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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Manipulating Image Luminance To Improve Eye Gaze And Verbal Behavior In Autistic Children, Louanne Boyd, Vincent Berardi, Deanna Hughes, Franceli L. Cibrian, Jazette Johnson, Viseth Sean, Eliza Delpizzo-Cheng, Brandon Mackin, Ayra Tusneem, Riya Mody, Sara Jones, Karen Lotich Apr 2022

Manipulating Image Luminance To Improve Eye Gaze And Verbal Behavior In Autistic Children, Louanne Boyd, Vincent Berardi, Deanna Hughes, Franceli L. Cibrian, Jazette Johnson, Viseth Sean, Eliza Delpizzo-Cheng, Brandon Mackin, Ayra Tusneem, Riya Mody, Sara Jones, Karen Lotich

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism has been characterized by a tendency to attend to the local visual details over surveying an image to understand the gist–a phenomenon called local interference. This sensory processing trait has been found to negatively impact social communication. Although much work has been conducted to understand these traits, little to no work has been conducted to intervene to provide support for local interference. Additionally, recent understanding of autism now introduces the core role of sensory processing and its impact on social communication. However, no interventions to the end of our knowledge have been explored to leverage this relationship. This work …


Combining Eye Tracking And Verbal Response To Understand The Impact Of A Global Filter, Franceli L. Cibrian, Jazette Johnson, Viseth Sean, Hollis Pass, Louanne Boyd Apr 2020

Combining Eye Tracking And Verbal Response To Understand The Impact Of A Global Filter, Franceli L. Cibrian, Jazette Johnson, Viseth Sean, Hollis Pass, Louanne Boyd

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Visual attention guides the integration of two streams: the global, that rapidly processes the scene; and the local, that processes details. For people with autism, the integration of these two streams can be disrupted by the tendency to privilege details (local processing) instead of seeing the big picture (global processing). Consequently, people with autism may struggle with typical visual attention, evidenced by their verbal description of local features when asked to describe overall scenes. This paper aims to explore how one adult with autism see and understand the global filter of natural scenes.


Vrsensory: Designing Inclusive Virtual Games With Neurodiverse Children, Ben Wasserman, Derek Prate, Bryce Purnell, Alex Muse, Kaitlyn Abdo, Kendra Day, Louanne Boyd Oct 2019

Vrsensory: Designing Inclusive Virtual Games With Neurodiverse Children, Ben Wasserman, Derek Prate, Bryce Purnell, Alex Muse, Kaitlyn Abdo, Kendra Day, Louanne Boyd

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We explore virtual environments and accompanying interaction styles to enable inclusive play. In designing games for three neurodiverse children, we explore how designing for sensory diversity can be understood through a formal game design framework. Our process reveals that by using sensory processing needs as requirements we can make sensory and social accessible play spaces. We contribute empirical findings for accommodating sensory differences for neurodiverse children in a way that supports inclusive play. Specifically, we detail the sensory driven design choices that not only support the enjoyability of the leisure activities, but that also support the social inclusion of sensory-diverse …


Paper Prototyping Comfortable Vr Play For Diverse Sensory Needs, Louanne E. Boyd, Kendra Day, Ben Wasserman, Kaitlyn Abdo, Gillian Hayes, Erik J. Linstead May 2019

Paper Prototyping Comfortable Vr Play For Diverse Sensory Needs, Louanne E. Boyd, Kendra Day, Ben Wasserman, Kaitlyn Abdo, Gillian Hayes, Erik J. Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We co-designed paper prototype dashboards for virtual environments for three children with diverse sensory needs. Our goal was to determine individual interaction styles in order to enable comfortable and inclusive play. As a first step towards an inclusive virtual world, we began with designing for three sensory-diverse children who have labels of neurotypical, ADHD, and autism respectively. We focused on their leisure interests and their individual sensory profiles. We present the results of co-design with family members and paper prototyping sessions conducted by family members with the children. The results contribute preliminary empirical findings for accommodating different levels of engagement …


Wearable Assistive Technologies For Autism: Opportunities And Challenges, Emma Mansouri Benssassi, Juan-Carlos Gomez, Louanne E. Boyd, Gillian R. Hayes, Juan Ye Jun 2018

Wearable Assistive Technologies For Autism: Opportunities And Challenges, Emma Mansouri Benssassi, Juan-Carlos Gomez, Louanne E. Boyd, Gillian R. Hayes, Juan Ye

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Challenges with typical social engagement, common in the autism experience, can have a significant negative impact on the quality of life of individuals and families living with autism. Recent advances in sensing, intelligent, and interactive technologies can enable new forms of assistive and augmentative technologies to support social interactions. However, researchers have not yet demonstrated effectiveness of these technologies in long-term real-world use. This article presents an overview of the social and sensory challenges of autism, which offer great opportunities and challenges for …


Evaluating A Collaborative Ipad Game's Impact On Social Relationships For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Louanne E. Boyd, Kathryn E. Ringland, Oliver L. Haimson, Helen Fernandez, Maria Bistarkey, Gillian R. Hayes Jun 2015

Evaluating A Collaborative Ipad Game's Impact On Social Relationships For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Louanne E. Boyd, Kathryn E. Ringland, Oliver L. Haimson, Helen Fernandez, Maria Bistarkey, Gillian R. Hayes

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

This article describes how collaborative assistive technologies, housed on off-the-shelf, low-cost platforms such as the iPad, can be used to facilitate social relationships in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Through an empirical study of the use of a collaborative iPad game, Zody, we explore how assistive technologies can be used to support social relationships, even without intervention from adults. We discuss how specific design choices can encourage three levels of social relationship: membership, partnership, and friendship. This work contributes to research on both assistive technologies and collaborative gaming through a framework that describes how specific in-game elements can foster …