Design and application of facial expression analysis system in empathy ability of children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Empathy is an important social ability in the early childhood development. One of the significant characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is their lack of empathy, which makes it difficult for them to feel and understand other people's emotions and to judge other people's behavioral intentions, leading to social disorders. This research designs and implements a facial expression analysis system that could obtain and analyze the real-time facial expressions of children when viewing stimulus materials, and then evaluate the differences of empathy ability between ASD children and typical development (TD) children. The results of this research provide new ideas for the evaluation of ASD children, and also help to develop empathy intervention plans for ASD children.