DELIVERABLE D8.15 First report on autism-related clustering activities

Transcription

1 DELIVERABLE D8.15 First report on autism-related clustering activities Grant Agreement no Project acronym Project title Contractual date of delivery ASC-Inclusion Integrated Internet-Based Environment for Social Inclusion of Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions 30April 2012 Actual date of delivery 30 April 2012 Deliverable number D8.15 Deliverable title Type First report on autism-related clustering activities Report, Public Number of pages 19 WP contributing to the deliverable Responsible for task Author(s) WP 8 Dissemination and Exploitation Björn Schuller (TUM) schuller@tum.de Nikki Sullings (AE) nikki.sullings@autismeurope.org Aurélie Baranger (AE) aurelie.baranger@autismeurope.org Erik Marchi (TUM) erik.marchi@tum.de Björn Schuller (TUM) schuller@tum.de

2 The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/ ] [FP7/ ]) under grant agreement n [289021] Versioning history Date Version Author(s) Notes 30Apr Nikki Sullings (AE) Aurélie Baranger (AE) Erik Marchi (TUM) Björn Schuller (TUM) Page 2 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

3 Table of Contents ASC-Inclusion D Introduction Description of clustered projects List of attendees and individual organizations Potential areas of work identified for autism-related clustering Summary of tasks identified for autism-related clustering Conclusions and self-analysis References Page 4 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

4 1 Introduction This report provides a summary of the autism-related clustering possibilities that will be further explored between the ASC-Inclusion project (grant no ) and the FIRST project (grant no ). The ASC-Inclusion project is developing an interactive software program to help children with autism understand and express emotions through facial expressions, tone-of-voice and body gestures. The FIRST project is developing a software program for people with Autism to simplify documents and text. FIRST aims to develop a functional interactive reading tool and can be seen as similar to ASC-Inclusion since it also focuses on autistic children. Thus, both ASC-Inclusion and FIRST will profit from clustering. Both projects deal with personalised software for the social inclusion of individuals with ASC. These individuals, besides their limited ability to understand paralinguistic cues in human speech such as manifestations of emotion, have difficulties in understanding typical phenomena of natural language documents including figurative language, non-literal language such as irony or sarcasm, and other semantic ambiguities. Autism organisations, such as the ASC-Inclusion partner Autism-Europe, are continuously striving for solutions that facilitate reading for these individuals. Thus, it is foreseen that activities involving both, requirements engineering, and dissemination to a larger population of ASC individuals will include exchange between psychology teams and researchers working on natural language processing and their peers in the FIRST project. Finally, it can be expected that technical solutions for providing personalised experiences for individuals with ASC, such as design of self-learning software that adapts to its users' preferences as the internet-based ASC-Inclusion platform, can be partly developed in collaboration with FIRST, which is highly relevant due to the heterogeneous manifestations of ASC. The potential areas of clustering outlined in this report have been discussed by representatives of both projects at a clustering workshop held in Brussels on April 20, Following this workshop, some commitments have been made in relation to clustering activities and some areas of potential clustering remain to be explored further. This report is structured as follows: first, a more detailed description of the two projects is given (Chapter 2), and a list of attendees at the recent clustering workshop is provided (Chapter 3). Next, an introduction of the potential clustering activities is given (Chapter 4). Chapter 5 consists of a detailed description of the common activities that have been discussed during the workshop. We conclude the report in Chapter 6. 2 Description of clustered projects This section introduces ASC-Inclusion (Section 2.1) and FIRST (Section 2.2), gfocusing on the main goals that they aim to achieve. Page 5 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

