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International Visual Informatics Conference

IVIC 2019: Advances in Visual Informatics pp 498–512Cite as

App4Autism: An Integrated Assistive Technology with Heart Rate Monitoring for Children with Autism

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNIP,volume 11870)

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological development disorder that affects communication and behavior. Most assistive technologies for children with autistic traits have been designed to support single, targeted activity function such as learning and communication. In this paper, we report the design and development of an assistive mobile application with heart rate monitoring to help children with ASD in their daily life activities. The integrated mobile application, App4Autism was developed using a holistic design approach with the aim of enhancing communication, interaction and learning skills while providing emotion regulation support through music listening and heart rate monitoring. A novel focus of App4Autism is on noise sensitivity; to play music upon automatic detection of loud excessive noise (in decibel) while at the same time, monitoring the user’s heart rate using a pulse sensor. The paper focuses on a study to better understand the potential use and incorporation of music listening and heart rate/anxiety level monitoring in the app. The paper provides results of investigation into which music genre is more suitable to keep users calm. Initial experiment involved a general population sample; with results showing that personal music preference might have calming effects on users in environments with excessive background noise. We further expand on the design guidelines for creating an integrated assistive technology.

Keywords

  • Autism
  • Early childhood intervention
  • Mobile application
  • Heart rate monitoring
  • Assistive Technology

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_44
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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Miss Rani from the SCSOA for allowing us to conduct ethnographic studies and interviews at the childcare centre to help understand the needs of children with autism and by providing valuable suggestions and insights.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Cheng Yee Yap & Kher Hui Ng

  2. School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Yungen Cheah, Suk Yee Lim, Jessica Price & Marieke De Vries

Authors
  1. Cheng Yee Yap
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  2. Kher Hui Ng
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  3. Yungen Cheah
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  4. Suk Yee Lim
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  5. Jessica Price
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  6. Marieke De Vries
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kher Hui Ng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

    Halimah Badioze Zaman

  2. Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Alan F. Smeaton

  3. National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

    Timothy K. Shih

  4. Carlos III University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Sergio Velastin

  5. Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Tada Terutoshi

  6. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

    Nazlena Mohamad Ali

  7. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

    Mohammad Nazir Ahmad

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Yap, C.Y., Ng, K.H., Cheah, Y., Lim, S.Y., Price, J., De Vries, M. (2019). App4Autism: An Integrated Assistive Technology with Heart Rate Monitoring for Children with Autism. In: , et al. Advances in Visual Informatics. IVIC 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11870. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_44

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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