happy and 30.9% choose the family. For 12.9% of the youth love is a source of happiness but 10.9% would rather prefer the computer. Good scores in school are far down in the rating – 3.8%, and learning makes happy only 1.9%.

These are the results of national representative online study conducted by the National Center for Protection of Public Health in the period July-October 2009 among 1,000 teenagers 13-18 years of age who have access to a computer.

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NEWS / ARTICLES / TECHNOLOGY / DISABILITIES: Software 'gives children a voice'

Software 'gives children a voice'

Scientists claim to have developed the first technology of its kind to allow children with communication problems to converse better.

'How was school today?' is software to help children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy communicate faster.

The system is the result of a project between computing scientists from the Universities of Aberdeen and Dundee, and Capability Scotland.

Pupils from Corseford School in Renfrewshire were first to trial it.

Dr Ehud Reiter, from the University of Aberdeen's school of natural and computing sciences, said: "How was school today? uses sensors, swipe cards, and a recording device to gather information on what the child using the system has experienced at school that day.

"This can then be turned into a story by the computer - using what is called natural language generation - which the pupils can then share when they get home.

"The system is designed to support a more interactive narration, allowing children to easily talk about their school day and to quickly answer questions."

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