5 2.1 ASC-Inclusion ASC-Inclusion Integrated Internet-based Environment for Social Inclusion of Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) ASC-Inclusion aims to create an internet-based platform that will assist children with ASC, and those interested in their inclusion, to improve their recognition and expression of socio-emotional cues. ASC-Inclusion will combine several state-of-the-art technologies in one comprehensive environment, including analysis of users gestures, facial and vocal expressions, training through games, text chatting, animation, video and audio clips. The user s environment will be personalized, accounting for individual skills and challenges, sensory requirements, and increasing motivation through special interests. Carers will be offered their own supportive environment, including professional information, reports of child s progress and use of the system, chat rooms and forums for parents and therapists. Despite the innovative technologies involved, the ASC-Inclusion is aimed for home use, enabling users all around Europe to benefit for professional training, using standard home computing equipment. Matching the objective of the ICT inclusion call, ASC-Inclusion will aim at self-learning ICT solutions which take into consideration user profiling and feedback, in view to deliver personalised services and enhanced participation in social interaction and through it in education and work. Unlike past ICT solutions, like the Mindreading [Golan and Baron-Cohen 2006] and the Transporters [Golan et al. 2010], the proposed project will attend both to the recognition and to the expression of socioemotional cues. Part. Participant name Member name no 1 Technische Universität München (TUM) Björn Schuller 2 The Chancellor, Masters And Scholars Of The University Of Cambridge (UCAM) Simon Baron-Cohen 3 Bar Ilan University (BIU) Ofer Golan 4 Compedia Software & Hardware Development Ltd (COMP) Shai Newman 5 Universita Degli Studi Di Genova (UNIGE) Antonio Camurri 6 Karolinska Institutet (KI) Sven Bölte 7 Autisme-Europe (AE) Aurélie Baranger Table 1: List of ASC-Inclusion partners Product concept As illustrated in Figure 1, the product consists of several subsystems that are integrated together to provide the user with a comprehensive, motivating experience. Registration & user profiles: Children and their carers will use a standard home computer with internet, microphone and a webcam. The children's parents, therapists or other intermediaries will enter the online Page 6 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

6 virtual world Platform, register the child and fill in the user's profile with data that will help the system to generate a personalized interaction. Such data will include age, gender, areas of interest, and ability level in selected main areas of difficulties (from preselected elements). This profile will be kept in the Data Base as well as a log of User's interaction with the system. The User will then enter into the virtual world environment of the Platform, choose his "profile image" an animated image created from predefined elements. Face expressions, Body gestures and Voice analysis sub systems: The three subsystems (face expressions, body gestures and voice) will analyse the user's state in real time and feed in to the Platform various parameters regarding the user's intentions and emotional state, as defined by his gestures and body language, facial and vocal expressions. These indicators will be used to adapt the system s behaviour towards the user (e.g., change the activity if the user appears bored), and as inputs for the emotional expression training system. Figure 1: Product concept Multimodal input integrated in the Real Time User Analysis Manager ("RTUM"): As soon as the user enters the virtual world each of the subsystems will be requested by the Platform's RTUM module to start sending data on the user's state and any identified gestures, facial or vocal expressions. The user's data previously collected will be used as a base-line for better assessment. The RTUM will also give different weights for the subsystems input, based on subsystems evaluation results that might indicate, just for Page 7 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

7 example, that a specific subsystem (e.g. facial expressions) is more indicative in specific segments (e.g. older children). The RTUM will receive the above high level multimodal data through a low level interface system that integrates and synchronizes the different subsystems, and handles the hardware aspects. The RTUM will suggest the right level and type of interaction suitable for the user, based on his profile, usage history (e.g., adjusting level of difficulty according to previous success level), user selections and location in the virtual world (e.g., specific area/type of activity) and user s emotional state, as reported by the subsystems (offering an activity that fits the user s current emotional state, e.g. a high level of arousal might trigger more easy-going, fun activities). Personal Interaction Generator Module ("PIGM"): Once the type and/or level of activity are suggested by the RTUM, the PIGM element of the Platform generates the selected activity for the specific user, based on the pre-defined scenarios, activities and content. These activities are integrated into the motivating virtual world. The Virtual world: The virtual world is part of the Platform and encapsulates all the interaction into a motivating coherent experience. As the user makes progress, he will get positive feedback adjusted to his level, status and needs: animations, new fun games, collectable items (designed to meet systemizing interests of children with ASC) as well as virtual Coins that enable the user to get the things he likes for his virtual place within the virtual world. Interactions' Types: Specific learning and training activities: training tutorials, games and activities, promoting the understanding of social situations, facial and vocal expressions & gestures recognition including multimodal training (according to user s level). Auditory and visual feedback will be provided. Simulations and integrated activities: In such activities the user will have to integrate his abilities in lifelike scenarios and select the appropriate response for the situation presented on the screen, using several modalities: verbal (select response from a large collection of pre-defined texts), vocal intonation (using a microphone), body language/gestures, and facial expressions. Safe predefined context sensitive test communication with peers, therapists, parents and smart NPC ("Non Playing Characters" i.e., manipulated automatically by the system) agents. Fun Activities presented as positive feedbacks and also when the child is stressed or has failed in order to maintain motivation Socio-economic impact The expected social impact includes: 1. Increased motivation and interest of children in socio-emotional phenomena. 2. Improvement in children s expressive emotional repertoire (including facial expressions, vocal intonation, body language and vocabulary) Page 8 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

