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Natural interfaces and virtual environments for the acquisition of street crossing and path following skills in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a feasibility study

Overview of attention for article published in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, February 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (78th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (75th percentile)

Mentioned by

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9 X users
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2 Facebook pages
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1 Google+ user

Citations

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64 Dimensions

Readers on

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232 Mendeley
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Title
Natural interfaces and virtual environments for the acquisition of street crossing and path following skills in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a feasibility study
Published in
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, February 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12984-015-0010-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Mario Saiano, Laura Pellegrino, Maura Casadio, Susanna Summa, Eleonora Garbarino, Valentina Rossi, Daniela Dall’Agata, Vittorio Sanguineti

Abstract

Lack of social skills and/or a reduced ability to determine when to use them are common symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Here we examine whether an integrated approach based on virtual environments and natural interfaces is effective in teaching safety skills in adults with ASD. We specifically focus on pedestrian skills, namely street crossing with or without traffic lights, and following road signs. Seven adults with ASD explored a virtual environment (VE) representing a city (buildings, sidewalks, streets, squares), which was continuously displayed on a wide screen. A markerless motion capture device recorded the subjects' movements, which were translated into control commands for the VE according to a predefined vocabulary of gestures. The treatment protocol consisted of ten 45-minutes sessions (1 session/week). During a familiarization phase, the participants practiced the vocabulary of gestures. In a subsequent training phase, participants had to follow road signs (to either a police station or a pharmacy) and to cross streets with and without traffic lights. We assessed the performance in both street crossing (number and type of errors) and navigation (walking speed, path length and ability to turn without stopping). To assess their understanding of the practiced skill, before and after treatment subjects had to answer a test questionnaire. To assess transfer of the learned skill to real-life situations, another specific questionnaire was separately administered to both parents/legal guardians and the subjects' personal caregivers. One subject did not complete the familiarization phase because of problems with depth perception. The six subjects who completed the protocol easily learned the simple body gestures required to interact with the VE. Over sessions they significantly improved their navigation performance, but did not significantly reduce the errors made in street crossing. In the test questionnaire they exhibited no significant reduction in the number of errors. However, both parents and caregivers reported a significant improvement in the subjects' street crossing performance. Their answers were also highly consistent, thus pointing at a significant transfer to real-life behaviors. Rehabilitation of adults with ASD mainly focuses on educational interventions that have an impact in their quality of life, which includes safety skills. Our results confirm that interaction with VEs may be effective in facilitating the acquisition of these skills.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 232 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Canada 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Unknown 230 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 45 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 31 13%
Student > Bachelor 25 11%
Researcher 22 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 17 7%
Other 35 15%
Unknown 57 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 44 19%
Engineering 20 9%
Computer Science 20 9%
Nursing and Health Professions 19 8%
Social Sciences 14 6%
Other 48 21%
Unknown 67 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 December 2016.
All research outputs
#5,097,659
of 25,199,243 outputs
Outputs from Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
#285
of 1,397 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#56,682
of 261,009 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
#4
of 12 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,199,243 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 79th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,397 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 261,009 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 12 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.