5A – Autonomies for Autism through Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Conversational Agents
Responsible:
Collaboration with industry
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Start date: 2021-03-01
Length: 24 months
Project abstract
5A aims to improve the social autonomy of medium/high functioning and high functioning autistic people from 16 years to adulthood. Cognitive rigidity and deficits in adaptive behavior make it difficult for these people to generalize to real life what they have learned in the therapeutic path and to manage their daily activities independently. 5A provides an innovative solution through interactive applications that integrate immersive virtual reality, augmented reality and conversational agents. Available anywhere-anytime through smartphones, tablets and low-cost headsets, 5A applications promote the ability to generalize through transmedia elements that create a continuum between training in the virtual world and experiences in the real world. They are co-designed and evaluated in collaboration with the specialists of two prestigious therapeutic centers specialized in autism: Ass. La Nostra Famiglia - IRCSS Medea and Fondazione Sacra Famiglia.
5A provides for co-design with all stakeholders, intense experimentation, and agile and iterative development. The applications (made immersive by low-cost headsets) are programmed in Unity for iOS / Android devices by integrating free components for the recognition of physical environments, spatial mapping and transmedia elements (holograms) in Augmented Reality. Conversational Agents are based on free components of Speech2Text, Text2Speech, NLP, and ML, external or developed by i3lab. Data and computations are cloud-based (Policloud). Polimi infrastructures and the 5G network make it possible to meet the requirements of privacy, security and performance.
5A applications focus on autonomy in everyday life contexts (e.g. health centers, public transport, shopping centers). Available for free on the marketplace, they can reach any family with autistic people. 5A involves 30 clinical-psychological specialists in co-design and experimentation, and 70 autistic people with about 180 family members in empirical studies. They will be the protagonists of the innovation process, with benefits not only in functional strengthening of autistic subjects but also in emotional-psychological strengthening and general well-being.
5A provides for co-design with all stakeholders, intense experimentation, and agile and iterative development. The applications (made immersive by low-cost headsets) are programmed in Unity for iOS / Android devices by integrating free components for the recognition of physical environments, spatial mapping and transmedia elements (holograms) in Augmented Reality. Conversational Agents are based on free components of Speech2Text, Text2Speech, NLP, and ML, external or developed by i3lab. Data and computations are cloud-based (Policloud). Polimi infrastructures and the 5G network make it possible to meet the requirements of privacy, security and performance.
5A applications focus on autonomy in everyday life contexts (e.g. health centers, public transport, shopping centers). Available for free on the marketplace, they can reach any family with autistic people. 5A involves 30 clinical-psychological specialists in co-design and experimentation, and 70 autistic people with about 180 family members in empirical studies. They will be the protagonists of the innovation process, with benefits not only in functional strengthening of autistic subjects but also in emotional-psychological strengthening and general well-being.