8 3. Improvement in children s emotion recognition skills (from facial expressions, voice intonation, body language, and context) 4. Improvement in parents socio-emotional awareness and socio-emotional mediation skills 5. Improvement in children s social skills and adaptive behavior at home and in school. Future impact may include: 1. Improvement in children s social inclusion in and out of the educational system. 2. Decrease in reliance on professional support (e.g. speech and language pathologists, psychologists, special education teachers, tutors). 3. Increase in up to date evidence based professional service availability in rural areas in European countries. Economic Impact of ASC-Inclusion Costs of supporting children with ASC each year in UK ( million) 2700 Source: Economic costs of autism in UK, Martin Knapp, LSE EU (27) population (million) 501 Source: Eurostat 2010 UK population (million) 62 Source: Eurostat 2010 Costs of supporting children with ASC each year in EU ( million) Assumes same amount of spend per child in each EU Percentage of EU population aged 5 to 10 years that ASC-Inclusion service reaches (year 1) Average savings attributable to users of ASC Inclusion country as in the UK 5% Estimated market reach 10% Based on service making users more independent; Annual saving in year 1 ( million) 109 Annual saving in year 1 (Million Euros) 120 Share of population that is 0-19 years of 22% Source: Eurostat 2006 age in EU 5-10 year old population as percentage of 26% Estimate 0-19 Share of population with ASC 1% Size of target EU users Number users of ASC-Inclusion service in year 1 (expected) Year 1 is intended to be the first year after the end of the project General information on the EU people that are on the Autism Spectrum Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) is a significant public health challenge. According to the European Autism Action 2010 conference report Current estimates are that approximately 1% of the US and UK population have ASC, which, if one were to simplify, means five million people in EU member countries are on the autism spectrum. These current estimates show that ASC is more common than childhood cancer, juvenile Page 9 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

9 diabetes and paediatric AIDS combined. European countries and the European Commission should act now to alleviate some of the challenges that are faced by people with ASC and their families. The annual economic costs of ASC for the UK economy alone are over 32bn but with the right services and opportunities individuals with ASD and their families can become important contributors to society. The need and uniqueness of the Project According to "Training Modules For Policy Decision Makers And Professionals Of Services For Persons With Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) And Other Complex Dependency Needs Disabilities created by Autism-Europe AISBL, Brussels 2007, "New educational tools: Fairly little research is made in this field, teachers have developed excellent methods but through long trial and error and field experience. For techniques such as computer-assisted education, there is very little pluri-disciplinary research integrating the current knowledge on autism. Research on new technologies in the domain of technological aids designed for people with an intellectual disability, research endeavours at the level of serious university teams or in private laboratories are rare, in contrast with the relative abundance of research concerning support technologies for people with sensory or motor disabilities". This project will supply the unmet important needs of ASC children (as well as other populations like ADHD and socially neglected children). 2.2 FIRST FIRST A Flexible Interactive Reading Support Tool The main goal of this project is to develop a computer software program that will assist people with Autism Spectrum Disorders to adapt written documents into a format that is easier for them to read and understand. It will empower people with autism to read any document with confidence and at their own convenience, without relying on support workers. As a result, their social inclusion will be increased as they gain better access to educational, vocational, cultural and social opportunities in Europe. Table 2 shows the FIRST consortium. Part. Participant name Member name no 1 University of Wolverhampton (UW) Ruslan Mitkov 2 Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (LNFT) Vesna Jordanova 3 University of Alicante (UA) Paloma Moreda 4 Autism Europe (AE) Aurélie Baranger 5 Universidad de Jaén (UJ) L. Alfonso Ureña 6 Parallel World (PW) Kremena Stoyanova - 7 DELETREA (DEL) Juan Martos 8 iweb (IWEB) Pranay Puri 9 Kodar Ltd (KDR) Asen Rahnev Page 10 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

