Communication Support via a Tele-Operated Robot for Easier Talking: Case/Laboratory Study of Individuals with/Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Shimaya, Jiro; Yoshikawa, Yuichiro; Kumazaki, Hirokazu; Matsumoto, Yoshio; Miyao, Masutomo; Ishiguro, Hiroshi

doi:10.1007/s12369-018-0497-0

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…However, there is a possibility that this might also reflect the general easiness of the android robot for any or broader kinds of persons. Recent studies in the field of human–robot interaction report that adolescents with ASD and young adults with typical development might feel more at ease with a small desktop-type robot as an interlocutor when they are told to disclose their daily distress or autobiographical story (28). Further experiment after long-term habituation would be beneficial to consider this effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relaxing Gaze Aversion of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Consecutive Conversations With Human and Android Robot—A Preliminary Study

et al. 2019

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Establishing a treatment method for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) not only to increase their frequency or duration of eye contact but also to maintain it after ceasing the intervention, and furthermore generalize it across communication partners, is a formidable challenge. Android robots, which are a type of humanoid robot with appearances quite similar to that of humans, are expected to adapt to the role of training partners of face-to-face communication for individuals with ASD and to create easier experiences transferrable to humans. To evaluate this possibility, four male adolescents with ASD and six without ASD were asked to participate a pilot experiment in which there were consecutive sessions of semistructured conversation where they alternately faced either a human female or a female-type android robot interlocutor five times in total. Although it is limited by the small sample size, the preliminary results of analysis of their fixation pattern during the conversations indicated positive signs; the subjects tended to look more at the face of the android robot than that of the human interlocutor regardless of whether they had ASD. However, the individuals with ASD looked more at the area around the eyes of the android robot than at the human, and also looked less at that of the human than the individuals without ASD did. An increasing tendency of looking at the area around the human eyes, which could be a positive sign of the transferability of the experiences with an android robot to a human interlocutor, was only weakly observed as the sessions progressed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relaxing Gaze Aversion of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Consecutive Conversations With Human and Android Robot—A Preliminary Study

et al. 2019

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“…The tele-operated robot used in this study was the CommU ( 25 – 27 ) (Vstone Co., Ltd.) which is 304 mm tall. CommU has 14 degrees of freedom (DoFs) as follows: waist (2), left shoulder (2), right shoulder (2), neck (3), eyes (3), eyelids (1), and lips (1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Communication Skills of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders While Maintaining Social Distancing Using Two Tele-Operated Robots

et al. 2021

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COVID-19 has affected many areas of daily life, including communication and learning. Social distancing is essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In these situations, teaching communication skills is essential for helping individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) reach their full potential. To provide communication education while maintaining social distancing, we developed a communication training system using a tele-operated robot. In this system, we prepared a PC and a robot for each participant. The participants were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot. The objective of this study was to test whether this system can maintain motivation for training in individuals with ASD and whether our system was useful for improving communication skills. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the taking a class by teachers alone (TCT) group or robot-mediated communication exercise (RMC) group. Participants in the TCT group took a class about communication skills from their teacher. Participants in the RMC group, in addition to taking a class by teacher, were grouped in pairs and communicated with each other through the tele-operated robot once a week over 4 weeks (for a total of five sessions). In total, twenty individuals with ASD participated in the study. One-way ANOVA revealed that there were significantly greater improvements in being good at describing their thoughts to others, which was self-rated (F = 6.583; p = 0.019), and good at listening to the thoughts or feelings of others, which was rated by themselves (F = 5.635; p = 0.029) and their teacher (F = 5.333; p = 0.033). As expected, the motivation for training using this system was maintained during a session. Overall, this study revealed that our system was useful for improving communication skills (e.g., listening to the thoughts or feelings of others). Teaching communication skills under pandemic conditions is important, and this study demonstrated the feasibility of communication training using tele-operated robots.

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“…Moreover, a quantitative analysis of the utterances in the trials suggested that reduced utterances from a caregiver might positively influence individuals with ASD toward sharing more information. Similarly, Shimaya et al [71] employed the same humanoid socially assistive robot to provide individuals with ASD an environment where they could disclose their thoughts and concerns. They ran one pilot study including 2 teens with ASD.…”

Section: Methods Of Data Collection (R17)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conversational Agents in Therapeutic Interventions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Survey

Catania¹,

Spitale²,

Garzotto³

2021

Preprint

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Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDD) are a group of conditions with onset in the developmental period characterized by deficits in the cognitive and social areas. Conversational agents have been increasingly explored to support therapeutic interventions for people with NDD. This survey provides a structured view of the crucial design features of these systems, the types of therapeutic goals they address, and the empirical methods adopted for their evaluation. From this analysis, we elaborate a set of recommendations and highlight the gaps left unsolved in the state of the art, upon which we ground a research agenda on conversational agents for NDD.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); Sound-based input / output; Natural language interfaces.

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Communication Support via a Tele-Operated Robot for Easier Talking: Case/Laboratory Study of Individuals with/Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 33 publications

References 29 publications

Relaxing Gaze Aversion of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Consecutive Conversations With Human and Android Robot—A Preliminary Study

Relaxing Gaze Aversion of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Consecutive Conversations With Human and Android Robot—A Preliminary Study

Enhancing Communication Skills of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders While Maintaining Social Distancing Using Two Tele-Operated Robots

Conversational Agents in Therapeutic Interventions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Survey

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