A survey on technological tools and systems for diagnosis and therapy of autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACT

Progress in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can make a real difference in the quality-of-life of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by acting on several aspects, from customized software for communication, to emotion recognition, to social behavior and also to provide systems for the observation of the wide spectrum of manifestations, to ease the diagnosis, to support the therapy, and to monitor the improvement and the growth of children with ASD. This has been achieved by the introduction of a large number of innovative technologies, spanning from Internet of Things, to robotics, virtual and augmented reality, etc. Differently from other surveys on the same research area, we focus this survey on innovative technologies used in this field, and we organize a classification of the papers based on three different but strictly crossed axis, namely the triad of impairment (either communication, social interaction, or social behaviors), research purpose (either diagnosis or therapy), and system activity (either monitoring or intervention).

KEYWORDS:

• monitoring
• intervention
• metaverse
• robotics
• Internet of things
• autism spectrum disorder

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariasole Bondioli

Mariasole Bondioli is a research fellow at the Museum of Natural History of the University of Pisa, working in the field of software development research for digital teaching in museum contexts. She received her PhD in computer science in 2020 at the University of Pisa, focusing her studies in the field of human computer interaction, more specifically in the development of technological solutions to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with application to real and diagnostic scenarios.

Stefano Chessa

Stefano Chessa is Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa. He is member of the Council of the Doctorate in Computer Science (since October 2013) and chair of the MSc curricula in Cybersecurity of the University of Pisa. He has worked in several EU projects (SatNex, SMEPP, InterMedia, PERSONA, universAAL, Engaged, TEACHING), and he has been the scientific leader (for the University of Pisa) of the EU projects RUBICON and DOREMI. He is co-author of almost 200 publications appeared on international, peer-reviewed journals, conferences and books chapters. His research interests are in the fields of smart environments, Internet of Things, pervasive computing and in their applications to e-health, ambient assisted living, crowdsensing and participatory sensing.

Alexander Kocian

Alexander Kocian is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, Italy. His current research areas are in e-health, agro informatics, machine learning and Internet of Things, where he has co-authored dozens peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Kocian is EAI Fellow. He currently serves as member of Editorial Board for Stats (MDPI), Signals (MDPI) and Artificial Intelligence and Applications (Bon View Publishing).

Susanna Pelagatti

Susanna Pelagatti received her PHD in computer science in 1992 at the University of Pisa. Since 2002, she has been an associate professor at the same university and, since 2022, she is the director of the Laboratory of Digital Culture. She is member of Editorial Board for Frontiers in Psychiatry and he contributed to the organization of conferences and workshops with different roles.

The current scientific and teaching activity falls within the field of human computer interaction and didactic software with special attention to persons with disabilities: visually impaired, autism spectrum disorder and cognitive disabilities. More specifically, the main areas of research are: human centered computing, participatory design, software for disabled persons, ambient assisted living and pervasive computing.

She is co-author of more than 60 publications appeared on international, peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and books chapters.