Multimodal AI-Based Mobile App For Forecasting Meltdowns and Supporting ASD Children

纽卡斯尔大学最近与剑桥大学精神病学系和马斯特里赫特大学合作进行的一项研究表明，在英国，大约每57名儿童中就有一名患有自闭症，远远高于之前的报告。这项研究对700多万名儿童进行了调查。这一数字预计只会在未来上升。患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童经常出现情绪崩溃，可能包括哭泣、喊叫、殴打或退缩等行为。精神崩溃会使自闭症儿童和青少年难以积极参与日常活动。帮助自闭症儿童认识到他们已经开始感到不舒服和崩溃即将到来的迹象，并支持他们发展和应用应对机制来平静下来，这是至关重要的。这些症状可能包括心跳加速、胃部翻腾、呼吸困难和其他生理和行为迹象。该项目带来了一种新型的移动应用程序，它将实时结合来自智能手机和/或智能手表等标准智能设备的不同输入，以预测和防止自闭症儿童在不同情况下的崩溃。为此，提出的解决方案利用了信号处理、数据融合、深度学习和自适应模糊系统的最新技术。通过利用这些技术，创新实时处理不同的输入信号组合，并提供关于即将到来的熔毁的预测。根据孩子的个人资料和预测事件的强度，应用程序生成并输出特定于用户的反馈。这种反馈包括访问说明、图像、声音或视频，这些说明、图像、声音或视频显示出来，可以在类似的崩溃情况下安抚孩子。有鉴于此，拟议中的移动应用程序可以显著改变自闭症儿童及其家人的生活。不列颠成员是人工智能技术方面的专家，拥有与该项目完美结合的多学科背景。这些背景包括与自闭症儿童合作，以及使用先进的计算机技术开发智能应用程序来支持自闭症儿童。不列颠学院拥有一个由英国和国际合作伙伴组成的网络，能够帮助公司最大限度地利用这项应用程序，并对ASD儿童及其家庭产生积极影响。该项目支持政府改善自闭症患者及其家庭生活的国家战略，并提供具有全球影响的创新产品，有望为英国经济和社会带来巨大好处。

As demonstrated by the recent study of Newcastle University in collaboration with the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychiatry and Maastricht University, that was conducted in more than 7 million children, around one in 57 children in the UK are on the autistic spectrum, significantly higher than previously reported. This number is only expected to rise in the future. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often suffer from meltdowns that might include behaviors such as crying, shouting, hitting or withdrawing. Meltdowns can make it difficult for ASD children and teenagers to actively participate in everyday activities. It is crucial to help ASD children recognize signs that they have started feeling uncomfortable and a meltdown is coming, and support them develop and apply coping mechanisms to calm down. These sings may include racing heartbeat, churning stomach, difficulty breathing and other physiological and behavioral clues. This project leads to a novel mobile application that will combine in real time diverse inputs from standard smart devices such a smartphone and/or a smartwatch to forecast and prevent meltdowns of ASD children in different situations. Towards this purpose the proposed solution exploits the latest technologies in signal processing, data fusion, deep learning and adaptive fuzzy systems. By utilizing these technologies, the innovation processes different combinations of input signals in real time and provides a forecast concerning an impending meltdown. Based on the child's profile and the intensity of the forecasted event the application generates and outputs user-specific feedback. This feedback includes access to instructions, images, sounds or video that are shown to calm the child in similar meltdown situations. Given the above, the proposed mobile application can make a significant difference in the lives of ASD children and their families. Britannia members are experts in AI technologies and have a multidisciplinary background that aligns perfectly with the project. This background includes working with ASD children, as well as developing intelligent applications using advanced computer technologies to support ASD children. Britannia College has a network of UK and international partners that is able to help the company maximize the uptake of the application and its positive impact to ASD children and their families. This project supports the government's national strategy for improving the lives of autistic people and their families and delivers an innovative product with a global impact that promises to deliver huge benefits to UK economy and society.