Improve video conference therapy for children and young adults presenting with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, by using augmented reality animations, driven by A.I.

通过将人工智能从业者、NHS治疗师和英国领先的动画师组成一个联盟，我们将建立一个增强现实平台，帮助治疗师通过视频会议与患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童和年轻人互动。由于COVID-19大流行，通过视频会议进行治疗变得必要。然而，他们给治疗师提出了挑战，试图吸引他们的客户，并捡起微妙和不寻常的社会线索。我们的平台将视频会议进行的治疗过程与一个卡通人物叠加在一起，这个卡通人物会对谈话的内容、情绪和语气做出建设性的回应。我们相信，这将使患有A.S.D的儿童或年轻人参与进来，并改善临床结果。我们的平台将为治疗师和儿童或青少年提供一系列动画，说明一个关键的学习成果，如“如何处理欺凌”或“如何参加游戏约会”。然后，治疗师和孩子可以讨论动画，动画中的角色会被叠加到聊天中。在对话过程中，人工智能检测交互的内容、情绪和语气，并使角色执行预先确定的动画反应。我们的团队在学术界和工业界拥有40多年的人工智能和数据科学经验，10年的自闭症儿童实际工作经验，以及20年的前沿动画，我们的团队在科学，工程，医疗保健和创意产业方面汇集了无与伦比的经验。我们的系统将使用内部工具和外部api的组合来执行高级自然语言处理和情感检测，以驱动动画角色的运动。英国有超过10万名患有自闭症的儿童和青少年，由于新冠肺炎疫情，对这些儿童的治疗服务中断，因为现场互动课程转移到了网上。我们的目标是减轻这对我们平台造成的破坏。随着影响力的扩大，我们能够与英国大学建立伙伴关系，并与慈善机构和家长团体合作。这将提供独立的证据，证明该产品如何帮助家庭提高治疗质量。

By putting together a consortium of A.I. practitioners, an NHS therapist and a leading UK animator, we will build an augmented reality platform that helps therapists interact with children and young people presenting with Autistic Spectrum Disorder via video conference. Therapy sessions by video conference have become necessary because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However they present challenges to the therapist trying to engage their client, and pick up subtle and unusual social cues.Our platform overlays the therapy session conducted by video conference with a cartoon character who responds constructively to the content, sentiment and tone of the conversation. We believe that this will engage the child or young person presenting with A.S.D., and improve clinical outcomes.Our platform will provide the therapist and child or young person with a selection of animations that illustrate a key learning outcome such as "how to handle bullying" or "how to go on a play-date". The animation can then be discussed by the therapist and child, with the character from the animation overlaid into the chat. During the conversation, the A.I. detects the content, sentiment and tone of the interaction and causes the character to perform pre-determined animated responses.With a combined total of 40+ years experience in A.I. and data science across academia and industry, 10 years of experience of practical work with autistic children, and 20 years of cutting edge animation, our team brings together an unrivalled combination of experience in science, engineering, healthcare and the creative industries. Our system will use a combination of internal tools and external A.P.I's to perform advanced Natural Language Processing and emotion detection to drive the movement of the animated characters.There are over 100,000 children and young people presenting with with A.S.D. in the U.K. Provision of therapy services to these children has been disrupted due to the COVID-19 epidemic, as live interactive sessions are moved online. We aim to mitigate the disruption that this has caused with our platform.With the extension for impact, we are able to build partnerships with UK universities, and engage with charities and parents groups . This will provide independent evidence how the product helps families improve the quality of therapy sessions.