An interactive game for teaching facial expressions to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), a neuerodevelopmental disability in children is a cause of major concern. The children with ASDs find it difficult to express and recognize emotions which makes it hard for them to interact socially. Conventional methods use medicinal means, special education and behavioral analysis. They are not always successful and are usually expensive. There is a significant need to develop technology based methods for effective intervention and cure. We propose an interactive game design which uses modern computer vision and computer graphics techniques. This game tracks facial features and uses tracked features to: 1) recognize the facial expressions of the player, and 2) animate an avatar, which mimics the player´s facial expressions. The ultimate goal of the game is to influence the emotional behavior of the player.