A proposed framework of an interactive semi-virtual environment for enhanced education of children with autism spectrum disorders

Education of people with special needs has recently been considered as a key element in the field of medical education. Recent development in the area of information and communication technologies may enable development of collaborative interactive environments which facilitate early stage education and provide specialists with robust tools indicating the person's autism spectrum disorder level. Towards the goal of establishing an enhanced learning environment for children with autism this paper attempts to provide a framework of a semi-controlled real-world environment used for the daily education of an autistic person according to the scenarios selected by the specialists. The proposed framework employs both real-world objects and virtual environments equipped with humanoids able to provide emotional feedback and to demonstrate empathy. Potential examples and usage scenarios for such environments are also described

Using affective avatars and rich multimedia content for education of children with autism

Autism is a communication disorder that mandates early and continuous educational interventions on various levels like the everyday social, communication and reasoning skills. Computer-aided education has recently been considered as a likely intervention method for such cases, and therefore different systems have been proposed and developed worldwide. In more recent years, affective computing applications for the aforementioned interventions have also been proposed to shed light on this problem. In this paper, we examine the technological and educational needs of affective interventions for autistic persons. Enabling affective technologies are visited and a number of possible exploitation scenarios are illustrated. Emphasis is placed in covering the continuous and long term needs of autistic persons by unobtrusive and ubiquitous technologies with the engagement of an affective speaking avatar. A personalised prototype system facilitating these scenarios is described. In addition the feedback from educators for autistic persons is provided for the system in terms of its usefulness, efficiency and the envisaged reaction of the autistic persons, collected by means of an anonymous questionnaire. Results illustrate the clear potential of this effort in facilitating a very promising autism intervention

Information and communication technologies (ICT) for enhanced education of children with autism spectrum disorders

Recent developments in the area of information and communication technologies for people with special needs has led to significant changes in the way specialists and educators can address the daily impairments posed by people with abnormal behaviour, such as autism. Computer based educative methods are increasingly being considered as a key tool for educating people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Recent research has demonstrated that persons with autism, especially children, enjoy interacting with computers particularly as they are free from the expectations and judgments that make social interaction problematic. Virtual Environments (VEs), usually accompanied by three dimensional (3D) humanoid characters have been proven to play an essential role in special education and social interventions. Emotionally expressive avatars (a computer user’s representation of himself/ herself or alter ego), can advance the quality of tutor-learner interaction, with unobtrusive wireless sensors integrating an autistic person’s feedback and reaction. In this paper we review some developments in information and communication technology (ICT) for managing children with ASDs and also describe the approach we are taking to developing a platform to enhance and mediate the teacher-child educational process

A computer based system to design expressive avatars

Avatars are used in different contexts and situations: e-commerce, e-therapy, virtual worlds, videogames,collaborative online design... In this context, a good design of an avatar may improve the user experience. The ability of controlling the way an avatar convey messages and emotions is capital. In this work, a procedure to design avatar faces capable of conveying to the observer the most suitable sensations according to a given context is developed. The proposed system is based on a combination of genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks whose training is based on perceptual human responses to a set of faces.Diego-Mas, JA.; Alcaide Marzal, J. (2015). A computer based system to design expressive avatars. Computers in Human Behavior. 44:1-11. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.027S1114

A Reflection on Virtual Reality Design for Psychological, Cognitive & Behavioral Interventions: Design Needs, Opportunities & Challenges

Despite the substantial research interest in using Virtual Reality (VR) in healthcare in general and in Psychological, Cognitive, and Behavioral (PC&B) interventions in specific, as well as emerging research supporting the efficacy of VR in healthcare, the design process of translating therapies into VR to meet the needs of critical stakeholders such as users and clinicians is rarely addressed. In this paper, we aim to shed light onto the design needs, opportunities and challenges in designing efficient and effective PC&B-VR interventions. Through analyzing the co-design processes of four user-centered PC&B-VR interventions, we examined how therapies were adapted into VR to meet stakeholders’ requirements, explored design elements for meaningful experiences, and investigated how the understanding of healthcare contexts contribute to the VR intervention design. This paper presents the HCI research community with design opportunities and challenges as well as future directions for PC&B-VR intervention design

Design and application of an immersive virtual reality system to enhance emotional skills for children with autism spectrum disorders

This paper proposes the design and application of an immersive virtual reality system to improve and train the emotional skills of students with autism spectrum disorders. It has been designed for primary school students between the ages of 7–12 and all participants have a confirmed diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. The immersive environment allows the student to train and develop different social situations in a structured, visual and continuous manner. The use of a computer vision system to automatically determine the child's emotional state is proposed. This system has been created with two goals in mind, the first to update the social situations, with the student's emotional mood taken into account, and the second to confirm, automatically, if the child's behavior is appropriate in the represented social situation. The results described in this paper show a significant improvement in the children's emotional competences, in comparison with the results obtained until now using earlier virtual reality systems

Machinima And Video-based Soft Skills Training

Multimedia training methods have traditionally relied heavily on video based technologies and significant research has shown these to be very effective training tools. However production of video is time and resource intensive. Machinima (pronounced \u27muh-sheen-eh-mah\u27) technologies are based on video gaming technology. Machinima technology allows video game technology to be manipulated into unique scenarios based on entertainment or training and practice applications. Machinima is the converting of these unique scenarios into video vignettes that tell a story. These vignettes can be interconnected with branching points in much the same way that education videos are interconnected as vignettes between decision points. This study addressed the effectiveness of machinima based soft-skills education using avatar actors versus the traditional video teaching application using human actors. This research also investigated the difference between presence reactions when using avatar actor produced video vignettes as compared to human actor produced video vignettes. Results indicated that the difference in training and/or practice effectiveness is statistically insignificant for presence, interactivity, quality and the skill of assertiveness. The skill of active listening presented a mixed result indicating the need for careful attention to detail in situations where body language and facial expressions are critical to communication. This study demonstrates that a significant opportunity exists for the exploitation of avatar actors in video based instruction

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Emotional Intelligence and Emoji Identification Accuracy in College Students

The current study examined the use and interpretation of emojis by neurotypical college students through emotional recognition and social understanding and the implications for their use in supportive communication inside the classroom for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Emotional awareness and reciprocity are essential for establishing friendships and developing social skills. At this point, there remains limited research on the implications of emoji use for individuals with ASD and any boundaries that may be associated with emojis in social understanding and emotional awareness. The specific research questions that will be addressed in this study are as follows: (1) Is there a correlation between self-reported emotional intelligence and emoji identification accuracy? (2) Is there a correlation between degree of emoji use and emoji identification accuracy? (3) Are certain demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, years of smartphone use) related to emoji identification accuracy? A total of 101 undergraduate and graduate students completed a 53-item survey which included demographic questions, emoji identification tasks, and self-reported measures of emotional intelligence. Results indicated that there is not a relationship between an individual’s ability to correctly identify emojis and their level of self-reported emotional intelligence (r = .161; p = .131). Participants’ identification accuracy was not found to be related to degree of emoji use, gender or age (p \u3e .05). However, the relationship between identification accuracy and years of smartphone use was found to be approaching significance (p = .051). The results provide preliminary evidence for future researchers to investigate whether there is a relationship between individuals with ASD’s emoji identification accuracy and emotional intelligence