Robots now therapists and playmates to autistic children

In a small, sparsely furnished room, a young boy in a black T-shirt backs himself into a corner. He’s cautious. Cameras capture his movements, and microphones record every sound. But this doesn’t intimidate him; he doesn’t even seem aware that he’s being observed.


Brian is autistic, and he’s staring across the room at a two-wheeled, gray, humanoid robot with big, cartoonish eyes. The machine, Bandit, is roughly Brian’s size, and it has been trying to engage him by slowly rolling toward him.

Bandit uses infrared sensing and cameras to calculate Brian’s position. Seeing that the boy is backing away, the robot tries a different approach. It stops moving and makes a “come-here” gesture, waving him closer. It works. Brian approaches and then stands alongside Bandit, shoulder-to-plastic-shoulder. Bandit stops moving, and Brian backs off. The boy is like a boxer sizing up an opponent.

Finally, emboldened, Brian steps up to the robot and leans his face toward it, curious and confident.
For the researchers observing the interaction through a two-way mirror in an adjoining room, this small gesture is an encouraging sign. The boy is warming up to the machine, and that’s the point.

‘SYMPATHETIC’ ROBOTS
This unusual pair is part of a research initiative at the University of Southern California to build robots sympathetic and sensitive enough to serve as both therapists and playmates to kids with autism.
Bandit is programmed to perform simple facial expressions and movements, and researchers are working to give the robot the ability to make complex decisions in response to the child’s behavior.
This way, Bandit and robots like it could draw socially detached kids into simple games, like Simon Says or hide-and-seek and, ultimately, social activities with people. As USC computer scientist and project leader Maja Matari´c explains, “The robot is a catalyst for social interaction.”
In its current form, Bandit has only rudimentary social skills. For instance, it cannot yet understand speech; a researcher in the other room must command the robot to respond if the child speaks to it.
But early results are encouraging. Matari´c’s team has conducted experiments similar to the interaction between Bandit and Brian with 14 other autistic children, most between five and nine years old.
Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge in England, along with other autism experts, believes that robots, computers and electronic gadgets may be appealing because they are predictable, unlike people.

HELP WANTED
Automated therapists would not only increase the amount of available therapy but would also make it available wherever a family happened to live. They could customize them, adjusting the facial expressions and body language depending on the needs or comfort level of the child.
Or the robot could adjust itself, gradually becoming less predictable to slowly increase a child’s tolerance for the uncertainty of real social situations.
To that end, MIT electrical engineer Rosalind Picard has co-founded a company called Affectiva to develop sensor wristbands that record movement, temperature and perspiration. Incorporated into child-robot therapy sessions, the wristbands could pick up hidden physiological cues and inform robots if the child might be getting anxious.
Likewise, a ’bot could begin recording audio and video anytime the child’s vitals began to change, and flag that clip for analysis.
Later, a therapist or parent could study the videos to see if there was anything in particular that might have caused the child to grow uncomfortable.


UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL
Ten years might sound like a long time to perfect a robot that’s already interacting with kids. Indeed, Matari´c says they could probably make a consumer version of Bandit in far less time, but it would cost thousands of dollars, and that would subvert one of their central goals. Bandit needs to be affordable, costing no more than $1,000, Matari´c says, because families with autistic children already have enough expenses.
For now, the USC team is busy trying to broaden Bandit’s social skills and enhance its ability to read and react to a child’s mood. The group will begin a larger study, after which the researchers will have a much clearer picture of exactly how effective the robot can be in helping children with autism.
Matari´c is cautiously optimistic — as a mother herself, she doesn’t want to give false hope to parents of autistic children — but she does occasionally drop her reserve.

She recalls one child, a high-functioning nine-year-old autistic boy who struggled to communicate and interact with others. Bandit seemed to change that. Playing with the robot, the boy was more chatty and interactive with his mother. But as he tried to involve Bandit in a game of tag, he became frustrated. The robot didn’t understand him — the scientists hadn’t programmed in the ability to play this game. When the boy realized that Bandit wasn’t going to comply, he stunned the observers by saying, “Now I know how my teachers feel.”
Matari´c was astonished. This was totally unexpected behavior. Even the boy’s mother was surprised. Empathy is one of those skills autistic children typically lack; this boy wasn’t supposed to be aware of his teachers’ frustration.

“That’s a profound level of self-understanding and introspection, and if these kids have it, it’s not coming out in their interactions with other people and other kids,” Matari´c says later. “To have it come out with the robot is fantastic. It’s unlocking all this great potential that the kids have.”

source: popsci.com

A Whole New Technology for A Whole New World