Publish at February 19 2025 Updated February 19 2025
People on the autism spectrum function differently, and find it more difficult to identify the human emotions of their peers. Educators therefore try to clarify feelings and vocabulary with children on the autism spectrum. Nevertheless, this can be anxiety-provoking for the youngster, who finds himself with an adult he knows little about. In Nancy, at the University of Lorraine, researchers wanted to work on the use of robots to help transmit this knowledge.
Indeed, machines with artificial intelligence are far more interesting for children on the autism spectrum, as there is no notion of unpredictability. The machine will always act in the same way, both in its gestures and its "emotions". As this report shows, three automata are used.
The results obtained so far are very positive, showing a better understanding of the elements with the robots, as well as a greater transposition of what has been learned into the everyday lives of the children and teenagers using them. The next step will be to add stronger artificial intelligence to adapt even better to the specificities of each individual and give the robots more feedback so that they react to what's going on.
Running time: 8min38
Image: Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay
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