| Innovation | 2010022480 |
| Date | 24-02-2010 |
| Last modified | 20-05-2012 |
An application to practise emotion recognition in relation to the context for children with autism
Innovation description
Children with Autism have difficulty in recognizing emotions. Some of these children do have the abilty to learn emotions but they miss the intuitive way of perceiving emotions. It is very difficult for them to apply skills they have learned in their own lifes. Even more due to the fact that they have a very detailed perception and miss out on the context.
Function
The innovation is an application to practise emotion recognition in a fun way! It has been developed to enable children to get skills in emotion recognition in relation to the context. A parent can make photo’s of situations, that contain an emotional meaning. Photos can be made of familiar people, but also from the child itself. On the one hand it will be very useful to learn others emotions in relation to the context. On the other hand, it is useful as well to learn the relation between the context and an emotion through own experience of the emotion. Both positive and negative emotions can be addressed. At a later moment, parent and child can play a game together with the photos that have been taken. This enables parent and child to discuss these situations at a relaxed moment that suites them. This makes it possible to discuss also negative emotions of the child, once the child is in a positive, calmer state of mind. They both tag the photo with an emotion/ emotions. The emotions are represented by a set of animated cartoons. When they both pick the same emotion, the animation plays directly. Reviewing the photos and having the feedback of the animated character functions as a reward to the children, which makes the game playful and interesting for them. To gain extra structure in the game, both parent and child have to pick a colour that represents themselves. The application organizes turns that stimulate playing together. The children can play games on themselves with the photos and emotions as well, since they like repetition. To make the child familiar with the emotions, he or she can also play games in which a cartoon has to be matched with the word of the emotion it expresses. To make the product grow with the capabilities of the child, five different levels have been created, featuring a different amount of emotions. The application focuses not only on pure emotion recognition from facial expressions, but on the context as well. Furthermore it is applicable to the life of the child itself, so the learned skills are based on the context of the child!
Innovative aspects
The application does not only give the children insight in emotions in relation to its context, it also reflects the life of the child itself, whereas other products solely focus on emotion recognition or the context in form of examples. It is the childrens own lives in which they have to profit of the skills taught, therefore the application does not ask to translate or generalize information that has been taught to apply it in their own lives, moreover because of the fact that children with autism find this very difficult. Not only applicable photos can be chosen for the child, the system is also personalizable to the needs and capabilities of the child. The game can be played in a open or a competitive manner and the level can be adjusted. This makes the game never too difficult for the child. Due to the fact that the children can repeat reviewing the photos and their preference to digital devices it will give them a feeling of being in control. Because of the structure of playing-in-turns, the game stimulates playing together which is difficult with autistic children. Furthermore, it also gives the parent better insights, in the behaviour, thoughts and emotions of their child, sincte children with autism are not well capable of expressing this. For the child as well as the parent it feels like a game instead of ‘work and practise’. The iPhone makes the game easily accessible and it’s easy to make the photos since the camera the iPhone is always taken along with the parent. Furthermore, the application can be embedded in the educational system by developing specific learning materials that enable social behaviour and mututal understanding with other children at school.
Innovator company profile
| Company description | Our company enables and supports companies to design meaningful experiences. We combine scientific competence with market insights in the development and application of innovative, valid, and relevant tools and methods. |
| Employees | 1 |
| Founding year | 2008 |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Number of export countries | 10 |
| Technology |
|
| Industry |
|
| Technical development phase |
|
| Commercial development phase |
|
| Protection |
|
| Business development phase |
|
Requested match with an innovation partner
| Goal of the innovation match |
|
| Confidentiality agreement |
|
| Partner profile | We are looking for a partner that can help us to speed up the development. We have almost all relevant capabilities in house or in our network but lack financial power to further develop the concept quickly. |
| Company Type |
|
| Continent |
|
| Specific countries |