A Step towards Adaptive Multimodal Virtual Social Interaction Platform for Children with Autism

Recent advances in computer and robotic technology are enabling the application of such technology in assisting traditional intervention in developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A number of research studies indicate that many children with ASD prefer technology and this preference can be explored to develop systems that may alleviate several challenges of traditional treatment and intervention. The current work proposes to develop an adaptive virtual reality-based social interaction platform for children with ASD. It is hypothesized that endowing a technological system that can detect the feeling and state of the child and adapt its interaction accordingly is of great importance in assisting and individualization of traditional intervention approaches. The proposed system employs sensors such as eye trackers and physiological signal monitors and models the context relevant psychological state of the user from combination of these sensors together with the performance of the participant.

[1]  Ami Klin,et al.  Genetics of childhood disorders: XLIII. Autism, part 2: neural foundations. , 2002, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[2]  P. J. Brooks,et al.  Use of Computer-Assisted Technologies (CAT) to Enhance Social, Communicative, and Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders , 2012, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

[3]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Handbook Of Psychophysiology , 2019 .

[4]  Uttama Lahiri,et al.  An Affect-Sensitive Social Interaction Paradigm Utilizing Virtual Reality Environments for Autism Intervention , 2009, HCI.

[5]  P. Mitchell,et al.  The potential of virtual reality in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders. , 2002, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[6]  Sarah Parsons,et al.  The Use and Understanding of Virtual Environments by Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders , 2004, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[7]  Rosalind W. Picard Future affective technology for autism and emotion communication , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[8]  Changchun Liu,et al.  Online Affect Detection and Robot Behavior Adaptation for Intervention of Children With Autism , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[9]  G. Cottrell,et al.  Two Fixations Suffice in Face Recognition , 2008, Psychological science.

[10]  Joseph H. Goldberg,et al.  Identifying fixations and saccades in eye-tracking protocols , 2000, ETRA.

[11]  Fabio Pianesi,et al.  Enhancing social communication of children with high-functioning autism through a co-located interface , 2009, AI & SOCIETY.

[12]  Christine L. Lisetti,et al.  Affective User Modeling for Adaptive Intelligent User Interfaces , 2007, HCI.

[13]  Carly Demopoulos,et al.  A Comparison of Social Cognitive Profiles in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Matter of Quantitative but not Qualitative Difference? , 2013, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[14]  Catherine Lord,et al.  Genetics of childhood disorders: XLII. Autism, part 1: Diagnosis and assessment in autistic spectrum disorders. , 2002, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[15]  A. Rizzo,et al.  Virtual reality in paediatric rehabilitation: A review , 2009, Developmental neurorehabilitation.

[16]  N. Sarkar,et al.  Design of a Gaze-Sensitive Virtual Social Interactive System for Children With Autism , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[17]  Anton Leuski,et al.  Building Effective Question Answering Characters , 2006, SIGDIAL Workshop.

[18]  Daniel C. Krawczyk,et al.  Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training for Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism , 2012, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[19]  Matthew S. Goodwin,et al.  Assessing Cardiovascular Responses to Stressors in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders , 2005 .

[20]  C. Bell Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision: DSM-IV-TR Quick Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV-TR , 2001 .

[21]  Anton Leuski,et al.  Virtual Patients for Clinical Therapist Skills Training , 2007, IVA.

[22]  Maja Pantic,et al.  Social signal processing: Survey of an emerging domain , 2009, Image Vis. Comput..

[23]  Julie A. Jacko HCI Intelligent multimodal interaction environments , 2007 .

[24]  B. C. Lacey,et al.  Pupillary and cardiac activity during visual attention. , 1973, Psychophysiology.

[25]  B. Pennington,et al.  Executive function and social communication deficits in young autistic children. , 1993, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[26]  N. Sriram,et al.  Enhancing Social Problem Solving in Children with Autism and Normal Children Through Computer-Assisted Instruction , 2001, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[27]  M. Ganz,et al.  The lifetime distribution of the incremental societal costs of autism. , 2007, Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine.

[28]  John Colombo,et al.  Visual Scanning and Pupillary Responses in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder , 2006, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.