Algorithms and Sensors for Sonification of Emotion: New Technology for ASD

自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是社交缺陷和沟通困难，刻板或重复的行为和兴趣，感官问题，在某些情况下，认知延迟。wikipedia.org 据加拿大卫生部称，“国际研究表明，每150-160名儿童中约有一名患有自闭症”[hc-sc.gc.ca]。 Reality Controls（温哥华，BC）对交互技术有着广泛的兴趣，这些技术可以帮助人们在各种情况下，包括帮助ASD患者。 卡尔加里大学计算机科学系的视频和运动分析（VMA）实验室在开发系统方面有着良好的记录，这些系统通过测量运动员的运动并以声音的形式提供实时辅助反馈（即发声）来帮助运动员获得和完善运动技能。 该项目的目标是将VMA实验室的运动和声音处理技术知识应用于Reality Controls开发的ASD辅助技术。 我们将研究几种有可能测量佩戴者情绪状态的可穿戴传感器，例如，心率监测器和运动传感器 当测量结果被实时发声时，佩戴者可以听到自己的情绪状态作为声音模式。 因此，患有ASD的患者佩戴这样的设备可以学习听到情绪状态。 如果另一个人（真实的或在游戏环境中模拟的）佩戴传感器，并且ASD患者可以听到声音，则患者将听到情绪状态，从而潜在地克服许多ASD患者面临的沟通挑战。 最终，我们希望这样一个系统将使ASD患者能够首先弥合这种沟通差距，然后使用它来学习他们可以在日常生活中应用的应对机制。 我们预计，一个成功的项目将导致一个产品，体现了这种情感到声音的过程。

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) "are characterized by social deficits and communication difficulties, stereotyped or repetitive behaviors and interests, sensory issues, and in some cases, cognitive delays"[wikipedia.org]. According to Health Canada, "International studies indicate that about one in every 150-160 children has autism" [hc-sc.gc.ca]. Reality Controls (Vancouver, BC) has a broad interest in interactive technologies that assist and enable people in a variety of situations, including assisting people with ASD. The Video and Motion Analysis (VMA) lab in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary has a track record of developing systems that assist athletes in acquiring and perfecting motor skills, by measuring an athletes motion and providing real-time assistive feedback in the form of sound (i.e. sonification). The goal of this project is to bring the technological knowledge on motion and sonification from the VMA lab to bear on challenges involving assistive technology for ASD being developed by Reality Controls. We will investigate several wearable sensors that have the potential to measure the wearer's emotional state, e.g., heart rate monitors and motion sensors. When the measurements are sonified in real-time, the wearer can hear their own emotional state as a sound pattern. Thus a patient with ASD wearing such a device can learn to hear an emotional state. If another person (real or simulated in a game environment) wears the sensor, and the ASD patient can hear the sound, the patient will hear the emotional state, potentially overcoming a communication challenge that many ASD patients face. Ultimately, we hope that such a system will enable ASD patients to first bridge this communication gap, and then use it to learn coping mechanism that they can apply in daily life. We anticipate that a successful project will lead to a product that embodies this emotion-to-sound process.