Metahumans: Using Facial Action Coding in Games to Develop Social and Communication Skills for People with Autism

Abstract

Communication and teamwork are skills underpinned by a person’s ability to perceive, interpret and understand another’s emotional state, and respond in an appropriate manner. Children, adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle with these “emotion recognition skills”, often impairing their ability to communicate effectively. A range of interventions have been created and studied, yielding mixed results. Some of these interventions utilise elements of Paul Ekman’s research into expression of emotion. This paper reviews and discusses several of these studies, considers the technical problems in each, and proposes a future framework for continued development in this field.