The Facial Frontier: Reading And Recognizing


Age - Category Senior
Division - Computer Science
Students - Andrew Olson
Mentor Information - No mentors

Project Summary

My science fair, called "The Facial Frontier: Reading And Recognizing", focuses on a computer program I created. It was created to teach children to recognize facial expressions and is targeted at children with Asperger.s Syndrome from 4 to 10 years old. Children with Asperger.s, which is an autism-spectrum disorder, have trouble recognizing facial expressions and other parts of body language. It can.t be overstated how important it is to be able to understand these things as it is a part of society that is not taught, yet expected to be known. I am hoping that, along with other therapies, my program will help Asperger.s children learn facial expressions. I also give a little bit of information on Asperger.s itself and on the program I used to create the game.

My program is in the format of an adventure game so that it is inviting to children. The object of the game is to correctly choose, out of multiple faces, the face that matches the text prompt (for example: .Find the happy face.). To do this, the player moves the character around the game world using keyboard buttons and presses the spacebar when the correct location is found. Correctly guessing leads to the next level, of which there are ten. Guessing wrong leads to another try. The better the child.s face-finding skill is, the faster the game switches to presenting pictures of .real-people. faces instead of cartoonish expressions. As an added incentive, getting a high enough score leads to a bonus level, which involves puzzles instead of faces. Each level has a certain theme and the later ones have obstacles. All game controls are explained at the beginning of the game. Although the game involves a lot of reading, the parents of the child can read the instructions to them. Parents are encouraged to help navigate the game world but are encouraged not to say which face is which.

So far, I have tested the program with six Asperger.s children and two normal children. I am continuing to test more. From the results I have gathered, it looks like the program can be used to determine how much help a child needs with facial recognition. I have also seen interesting differences between the playing styles of Asperger.s and normal children. All the children who tested the program have liked it (even when they were reluctant to try it) and would play it again if given the chance. A small side effect of the game is that, from pressing keys, the fine motor skills of the player (which can be quite weak in Asperger.s children) are increased.

Bibliography

Personal experience with Asperger's Syndrome

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