The Leading Annual conference and exposition of the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) was organized from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 January 2015.
More than 2,600 visitors from over 30 countries had the opportunity to see demonstrations of hardware and software for children and adults by 110+ exhibiting companies in the Exhibit Hall and to attend several research and practical sessions of about 425 speakers, i.e. educational leaders, professional presentations and leading vendors.

It was a very lively forum with presentations and discussions about new trends in assistive technologies, practical applications, and services.

This year, it was evident that companies gave solutions around technologies that could act as replacements for your mouse or your finger on a touchscreen. There have been technological proposals allowing someone to use voice, gestures, or even the eye gaze to intuitively control the computer.
Natural user interaction technologies such as eye-gaze and Kinect bring a whole new experience that enable people with disabilities to engage into learning activities with natural behaviors.

Kinems participated in ATIA with its unique solution of Kinect-based learning games for children with special educational needs. It was the only company that proposed the use of Microsoft Kinect sensor that allow users to interact in a natural fashion, i.e. hand and body gestures. Kinems advocates and showw via research studies - that “embodied cognition” offers a successful approach for many children with special educational needs. Specially designed game-based kinesthetic learning activities really have impact on children’s academic performance and on improvement of executive functions.

Natural user interaction technologies have shattered the existing paradigm of user interfaces by offering an immersive and holistic user experience. We are expecting more to see next year at ATIA 2016….