A Physiologically Informed Virtual Reality Based Social Communication System for Individuals with Autism

Abstract

Clinical applications of advanced technology may hold promise for addressing impairments associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This project evaluated the application of a novel physiologically responsive virtual reality based technological system for conversation skills in a group of adolescents with ASD. The system altered components of conversation based on (1) performance alone or (2) the composite effect of performance and physiological metrics of predicted engagement (e.g., gaze pattern, pupil dilation, blink rate). Participants showed improved performance and looking pattern within the physiologically sensitive system as compared to the performance based system. This suggests that physiologically informed technologies may have the potential of being an effective tool in the hands of interventionists.

Technology-Facilitated Diagnosis and Treatment of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Engineering Perspective

“…Some studies did use such virtual reality systems/devices [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. However, many studies used conventional computer monitors to display virtual reality scenes with one or more avatars [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Hence, there is certain degree of overlap between the virtual reality based presentation mode and the conventional computer based presentation mode.…”

“…In [28,37,[39][40][41]57], the Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit, a commercial product from WorldViz (http://www.worldviz.com/vizard-virtual-reality-software/) was used to produce the avatars in the study. The toolkit contains a PeopleMaker program, which users can use to custom design morphable 3D heads for avatars for different emotion expressions.…”

“…For example, if a story is about an incident in a fast food restaurant, the scene could be McDonald's. In [37,40,41], real 2D pictures of social environments were used for building the scenes. In other works, the scene is often designed using virtual 3D objects, such as [28], where a virtual classroom with multiple avatars is used in the study.…”

“…The voices for avatars were recorded and replayed during a study session [37,41]. In some studies, lip sync, which can be facilitated by the Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit, is used to make the story telling look more natural [40].…”

Applications and Issues for Physiological Computing Systems: An Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Interaction with physiological computing systems provides implicit feedback about one's current psychological state via the types of adaptations that occur at the interface. This feedback can be used to inform self-knowledge and facilitate self-regulation, which may have therapeutic benefits for certain clinical groups (Lahiri, Bekele, Dohrmann, Warren, & Sarkar, 2015).…”