Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism

Moza Alahbabi; Fatima Almazroei; Mariam Almarzoqi; Aysha Almeheri; Mariam Alkabi; A. Al Nuaimi; Massimiliano Cappuccio; Fady Alnajjar

doi:10.1109/ICMA.2017.8015864

Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism

Moza Alahbabi, Fatima Almazroei, Mariam Almarzoqi, Aysha Almeheri, Mariam Alkabi, A. Al Nuaimi, Massimiliano Cappuccio, Fady Alnajjar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by severe deficiency in social interaction and communication skills. In this study, we investigated response levels of 5 healthy children to a robotic-avatar therapeutic system specially designed for children with Autism, and compared it to a pre-programmed robot designed to interact with autistic child and conventional interactive therapy conducted by a therapist. Our preliminary results show that our proposed avatar robot can increase the response and the interaction time of the child, thus increasing the attention span. On the other hand, our system can also automate and facilitate measuring the progress of interaction. The avatar robot can replicate the therapist's presence, mimicking his/her motion, transferring his/her voice, as well as, delivering feedbacks to the therapist with visuals and audio from the child environment.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2017 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages	480-484
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	9781509067572
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMA.2017.8015864
Publication status	Published - Aug 23 2017
Event	14th IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017 - Takamatsu, Japan Duration: Aug 6 2017 → Aug 9 2017

Other

Other	14th IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Takamatsu
Period	8/6/17 → 8/9/17

Keywords

Autism
Avatar-robots
Therapy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Optimization
Instrumentation
Artificial Intelligence
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Mechanical Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/ICMA.2017.8015864

Cite this

Alahbabi, M., Almazroei, F., Almarzoqi, M., Almeheri, A., Alkabi, M., Nuaimi, A. A., Cappuccio, M., & Alnajjar, F. (2017). Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017 (pp. 480-484). [8015864] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMA.2017.8015864

Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism. / Alahbabi, Moza; Almazroei, Fatima; Almarzoqi, Mariam et al.
2017 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2017. p. 480-484 8015864.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Alahbabi, M, Almazroei, F, Almarzoqi, M, Almeheri, A, Alkabi, M, Nuaimi, AA, Cappuccio, M & Alnajjar, F 2017, Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism. in 2017 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017., 8015864, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., pp. 480-484, 14th IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA 2017, Takamatsu, Japan, 8/6/17. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMA.2017.8015864

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Avatar based interaction therapy: A potential therapeutic approach for children with Autism

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Keywords

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