A Look Forward




© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Teresa A. Cardon (ed.)Technology and the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum DisorderAutism and Child Psychopathology Series10.1007/978-3-319-20872-5_13


13. A Look Forward



Teresa A. Cardon 


(1)
Utah Valley University, Orem, UT, USA

 



 

Teresa A. Cardon



Keywords
AppsWearablesRobotsAssistive technologyGoogle GlassFuture of technology


The speed at which technology is changing and advancing continues at an unprecedented rate. At the time of this writing, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas just ended (January 2015). Advances in technology ranged from clothing equipped with Bluetooth devices to smart refrigerators to 4K televisions. Given the rate at which technology is changing, it is difficult to predict the future of technology and autism. It is possible to predict, however, that the promising path of technological support for individuals with ASD will continue to alter their lives in ways we may not even have imagined yet. In addition to the future technological possibilities mentioned in Chap. 11, this final chapter will briefly touch on innovations that are starting to cross paths with autism.


Apps


While apps are not new to autism, the plethora of apps that provide intervention and support for children with ASD will continue to grow and advance. Recently, Samsung announced the new “Look at Me” app that is designed to help children with autism improve the “ability to make eye contact” (http://​pages.​samsung.​com/​ca/​lookatme/​English/​). The app was developed by a team of psychologists and psychiatrists and is currently undergoing clinical testing. In addition, families that are using the app are connected through the Look at Me Project (2015), a shared community similar to a social media experiment, where families can share the progress their children are making.

A soon to be released app, developed with the help of MIT’s Media Lab, focuses on emotion reading software that will help children with ASD identify emotions. Affectiva (www.​affectiva.​com) software analyzes images of faces and can detect nuances such as furrowed brows and smirks. Children with ASD will be able to submit pictures of faces in order to get a description of the mood depicted in the picture. The software database currently holds more than a billion facial expressions and will provide support to children with ASD as they learn to analyze and understand emotions.

Only gold members can continue reading. Log In or Register to continue

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Jun 14, 2017 | Posted by in NEUROLOGY | Comments Off on A Look Forward

Full access? Get Clinical Tree

Get Clinical Tree app for offline access