Hemi-Games I.

Introduction
A presentation of Hemi-Games for Imagine2012 contest Impact your worldEducational games and applications for PC and mobiles that involves both hemispheres of your brain they teach mathematics, geometry, fast reading and at the same time musical and colour sense. Our brain consists of two hemispheres - right and left that fulfil different functions. Left hemisphere is responsible for logical thinking, recognizing numbers, letters, shapes, symbols, numerical computations, facts, while right hemisphere is responsible for colours and images, emotions, creativity, intuition, music. Both hemispheres participate in the majority of activities for example when we are listening to the music our left hemisphere is focused on the words while our right hemisphere follows the music. The learning process is far more effective when two hemispheres are involved in the process that is the reason why children learn numbers and letters using colourful toys. Involving the whole brain is the most effective way of learning. In the education systems of western countries there is a lot of focus on training our left hemisphere, because analytical approach, logical thinking and being aim-oriented are considered important features of a good employee. Our right hemisphere seems not to receive so much attention, while creativity and emotions are also key factors to succeed in life. That is way the majority of us can easily calculate the result of 54+132, but a lot of us have a problem to say what will be the result of mixing green with red.
We learn multiplying tables, but are we able to fill in colour-addition tables as well?

During last years a lot of interest has been shown in neuroscience and cognitive enhancement to train our brains and improve its performance. The web portal lumosity.com offering games that enhance performance of different parts of your brain has enjoyed numerous users.

II. Description of the idea:

Hemi-games offers you to learn mathematics, geometry, speed reading and at the same time music and colour sense. There are different games and application to choose: SpeedRead: It is an application that is aimed at improving speed reading skills. It helps to control the rhythm of reading, which is one of the key factors to read effectively (it helps to eliminate the habit of going back to already read parts or to go too much ahead, it also helps to eliminate the habit of subvocalization also called thinking aloud). It is an innovative modification of method called Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) - a method of displaying information (generally text or images) in which the text is displayed word-byword in a fixed focal position. At the begging a slideshow is presented the user sees a colour and hears the tone of a musical instrument. Each colour is always accompanied by the same tone so that listening to the music and watching the slideshow you learn to identify sounds with the corresponding colour. After a short quiz verifying if the user has already learned the relation between colours and sounds his task will be to read a text. If he is a first time user the text will be actual instructions to the application.

Each letter has its own colour and the melody corresponding to the colours sequence is played. Than gradually, bigger fragments of the text are coloured, syllables,
than words, and eventually whole phrases. That way the user learns to change his reading pace which is the key factor to fast reading (scanning the text to find information that we want to memorize).

To ensure that the user is following the music and the colours from time to time the user has to read mixed text. That means, for example:

Instead of reading ordered sentences the user is reading sentences with all words mixed in each line. reading of sentences Instead ordered is with user reading the sentences line mixed all in each words .
But as each colour is used only once in one line you can order words in each line just listening to the music. The same trick could be used for bigger or smaller text blocks (mixing letters in the words or longer phrases in one paragraph) Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. The user will be able to upload his favourite e-books and the text will be used by the application. The user will be also able to create their own melodies, colourings, texts and share them with other users. MultiAdd: The game aim is to improve fast calculations, colour and music sense and dealing with different task at the same time. The first element is introduced: there are 3 different stimuli a number is showed against coloured background and you hear the tone of a musical instrument. After a few seconds the second element is introduced it consists again of the number, colour and a sound of a musical instrument. When the third element is shown the task is to figure out if it is a sum of the two first elements: The third number is the sum of the first two elements The third colour is the mixture of the first two colours The third sound is the mix of two tones the user has heard before.

A number of modifications including adding/removing stimuli, speed, switching from adding to subtracting, switching to roman numbers or to adding geometric figures instead of adding numbers, increasing the number of elements to add, changing musical instrument and much more are available.

Sound painting: This application is using sound-colour relation form the application SpeedRead. It enables to create pictures (using basic colours form application SpeedRead ) with accompanying melody. As each colour can be identified with the specific sound the viewer looks at different parts of the picture in synchronized order with the melody. That way the melody turns the picture into an animation or a story. Each user can create his own animation and publish it on the web the other users can vote on it and re-make it adding other melody to the picture that can change the plot or change the picture.

III. Why my project should be chosen?

The cerebral hemispheres synchronization is one of the most interesting topics in the camp of neuroscience. The success of many brilliant people (e.g. Albert Einstein) is suspected to be related with harmony between both hemispheres and big amount of neuronal connections in their brains. In the modern world a lot of kids have problems with mathematics. At the same time we spent a fair amount of time listening to the music as an entertainment, but often we remember the melody and the lyrics of our favourite songs during the years. Hemi-Games offers using your sense of music and colour to learn mathematics effectively, involving whole your brain and enjoying it at the same time. Hemi-Games project mission is to proof that learning is something enjoyable and to join the most important skills in life and good employee qualities with sense of music.

IV. Conclusion
To conclude Hemi-Games can contribute to create well-educated and happier society. It encourages all of us to search for new methods to make education more effective and enjoyable. Moreover, it is realistic idea that can be executed and I am concerned that I join academic, professional and privates skills needed to do it. I have experience as a teacher, professor substitute and in the world of arts. I speak English fluently and I am used to working in international environment. What I considered the most important thing I am full of passion and faith in success of my project and I am ready to work hard on it.

Arthur Rimbaud Vowels A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels, I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins: A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies which buzz around cruel smells, Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents, lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley; I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips in anger or in the raptures of penitence; U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas, the peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads; O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds, silences crossed by [Worlds and by Angels]: O the Omega! the violet ray of [His] Eyes!
Arthur Rimbaud was considered a poetic genius at the age of 16.