During the previous years of the Pal project, insights gained and lessons learned from the former experimental cycles allowed us to make important improvements in terms of usability, which also paved the way for the introduction of new educational contents and interaction modalities within PAL.
In 2018, the final PAL System has been deployed in two different releases:
- PAL 3.0 characterized by:
- A new real-life goal-oriented educational framework
- An activity-based reward system, to unlock additional features to personalize MyPAL app
- a new video viewer to convey educational contents related to diabetes.
- PAL 3.5, instead, was equipped by:
- new levels and games in MyPAL app
- a more personalized interaction with the robot and its avatar
- the PAL Inform online panel, through which parents could monitor the educational progresses of their children using PAL.
The main objective was to investigate the effect, of the PAL personalized educational framework, on type 1 diabetes determinants, especially focusing on the acquisition of a better awareness on the correct diabetes self-management behaviors. Moreover, technological factors and usability of the final PAL system were taken into consideration to compare the two releases.
Thus, a final long-term evaluation involving 49 children with diabetes (between 7 and 14 years old), their parents and reference Health Care Professionals, was set-up in Italy and the Netherlands.
