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Safety and Lack of Negative Effects of Wearable Augmented-Reality Social Communication Aid for Children and Adults with Autism
Ned T. Sahin 
1
Brain Power, LLC, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
2
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
3
Psychiatry Academy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Clin. Med. 2018, 7(8), 188; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7080188
Received: 21 June 2018 / Revised: 18 July 2018 / Accepted: 21 July 2018 / Published: 30 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technology Applications to Promote Physical Activity and Health)
There is a growing interest in the use of augmented reality (AR) to assist children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, little investigation has been conducted into the safety of AR devices, such as smartglasses. The objective of this report was to assess the safety and potential negative effects of the Empowered Brain system, a novel AR smartglasses-based social communication aid for people with ASD. The version of the Empowered Brain in this report utilized Google Glass (Google, Mountain View, CA, USA) as its hardware platform. A sequential series of 18 children and adults, aged 4.4 to 21.5 years (mean 12.2 years), with clinically diagnosed ASD of varying severity used the system. Users and caregivers were interviewed about the perceived negative effects and design concerns. Most users were able to wear and use the Empowered Brain (n = 16/18, 89%), with most of them reporting no negative effects (n = 14/16, 87.5%). Caregivers observed no negative effects in users (n = 16/16, 100%). Most users (77.8%) and caregivers (88.9%) had no design concerns. This report found no major negative effects in using an AR smartglasses-based social communication aid across a wide age and severity range of people with ASD. Further research is needed to explore longer-term effects of using AR smartglasses in this population.
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Keywords:
Autism; autism spectrum disorder; augmented reality; technology; Google Glass; social communication; safety; smartglasses; digital health; Amazon; Amazon Web Services; Google
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MDPI and ACS Style
Sahin, N.T.; Keshav, N.U.; Salisbury, J.P.; Vahabzadeh, A. Safety and Lack of Negative Effects of Wearable Augmented-Reality Social Communication Aid for Children and Adults with Autism. J. Clin. Med. 2018, 7, 188.
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