Abstract: The deficit in joint attention is an early predictor of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Training of joint attention has been a significant topic in ASD intervention. We propose a novel training approach using a Customizable Virtual Human (CVH) and a Virtual Reality (VR) game. We developed a CVH in an educational game – Imagination Drums – and conducted a user study on adolescents with high functioning ASD. The study results showed that the CVH makes the participants gaze less at the irrelevant area of the game’s storyline (i.e. background), but surprisingly, also provided evidence that participants react slower to the CVH’s joint attention bids, compared with Non-Customizable Virtual Humans.
Dr. Chao Mei currently serves as the Director of Human Factors Engineering at TCL Rayneo XR, leading the research of Human-Computer Interaction for AR wearable devices. Before TCL Raynow, he worked in Meta Reality Labs and the Dept. of Software Engineering and Game Development at Kennesaw State University. He is an NSF grant awardee. He received his Ph.D in Computer Science from the Computer Science Dept. at The University of Texas at San Antonio on Aug. 2016. His Ph.D. advisor is Dr. John Quarles who is the director of the San Antonio Virtual Environment (SAVE) lab. His main research areas are: Human-Computer Interaction – Virtual/Augmented Reality, Special Education, Educational Gaming and Software Engineering. He also got an M.B.A. degree from Georgia Institute of Technology.
The ‘Virtual Reality MS walk’ is design to raise funds and awareness for MS and MS related research. Specifically, the it is a 3D online multi user virtual environment modeled after the real walk held at the AT&T Center every year. The Virtual Reality MS Walk will occur concurrently with the real MS Walk, and will enable people all over the world to actively participate in the walk, regardless of any mobility impairment they may have.
Our team are finalizing the release version, and it is going to be available online at Google Play Store and Apple App Strore the same day with the real walk event on Mar. 7 the 2015.
March 1st 2014, our team is making a demo of the project Virtual Walk M.S to Federal Congressman Lloyd Doggett. More information about this project please step to its website: http://192.237.187.34/index.html
