"EngageME: Personalized machine learning and humanoid robots for measuring affect and engagement of children with autism," a project funded by Horizon 2020, the European Research Framework Programme for 2014-2020, has been chosen as an EU Research success story.
Researcher Oggi Rudovic explains, "The technology being developed can enable personalized interactions with an autistic child, helping the therapist to keep the child’s attention, which improves their ability to learn the content. We are currently working on a prototype, the goal of which is to enable the use of our personalized machine-learning algorithms within everyday autism therapy. These computing tools can significantly reduce the therapists’ efforts, allowing them to focus on the design of more effective therapy content that will have better learning outcomes for children with autism."
The EU success story notes that the project is unique in analyzing behavioral cues from children who have grown up in different cultures—the initial research was conducted with a group of 35 children from Serbia and Japan, and the research team is currently working to deploy the project in the United Kingdom.