Developmental spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) caused by impaired growth, development, or central nervous system development. Typical characteristics of the autism spectrum are difficulty in communicating and interacting with other people, restricted interests and behaviors, and symptoms that impair the person’s ability to function properly in school, work, and other areas of life. People with autism can face severe difficulties in several aspects of daily life. 5A is an innovative Virtual Reality application for smartphones designed for people with autism spectrum disorder and intended to provide them with a helpful training experience to learn how to complete daily activities independently from caregivers. 5A is developed in collaboration with specialists of ASD. It offers a suite of daily life scenarios in which a player learns the fundamental steps to perform the tasks related to the activity with the aid of a conversational agent powered by Natural Language Understanding (NLU). The contribution of this thesis to the 5A project consists of the design and complete implementation of the subway scenario with a context-sensitive conversational agent which aims to help the user complete the activity autonomously. Furthermore, the experience benefits are maximized because it is utterly configurable according to the user’s needs. In addition, a detailed exploratory study was conducted to investigate the educational and therapeutic potential of the subway scenario. This document describes the entire implementation process explaining the different design choices, methods, and technologies and presents the analysis results.
Il disturbo dello spettro autistico è un gruppo di disturbi dello sviluppo neurologico causato da una compromissione della crescita, della maturazione o dello sviluppo del sistema nervoso centrale. Caratteristiche tipiche dello spettro autistico sono la difficoltà di comunicazione e interazione con altre persone, interessi e comportamenti ristretti e sintomi ripetitivi che danneggiano la capacità della persona di funzionare correttamente a scuola, al lavoro e in altre aree della vita. Le persone affette da autismo possono dover affrontare gravi difficoltà in diversi aspetti della vita quotidiana. 5A è un’applicazione innovativa di Realtà Virtuale per smartphone pensata per le persone con disturbi dello spettro autistico e destinata a fornire loro un’esperienza formativa utile per imparare a completare le attività quotidiane in autonomia. 5A è sviluppato in collaborazione con specialisti dello spettro autistico. Offre una suite di scenari di vita quotidiana in cui un giocatore apprende i passaggi fondamentali per eseguire l’attività correlata ed aiutato da un agente conversazionale alimentato da Natural Language Understanding (NLU). Il contributo di questa tesi al progetto 5A consiste nella progettazione e nello sviluppo completo dello scenario della metropolitana con un agente conversazionale sensibile al contesto che ha l’obiettivo di aiutare l’utente a completare i passaggi dell’attività in modo autonomo. I benefici dell’espereinza sono massimizzati grazie al fatto che essa è completamente configurabile rispetto alle necessità dell’utente. Inoltre, è stato condotto uno studio esplorativo dettagliato per indagare le potenzialità educative e terapeutiche dello scenario metropolitana. Questo documento descrive l’intero processo di implementazione spiegando le diverse scelte progettuali, i metodi e le tecnologie e presenta i risultati dell’analisi condotta.
Training in conversational virtual reality for persons with autism spectrum disorder
PASINI, ALESSANDRA
2020/2021
Abstract
Developmental spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) caused by impaired growth, development, or central nervous system development. Typical characteristics of the autism spectrum are difficulty in communicating and interacting with other people, restricted interests and behaviors, and symptoms that impair the person’s ability to function properly in school, work, and other areas of life. People with autism can face severe difficulties in several aspects of daily life. 5A is an innovative Virtual Reality application for smartphones designed for people with autism spectrum disorder and intended to provide them with a helpful training experience to learn how to complete daily activities independently from caregivers. 5A is developed in collaboration with specialists of ASD. It offers a suite of daily life scenarios in which a player learns the fundamental steps to perform the tasks related to the activity with the aid of a conversational agent powered by Natural Language Understanding (NLU). The contribution of this thesis to the 5A project consists of the design and complete implementation of the subway scenario with a context-sensitive conversational agent which aims to help the user complete the activity autonomously. Furthermore, the experience benefits are maximized because it is utterly configurable according to the user’s needs. In addition, a detailed exploratory study was conducted to investigate the educational and therapeutic potential of the subway scenario. This document describes the entire implementation process explaining the different design choices, methods, and technologies and presents the analysis results.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/177776