Mechanical Engineering Department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2011 Aug;19(4):443-52. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2011.2153874. Epub 2011 May 23.
Impairments in social communication skills are thought to be core deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In recent years, several assistive technologies, particularly Virtual Reality (VR), have been investigated to promote social interactions in this population. It is well known that children with ASD demonstrate atypical viewing patterns during social interactions and thus monitoring eye-gaze can be valuable to design intervention strategies. While several studies have used eye-tracking technology to monitor eye-gaze for offline analysis, there exists no real-time system that can monitor eye-gaze dynamically and provide individualized feedback. Given the promise of VR-based social interaction and the usefulness of monitoring eye-gaze in real-time, a novel VR-based dynamic eye-tracking system is developed in this work. This system, called Virtual Interactive system with Gaze-sensitive Adaptive Response Technology (VIGART), is capable of delivering individualized feedback based on a child's dynamic gaze patterns during VR-based interaction. Results from a usability study with six adolescents with ASD are presented that examines the acceptability and usefulness of VIGART. The results in terms of improvement in behavioral viewing and changes in relevant eye physiological indexes of participants while interacting with VIGART indicate the potential of this novel technology.
社交沟通技能障碍被认为是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的核心缺陷。近年来，已经研究了几种辅助技术，特别是虚拟现实（VR），以促进这一人群的社交互动。众所周知，自闭症儿童在社交互动中表现出非典型的注视模式，因此监测眼动可以为设计干预策略提供有价值的信息。虽然有几项研究使用眼动追踪技术来监测眼动进行离线分析，但目前还没有可以动态监测眼动并提供个性化反馈的实时系统。鉴于基于 VR 的社交互动的前景以及实时监测眼动的有用性，本工作开发了一种新型基于 VR 的动态眼动追踪系统。该系统称为具有注视敏感自适应响应技术的虚拟交互系统（VIGART），能够根据儿童在基于 VR 的互动过程中的动态注视模式提供个性化反馈。介绍了一项针对六名自闭症青少年的可用性研究结果，该研究检验了 VIGART 的可接受性和有用性。参与者在与 VIGART 互动时，在行为观察方面的改善以及相关眼生理指标方面的变化方面的结果表明了这项新技术的潜力。
