The Design of an Intelligent LEGO Tutoring System for Improving Social Communication Skills Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

A system intended to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to play with LEGO bricks is proposed. The system could provide step-by-step guidance to complete pre-defined task using interactive dialog strategy. A camera is used to capture the bricks, and an image recognition module is implemented to identify the color and size of each brick. The system can also detect a misplaced brick, provide guidance to reassemble it, and suggest a correct one. Dialog is generated using a speech synthesizer on a set of pre-defined statements used in daily social communication with the children. To further enrich the interaction between children and the system, teachers may intervene remotely in real time to alter existing statements in the system.