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Multimodal Human-Robot Interactions: the Neurorehabilitation of Severe Autistic Children

Authors:
Irini Giannopulu

Keywords: multimodal interactions ; severe autism ; mobile toy robot ; spontaneous free game play ; neural mediator.

Abstract:
In the context of human-robot interactions, we studied quantitatively and qualitatively the interaction between autistic children and a mobile toy robot during free spontaneous game play. A range of cognitive nonverbal criteria including eye contact, touch, manipulation, and posture were analysed, firstly in a dyadic interaction and secondly in a triadic interaction. Once the cognitive state between the child and the robot established, the child interacts with a third person displaying positive emotion. Both dyadic and triadic interactions of autistic children and a mobile toy robot suggest that the mobile toy robot in an ecological situation such as free, spontaneous game play could be used as a neural mediator in order to improve children's brain activity.

Pages: 68 to 82

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2013

Publication date: February 24, 2013

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4138

ISBN: 978-1-61208-250-9

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from February 24, 2013 to March 1, 2013