10 Table 2: List of FIRST partners Key issues As a result of their condition, people with autism experience difficulties in: Comprehending speech and writing; Interpreting figurative / non-literal language; Understanding complex instructions; Deriving the meaning or gist of written documents. These difficulties present a significant barrier to the participation and inclusion of people with autism in all aspects of society, including education, employment, health care and social activities. This software aims to reduce these barriers by providing a tool that empowers people with autism to read a broad range of documents without assistance. This tool will help to reduce the risk of social exclusion for people with autism. As autism encompasses a spectrum of symptoms that vary in severity among individuals, the software must be personalisable, enabling users to adapt documents to match their own reading and comprehension abilities Technical approach The software is being developed by a team of computer programmers who specialise in language technology and professionals in the field of autism. The team will work with a large sample of people who have autism to research and evaluate how the software can effectively assist people with a range of reading and comprehension abilities. The software technology will utilise language technology to adapt the language used in written documents for people with autism by reducing complexity, removing ambiguity and improving readability. Figure 2 shows the general architecture of FIRST solution. This process includes: Replacement of o long complex sentences with several short, simple sentences; o long / technical words with short, simple words; o non-literal language with literal translations. Provision of definitions for ambiguous words and phrases; Addition of o images; o concise summaries; o document navigation tools for long documents. Page 11 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

11 Figure 2: General scheme for FIRST solution Expected achievements / impact The software developed will primarily assist people with autism to access to written information, thereby increasing their quality of life and social inclusion. The software will also assist clinicians, support workers, family members of people with autism and teachers, to provide more efficient assistance to people with autism to help them understand written information. The software can also be helpful for people with low literacy or learning difficulties, as well as people who are learning a foreign language and the elderly Priority / priority component The objective of this project is to enhance social inclusion for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders by creating a computer software program that adapts documents into a format that is easier for them to read and understand. This software product will address the European Commission s priority need for Research on ICT for smart and personalised inclusion addressing advanced solutions to improve social and economic inclusion by means of inclusive design, accessible, personalisable and human-ict interfaces, social computing and advanced solutions for learning and skills acquisition as well as Brain-Neural Computer Interfaces (BNCI). Page 12 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

12 3 List of attendees and individual organizations This section enumerates the list of attendees at the autism-related clustering workshop and Table 1 shows the participants sorted by project and affiliation. Name Project Affiliation Björn Schuller ASC-Inclusion TUM schuller@tum.de Erik Marchi ASC-Inclusion TUM erik.marchi@tum.de Peter Robinson ASC-Inclusion UCAM pr10@cam.ac.uk Ian Davies ASC-Inclusion UCAM ipd21@cam.ac.uk Helen O Reilly ASC-Inclusion UCAM heo24@medschl.cam.ac.uk Shahar Tal ASC-Inclusion BIU shahar0190@gmail.com Shai Newman ASC-Inclusion COMP newmans@compedia.net Paolo Coletta ASC-Inclusion UNIGE paolo.coletta@gmail.com Stefano Piana ASC-Inclusion UNIGE steto84@hotmail.com Daniel Lundqvist ASC-Inclusion KI daniel.lundqvist@ki.se Ruslan Mitkov FIRST UW R.Mitkov@wlv.ac.uk Costantin Orasan FIRST UW C.Orasan@wlv.ac.uk Vesna Jordanova FIRST LNFT v.jordanova@imperial.ac.uk Ani Georgieva Shileva FIRST PW aneke@abv.bg Victoria Janeva FIRST PW V.Yaneva@wlv.ac.uk Milena Kostantinova Bechkovska FIRST PW milena111@abv.bg Juan Martos FIRST DEL jmartos@cop.es Sandra Freire FIRST DEL sandrafreire72@hotmail.com David Gil FIRST DEL n.a. Ana Gonzàles FIRST DEL ana.gonzalez.navarro@gmail.com Table 3: List of participants Page 13 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

13 4 Potential areas of work identified for autism-related clustering The ASC-Inclusion project and the FIRST project identified the following areas of work as having clustering potential: User requirements Evaluation Dissemination Exploitation Technologies 5 Summary of tasks identified for autism-related clustering The first autism-related clustering meeting involving partners from both project consortiums has taken place and the opportunities for clustering have been explored. A summary of the tasks that were discussed and will be explored further is provided below. 5.1 User requirements Representatives of the projects discussed issues related to user requirements regarding software interface design. Both projects are interested in how people with autism interact with the internet and software programs. Common issues for people with autism in relation to using the internet and software programs that project representatives discussed include: - Concerns over avoiding distractive elements such as moving/flashing objects and pop-up boxes; - Colour schemes that could be effective for people with autism who are highly sensitive to sensory stimuli; - Differing user preferences for people with high and low functioning autism; - How a software interface should be designed to accommodate the needs and preferences of people with high and low functioning autism, and a range of different symptoms of autism that affect their sensory abilities; - Incorporating the ability to set user preferences depending on individual needs into the software design; - How to generate motivation among software users to continue engaging with the software program; - The possibility of including humour in the software programs; - Creating a sense of control for users, with limited choices; Clustered activity: Representatives of both projects will share the findings of their research (surveys, questionnaires and focus groups) on user requirements. Page 14 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

