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Can autism be catered with artificial intelligence-assisted intervention technology? A comprehensive survey

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Abstract

This article presents an extensive literature review of technology based intervention methodologies for individuals facing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Reviewed methodologies include: contemporary computer aided systems, computer vision assisted technologies and virtual reality (VR) or artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted interventions. The research over the past decade has provided enough demonstrations that individuals with ASD have a strong interest in technology based interventions, which are useful in both, clinical settings as well as at home and classrooms. Despite showing great promise, research in developing an advanced technology based intervention that is clinically quantitative for ASD is minimal. Moreover, the clinicians are generally not convinced about the potential of the technology based interventions due to non-empirical nature of published results. A major reason behind this lack of acceptability is that a vast majority of studies on distinct intervention methodologies do not follow any specific standard or research design. We conclude from our findings that there remains a gap between the research community of computer science, psychology and neuroscience to develop an AI assisted intervention technology for individuals suffering from ASD. Following the development of a standardized AI based intervention technology, a database needs to be developed, to devise effective AI algorithms.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to show our gratitude to Dr. Amna Hanif of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan (AKUH) for sharing her knowledge and insight during course of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of IT, Barrett Hodgson University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Rizwan Ahmed Khan

  2. Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Hamdard University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Muhammad Shoaib Jaliaawala

  3. LIRIS, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon1, Villeurbanne, France

    Rizwan Ahmed Khan

  4. National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, FAST-NU, Karachi, Pakistan

    Muhammad Shoaib Jaliaawala

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Jaliaawala, M.S., Khan, R.A. Can autism be catered with artificial intelligence-assisted intervention technology? A comprehensive survey. Artif Intell Rev 53, 1039–1069 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-019-09686-8

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