JolasTEA Project for Children with Autism DeustoTech-Life (eVIDA) Commits to computer Games as an Alternative tool to conventional therapy Created in 2001 within the heartof the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Deusto, DeustoTech-LIFE (eLIFE) works on biomedical signal processing, additionally being a point of reference in the development of projects related with telemedicine. Our group’s involvement is focused on one-dimension biomedical signal processing, such as voice or encephalogram, or 2D and 3D image processinng of differecent human organs, coming from a magnetic resonance or an X-ray CT. We also develop any Project related to telemedicine Computer Games for Health (games as therapy) or services for smartphones, tablets and television aimed at people with special needs. Computer Games for Health are ICT-based games, used in therapy to improve the skills or certain health aspects in people who need rehabilitation or special care. These games constitute an alternative tool to conventional therapy, both in health terms and in collectives with special needs, such as elderly people, children with autism, people with intellectual disability, or many others. In some countries, these types of games are more widespread than in Spain. However, this country is currently performing important things within this field. In the USA, the insurance companies give importance to Computer Games from a preventive viewpoint, as a tool that serves to avoid health costs in their insured members. For example, those games that “force” to perform exercise in order to reduce obesity (exergaming)… In Spain, Computer Games are employed more in the field of therapies, in particular, in rehabilitation and social integration therapies, although they have a strong commitment. Our research team works for over a decade in the development of these types of games, and in the Basque Country, there are ground-breaking projects already used by the games for therapy in the pilots conducted within the framework of public health system. Deustotech-LIFE develops projects using technology available for users; for example, the Kinect motion sensor, which, in our case, is applied to children with dyslexia. While the child plays, a whole therapy and learning process is carried out. This sensor can be also used with older people with different degrees of dependency within their ageing process. In this case, we developed a game that enables to work arms and hands: the user tries to catch beverage bottles and cakes that appear on the screen falling at a given speed, and from different points, with different levels of difficulty. This is an example of the use of Kinect in rehabilitation. From other research lines, new games for iPad aimed at people with intellectual disability were created with the cooperation of the Basque Country Down’s Syndrome Foundation, with the aim of helping them to be autonomous (money management, improvement of hygiene and food habits,); the electronic version of the Chinese game tangram, «eTangram», which was developed with the cooperation of a gerontological company (Zuentzat), and a technological one (Bilbomatica), with the purpose of applying this game for the improvement of psychomotricity and the preventive monitoring of possible degenerative conditions. Let us focus on the specific example of the JolasTEA Project, conducted in consortium with the Datinet Company, and the cooperation of the Association of people with autism in Biscay (APNABI). Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) the most serious pathologies in childhood due to the difficulty and complexity in detection, diagnosis and treatment. For this reason , DeustoTech-Life (eLife ) together with the Datinet company and the cooperation of the association of parents of people affected by autism and other autism spectrum disorders in Biscay APNABI, started to develop jolasTEA, a technological tool for supporting experts, psychologists and educators in the treatment of people with ASD. The first stage of this project was founded by the Regional Government of Biscay. jolasTEA is composed by two big integrated and complementary modules, thanks to which objective indicators are gathered and analyzed. The first module is the one in charge of collecting personal information about people with ASD, the second module is composed by serious games, in which the areas affected by this disorder are worked, giving priority to the enhancing of the interest towards people with ASD and the interaction with them. Throughout the serious games, the system stores objective variables that allow the professionals to keep a record on the advances made by users. Furthermore, the EyeTracking technology is incorporated to the serious games , which allows to conduct an eye tracking process to the user, determining their gaze patterns, areas or regions of interest, among others. Finally, the third module is the one responsible of analyzing the indicators stored in the first two sections, by displaying graphically to the psychologists, educators or those responsible, the results and advances made by the users. Thus, jolasTEA enables professionals to work and treat people with ASD and the cores affected by this disorder. In addition to the service to society implied by these development,the investigation conducted Deustotech-LIFE (eLIFE) is also focused on the evaluation, in order to measure the objective impact of Computer Games. For these purpose, we design mathematical algorithms that work over those signals captured from the human body, such as electroencephalogram, fMRI or motion and eye tracking sensors (Eye Tracker). By combining these signals, quantitative results can be obtained, with respect to the effectiveness of the game/activity: The real impact of Computer Game in therapy in connection with the objective set. Our research team has several ongoing doctoral theses related to the objective evaluation of Computer Games, designing optimal and innovative algorithms over the aforementioned techniques. More information: www.deustotech.eu “LIFE” Countries Spain