14 To be explored further: The groups will also discuss the possibility of using common content in their user requirements research surveys, questionnaires and focus groups. 5.2 Evaluation Representatives of the projects discussed their planned methods for evaluation (before during and after the software programs are ready) and other issues in relation to evaluation. Clustered activity: Representatives of both projects will share the results of their evaluation research. To be explored further: Representatives of both projects will explore the possibility of collaborating on publications relating to their evaluation research within the projects. Representatives of both projects will discuss the possibility of using common methods / questions / elements to be used in qualitative interviews. Representatives of both projects will explore the possibility of being present at one another s workshops for evaluation. 5.3 Dissemination Representatives of the projects discussed possibilities for clustering dissemination tasks, identifying several areas where clustering may be useful Newsletters for projects Separate newsletters are planned for each project, but they can benefit from common content and promote each other s projects. Clustered activity: The projects will share common newsletter content and promote each other s projects Social media Both existing social media sites of project partners and new sites created for the projects will be utilised to generate interest in our projects and to generate traffic to our websites. Clustered activity: The projects will promote each other using social media sites General user requirements survey The ASC-Inclusion project has conducted a general user requirements survey to help in understanding the needs of users (note that this is additional to the work of the user requirements work package). The survey aimed to help software designers better understand the needs of people with autism in relation to software design, by asking autism associations and parents of people with autism for general feedback on this topic. Page 15 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

15 The ASC-Inclusion project found this survey to yield useful results for determining the design of the software. The survey has been distributed by dissemination partner, Autism- Europe, to their network of members around Europe. The FIRST project will investigate the possibility of doing a general user requirements survey, similar to the one that was recently conducted by the ASC-Inclusion project. Clustered activity: The ASC-Inclusion project will share the survey design and results with the FIRST project Conferences & workshops Representatives of both projects saw potential to work together on dissemination at relevant conferences and events. These could include (but are not limited to) the following events within the European autism community: Autism & technology conference in (Valencia, July 2012). IMFAR scientific conference on autism (San Sebastian, May 2013); Autism-Europe International Congress (Budapest, October 2013); The FIRST project will conduct an international workshop event in which the finished software programs are presented to the public, policy-makers and media, close to the end of the project. It is possible that the ASC-Inclusion project could also be involved in this workshop, to take advantage of the fact that there are some shared common audiences for the projects. To be explored further: The groups will further explore the possibility of making joint presentations, sharing exhibition spaces (including sharing costs if applicable) and distributing information about both projects. The groups will further explore the possibility of holding a combined workshop event to showcase the software products to relevant audiences Common success indicators Representatives of both projects also identified the following possible common success indicators for dissemination & exploitation: Number of visits to project websites; Number of shares of updates/content about the projects on facebook; Number of downloads of the projects (if the programs will be available as free downloads for a period); Number of media articles published mentioning the software projects; Number of subscribers to newsletters. Clustered activity: The above success indicators will be used by both projects. It should also be noted here, in relation to dissemination tasks, that Autism-Europe is a Page 16 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

16 partner of both projects, primarily in the area of dissemination. 5.4 Exploitation Representatives of the projects discussed possibilities for clustering exploitation tasks. Representatives of both projects identified 3 main exploitation channels that could be useful for exploitation of both projects. These include: Institutional users - NGO / health care / government services; Home users; Sponsored users - users that can benefit from some kind of program that will enable them to use the software at no charge. The group saw potential to cluster activities that aim to seek sponsorship for the third group. This could include approaching companies that could sponsor a limited number of people with autism to use the software. This could take the form of the company providing computers to children to use the software in a local area that is relevant to the sponsoring company, especially in the UK (as both projects started in the English language). Training could be provided and user testing research could be conducted with the people using the software. A beta version of the software could be utilised for this and 1000 children, for example, could have access. It was noted that sponsored use of the program is not included in the FP7 project budget, therefore this initiative could maximise exposure to potential sponsors who could contribute to the sustainability of the software. We can approach the same companies and see if they are interested in one or both of the projects. It was also noted that both programs will be available online and this will be beneficial for common exploitation methods, such as getting statistics on people visiting the websites, downloading beta versions that are temporarily available, results of user testing, etc. This information will be useful for showing the potential popularity of the programs to potential sponsors. To be explored further: Representatives of both projects will explore the possibilities of a joint approach to seeking sponsorship for some users and generating commercial interest in the projects. 5.5 Technologies Representatives of the projects discussed possibilities for clustering technological tasks, including common engineering requirements and potential exchange of technologies Common engineering requirements This section comprises a list of engineering requirements common to the two projects: The platforms need to run on standard computer or smartphone hardware with a strict limit of resources. Standards for implementations and a common agreement on coding standards. Page 17 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

