Safety and Lack of Negative Effects of Wearable Augmented-Reality Social Communication Aid for Children and Adults with Autism

Abstract

There is growing interest in the use of augmented reality (AR) to assist children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, little investigation has been conducted into the safety of devices for AR such as smartglasses. The objective of this report was to assess the safety and negative effects of the Brain Power Autism System (BPAS), a novel AR smartglasses-based social communication aid for people with ASD. A sequential series of 18 children and adults aged 4.4 to 21.5 years (mean 12.2 years) with clinically diagnosed ASD of varying severity used the BPAS. Users and caregivers were interviewed about perceived negative effects and design concerns. Most users were able to wear and use the BPAS (n=16/18, 89%), with most of them reporting no negative effects (n=14/16, 87.5%). Two users reported temporary negative effects: eye strain, dizziness, and nasal discomfort. Caregivers observed no negative effects in users (n=16/16, 100%). Most users (77.8%) and caregivers (88.9%) had no design concerns. This report found no major negative effects in using an AR smartglasses-based social communication aid across a wide age and severity range of people with ASD. Further research is needed to explore longer-term effects of using AR smartglasses in this population.

Use of Augmented Reality with a Motion-Controlled Game Utilizing Alphabet Letters and Numbers to Improve Performance and Reaction Time Skills for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…15 AR rehabilitation approaches have been growing in recent years promoting increase in selective and sustained attention 16 and active participation in realistic and interactive simulations. 17 This has led to research interests in a range of everyday adaptive living situations, including living tasks, such as brushing their teeth independently, 18 interventions to enhance social communication, 19 and promotion of greeting skills. 20 One significant recent study is that of Guarnieri et al 21 in which an AR game called ''MoviLetrando'' was presented and demonstrated feasibility and reliability in use with 88 intellectually disabled young individuals, together with the game's ability to provide similar and precise results on test-retest trials.…”

Second Version of Google Glass as a Wearable Socio-Affective Aid: Positive School Desirability, High Usability, and Theoretical Framework in a Sample of Children with Autism

“…Given the proximity of smartglasses to the sensory organs contained in the human head, this type of computing may enable a higher level of human-computer interaction than other devices [13]. Smartglasses are already being developed as a social and behavioral communication aid for people with ASD [8,15,16]. …”

“…Glass has been creatively developed as a technology that can deliver social and cognitive skills coaching to children and adults with ASD [8]. To our knowledge, we have reported on the first studies of ASD-related software on the original Google Glass (Explorer Edition) [8,9,15,16], and here we present the first appearance of Glass (Enterprise Edition) in the literature.…”

“…However, it remains unknown whether people with ASD would actually desire to wear the new device. Assistive apps for people with ASD on the original Google Glass have been shown to be tolerable [20], safe [15], and to reduce hyperactivity in an ASD sample [8,16]. However, small changes in devices can greatly affect the desire of potential users to wear them.…”

“…There have only been a handful of reports on the use of smartglasses in people with ASD [8,15,16], and the attitudes toward and acceptability of such devices to people with ASD remains unclear. The use of smartglasses in people with ASD also requires discussion of their potential impact on social communication from a cognitive neuroscience standpoint and their prospective influence on child development from ecological, psychosocial, and cognitive child development theories.…”