Aid for autistic children using VR

Abstract

Technology has a very deep social impact on our lives in today’s world, with the increase in technology humans are more prone to comfort compared to what they were some years ago. Virtual Reality being one of the emerging technologies of present era is proving to be a lot useful in number of fields. Idea proposed is of a Virtual Reality application for Autistic children and their caretakers. Autism Spectrum disorder is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. As the word “spectrum” suggests people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have challenges that run the gamut from mild to severe, with different levels of ability and disability. Someone may have no functional speech, or may have a rich vocabulary. He may be intellectually disabled or have an average or above average IQ. He may be socially withdrawn or may be socially active, although in an oblivious, eccentric way. Standard therapy methods include taking them into the real life situations or creating it one physically at the resource centers. This can be overwhelming process with little to no outcome. Digitizing the methods will help the children and caretakers to complete the therapies in an engaging way. An android VR application has been developed for children and their caretakers targeting mild to medium level cases focusing on natural environment and social skill therapies been developed in a virtual environment. Subject will have to wear a headset which will make them interact with the application virtual environment for different levels of the therapies. The results of the evaluation revealed that application has potential benefits to foster the learning process and help autistic children by improving their social skills and reduce their anxiety.