Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

I-Interact: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for Eye Contact Improvement for Children with Social Impairment

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Serious Games (JCSG 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10622))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Eye contact is among the most substantial yet underrated non-verbal social communicative behaviors. Establishing and maintaining eye contact is quite challenging for children affected by social impairment. As a solution, we propose a virtual reality serious game to help improve eye gaze abilities for these children and facilitate the transfer of the acquired skills to real-world social interactions. The project comprised of the design, implementation and evaluation of a three levels game that emphasizes on different aspects of eye contact. According to the evaluation carried out in this research, a virtual reality gaming context is a promising strategy for gaze development of children with social deficiencies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    A term used to denote people who are not on the autism spectrum.

  2. 2.

    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder which is a disorder characterized by symptoms such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

References

  1. Swami, V., Furnham, A.: The Psychology of Physical Attraction. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Thompson, N., Campling, J.: Non-verbal communication. In: Campling, J. (ed.) People Skills, pp. 93–103. Palgrave, London (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13737-4_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Baron-Cohen, S.: Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind. MIT Press, Cambrige (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gay, V., Leijdekkers, P., Pooley, A.: Building social awareness for teens and young adults with autism via gamification. In: Marsh, T., Ma, M., Oliveira, M.F., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Göbel, S. (eds.) JCSG 2016. LNCS, vol. 9894, pp. 116–127. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Lim-Fei, V., Woo, H.M., Lee, M.Y.: Serious games to develop social and emotional learning in students. In: Marsh, T., Ma, M., Oliveira, M.F., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Göbel, S. (eds.) JCSG 2016. LNCS, vol. 9894, pp. 3–12. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Carbone, V.J., O’Brien, L., Sweeney-Kerwin, E.J., Albert, K.M.: Teaching eye contact to children with autism: a conceptual analysis and single case study. Educ. Treat. Child. 36(2), 139–159 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Josman, N., Ben-Chaim, H.M., Friedrich, S., Weiss, P.L.: Effectiveness of virtual reality for teaching street-crossing skills to children and adolescents with autism. Int. J. Disabil. Hum. Dev. 7(1), 49–56 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kandalaft, M.R., Didehbani, N., Krawczyk, D.C., Allen, T.T., Chapman, S.B.: Virtual reality social cognition training for young adults with high-functioning autism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 43(1), 34–44 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, X., Desalvo, N., Gao, Z., Zhao, X., Lerman, D.C., Gnawali, O., Shi, W.: Eye contact conditioning in autistic children using virtual reality technology. In: Cipresso, P., Matic, A., Lopez, G. (eds.) MindCare 2014. LNICSSITE, vol. 100, pp. 79–89. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11564-1_9

    Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, X., Desalvo, N., Zhao, X., Feng, T., Loveland, K.A., Shi, W., Gnawali, O.: Eye contact reminder system for people with autism. In: 2014 6th International Conference on Mobile Computing, Applications and Services (MobiCASE), pp. 160–163. IEEE (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Jarrold, W., Mundy, P., Gwaltney, M., Bailenson, J., Hatt, N., McIntyre, N., Kim, K., Solomon, M., Novotny, S., Swain, L.: Social attention in a virtual public speaking task in higher functioning children with autism. Autism Res. 6(5), 393–410 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Podrouzek, W., Furrow, D.: Preschoolers’ use of eye contact while speaking: the influence of sex, age, and conversational partner. J. Psycholinguist. Res. 17(2), 89–98 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Leekam, S.R., Ramsden, C.A.: Dyadic orienting and joint attention in preschool children with autism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 36(2), 185–197 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Bellani, M., Fornasari, L., Chittaro, L., Brambilla, P.: Virtual reality in autism: state of the art. Epidemiol. Psychiatr. Sci. 20(03), 235–238 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Pearce, J.M., Ainley, M., Howard, S.: The ebb and flow of online learning. Comput. Hum. Behav. 21(5), 745–771 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology, German University in Cairo, New Cairo, 11432, Cairo, Egypt

    Maha Elgarf, Slim Abdennadher & Menna Elshahawy

Authors
  1. Maha Elgarf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Slim Abdennadher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Menna Elshahawy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maha Elgarf .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Mariano Alcañiz

  2. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

  3. Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent, United Kingdom

    Minhua Ma

  4. SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway

    Manuel Fradinho Oliveira

  5. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  6. Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Tim Marsh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Elgarf, M., Abdennadher, S., Elshahawy, M. (2017). I-Interact: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for Eye Contact Improvement for Children with Social Impairment. In: Alcañiz, M., Göbel, S., Ma, M., Fradinho Oliveira, M., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Marsh, T. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10622. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70111-0_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70111-0_14

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70110-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70111-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation