EMOCASH: An Intelligent Virtual-Agent Based Multiplayer Online Serious Game for Promoting Money and Emotion Recognition Skills in Egyptian Children with Autism

Abstract

Autism, often known as "autism spectrum disorders (ASD)," is one of the most common developmental disabilities that affect how people learn, behave, communicate, and interact with others. Two crucial everyday tasks that people with ASD typically struggle with are managing finances and recognizing emotions. As the online gaming sector grows and develops, the question of why this type of media can't be used as a useful educational tool for those with ASD arises. This paper discusses this issue via a novel virtual agent-based multiplayer online serious game referred to as "EMOCASH," which aims to improve these important tasks for Egyptian children with ASD and achieve transfer of acquired knowledge to real-world situations via a 3D virtual shop scenario that was designed using the Autism ASPECTSS TM Design Index. EMOCASH served as an instrument for investigating the following research question: What role does technology play in the education of those with ASD? Numerous sub-questions that were related to the primary question were also addressed. A variety of usability metrics were used to assess effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction aspects.