Smart, Robotic Toys May One Day Diagnose Autism at Early Age
From: Wall Street Journal - 10/26/2005 - P. B1
By: Lee Gomes

A team of Yale researchers is exploring the application of robotic toys to
help diagnose autism, a mental illness whose escalating numbers have raised
questions over whether doctors' understanding of the disease has actually
improved, or whether it is being diagnosed more liberally due to pressure
from parents who see it as a ticket to special programs and services for
troubled children. Yale robotics researcher Brian Scassellati has built
robotic heads that interact with autistic and nonautistic children. The
robots can be programmed to carry on a logical conversation or to veer into
nonsensical speech, which can be used as a litmus test for autism;
unafflicted children disengage from a conversation when it loses its thread,
while the autistic are interested in communicating with the robot whether it
makes sense or not. Measuring eye gaze is also instructive, as nonautistic
children will move their eyes between the two speakers in conversation in a
movie, focusing on their eyes, while autistic children are more likely to fix
their gaze on a feature of the background where there is no activity. The
Yale group is seeking to quantify these indicators to determine how
accurately they can diagnose autism. While Scassellati and his team remain
focused on diagnosis, he also wonders what applications his robots could have
in the treatment of autism. Unlike people, robots would not tire when working
with autistic children to teach them social skills. While robots possess the
technical tools to interact with a child for a sustained period of time, it
remains uncertain if they will be able to improve on the diagnostic skill of
people, though Scassellati believes that robots will be better able to see
through children who may have been coached by their parents. 

Links:
Brian Scassellati
http://www.cs.yale.edu/people/scassellati.html

Brian Scassellati's Personal webpage
http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/scaz/scaz.html

Brian Scassellati's Research
http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/scaz/research.html

Nico, the social robot
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/005527.php

Nico, The Social Robot Helps Diagnose Autism
http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Nico.asp?whichpage=2&pagesize=5&sqlQuery=SELECT+%2A+from+items+WHERE+itm%5Fcategory%3D1+order+by+itm%5Ftitle

Investigating Models of Social Development using a Humanoid Robot
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/lbr/hrg/2000/cogbio.pdf

Studies recharge Computer Science
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=29341

One-on-One
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1208/features/AI3.htm

Humanoid robots: new tools to study autism
http://www.med.yale.edu/external/pubs/ym_su04/autism.html