17 Cross-country, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural issues. Inter component/module communication protocols (use of middlewares, etc.?). User independent functionality out of the box (no training with the user is needed). Data collection (multimodal, multiple desires) and annotation; sharing of data. Platform-independence. Code sustainability. Technical failure and ethical implications. Clustered activity: Both projects will share requirements about the platforms (standard computer or smartphone), data collection and technical failure and ethical implications. To be explored further: Representatives of both projects will explore the possibility of working together on standards / common agreement on coding, cross-countries, multilingual and multi-cultural issues, module communication, platform independence and code sustainability Potential exchange of technologies This Section includes the potential technological exchanges that could be carried out within the two projects. Below the list of the activities: Exchange linguistic analysis modules Exchange sentiment analysis competence Provide interfaces for existing specialists ( carer in the loop ) in order to exchange experience on how to best report to the carers or how to interface to the carers. Provide user feedback mechanisms in order to investigate if the children are satisfied with the game and if the users are satisfied with FIRST reading tool. FIRST-informed design of texts in the virtual world of ASC-Inclusion (including user need). The virtual word includes texts explaining to the children what they should be doing and maybe the FIRST technology could be used to present this text in a user adapted way Exchange of user questionnaires: FIIRST have questionnaires for the right presentation of the text and ASC-Inclusion has questionnaires about the virtual world. ASC-Inclusion affective analysis of ASC-users can be used to measure satisfaction of FIRST s users ASC-Inclusion video analysis can be used to also translate facial expression / body poses in still images alongside text Children users of ASC-Inclusion can bring their own text for reading exercises (acoustic) and FIRST technology is used to inform ASC-Inclusion on sarcasm Metaphor, sarcasm, ambiguous parts of text retrieval games in ASC-Inclusion with their own texts (FIRST recognises parts) or with examples from FIRST database. An example could be a game like the Mah-jong where there is a text and the children have to point where sarcasm is or find the metaphor. This will teach them how to retrieve sarcasm. ASC-Inclusion will profit from FIRST database with annotated sarcasm and metaphors. Get ASC-Inclusion collectibles for using FIRST n times. This more an advertising strategy: the virtual world of ASC-Inclusion comprises virtual coins with which the Page 18 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No

18 children can buy stuff and they could collect more coins by using the FIRST reading tool. Use inverted FIRST to teach them more linguistic variation in a playful way. FIRST technology to automatically measure complexity of free speech in ASC- Inclusion. At some point children can say something that express joyful or other emotional state in few words and FIRST can provide a score on how complex was the expression in term of presence of metaphors and sarcasm. To be explored further: Representatives of both projects will explore the possibility of exchanging linguistic analysis modules, sentiment analysis competences and experience on how to report to the carers and interface with them. Further both projects will investigate if their technologies could be exchanged and reciprocally used in order to improve and add new tasks for the users such as new games and interactive exercises. 6. Conclusions and self-analysis Discussions regarding clustering of work for the projects have been quite fruitful and several potential areas for clustering have been identified, including: user requirements, evaluation, dissemination and exploitation and technologies. Some commitments have already been made in relation to clustering tasks between the two projects. As both projects remain in the early stages, the potential for clustering of some of the tasks described in this report will be further explored before firm commitments can be made. A further report (D8.16 Final report on autism-related clustering activities) will be produced regarding autism-related clustering activities between these two projects in month 33 of the ASC-Inclusion project. This report will provide details of the activities that have been clustered throughout the duration of the project. 7. References [Golan and Baron-Cohen 2006] O. Golan and S. Baron-Cohen, Systemizing empathy: Teaching adults with asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism to recognize complex emotions using interactive multimedia, Development and Psychopathology, vol. 18, no. 02, pp , [Golan et al. 2010] O. Golan, E. Ashwin, Y. Granader, S. McClintock, K. Day, V. Leggett and S. Baron-Cohen, Enhancing Emotion Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions: An Intervention Using Animated Vehicles with Real Emotional Faces, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Springer Netherlands, vol. 40, no. 3, pp , Page 19 of 19 ICT FP7 Contract No