Help for Autism
By Nasr, Susan; Technology Review, Vol. 109, No. 5, p. 9Publication Date: November 2006
Article focuses on the design and development of the prototype Emotional-Social Intelligence Prosthesis (ESP) by a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. The ESP was designed to help to teach people with autism about social cues, as people with autism spectrum disorders may not understand the stare that says, “I’m bored,” or the smile that says, “keep talking” during a conversation. The prototype consists of a small neck-mounted camera and a belt-mounted computer. During conversations, the “self-cam” is used to film the user’s facial expression, while the computer analyzes eye, eyebrow, mouth, and head movements and makes inferences as to what they mean. The computer then produces a graph that indicates when the user appears to be concentrating, thinking, agreeing, disagreeing, etc. The user can then download the videos and watch them along with the graphs so as to gain an understanding of the various meanings conveyed in facial expressions. Prototype evaluations were underway at the time the article was written.
Published by: Technology Review, Inc. (Website:http://www.technologyreview.com)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Web Site: http://www.mit.edu )
