Michael Villano

DOMER: a wizard of oz interface for using interactive robots to scaffold social skills for children with autism spectrum disorders

This report describes the development of a prototypical Wizard of Oz, graphical user interface to wirelessly control a small, humanoid robot (Aldebaran Nao) during a therapy session for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The Dynamically Operated Manually Executed Robot interface (DOMER) enables an operator to initiate pre-developed behavior sequences for the robot as well as access the text-to-speech capability of the robot in real-time interactions between children with ASD and their therapist. Preliminary results from a pilot study suggest that the interface enables the operator to control the robot with sufficient fidelity such that the robot can provide positive feedback, practice social dialogue, and play the game, “Simon Says” in a convincing and engaging manner.

Enhanced feedback in balance rehabilitation using the Nintendo Wii Balance Board

Balance retraining is a critical part of rehabilitation for many individuals following neuro-trauma such as stroke. The WeHab system described in this paper is a low-cost rehabilitation instrument suite centered around the Nintendo Wii Balance Board that has the potential to enhance rehabilitation for patients with balance disorders. Using the WeHab system, therapists can lead patients through normal rehabilitation exercises with the added benefit of visual biofeedback based on center of pressure location. Patient improvement can be tracked by the WeHab system through objective analysis of trends both within a single session and from one session to the next. Pilot data from several patients receiving inpatient therapy using the WeHab system at the Wound Care center at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, IN, indicate the potential benefit that the system could bring to balance rehabilitation. Specifically, the details of and results from sit-to-stand, weight-shifting, and stepping activities are presented for pilot subjects. Further expansion of the WeHab system is planned, including incorporation of auditory feedback. Future work also includes more structured studies of the effects of the WeHab system on balance recovery.

Psychophysiological arousal at encoding leads to reduced reactivity but enhanced emotional memory following sleep

While sleeps role in emotional memory processing is gaining increasing support, its effect on emotion regulation remains equivocal. Moreover, little is known about the link between emotional reactivity at the time of encoding and subsequent sleep-based emotional memory consolidation. This study examined whether sleep would potentiate, protect, or depotentiate measures of heart rate and skin conductance in response to scenes containing emotional and neutral objects, and assessed how these measures of reactivity would predict subsequent memory for the objects across delays of sleep and wake. Heart rate deceleration (HRD) and skin conductance response (SCR) data were collected at encoding and recognition. Although HRD and SCR reactivity to objects were depotentiated after a sleep-filled delay, they remained unchanged after a delay containing wakefulness. Moreover, increased arousal responses to negative scenes at encoding as measured by HRD and SCR responses were positively correlated with subsequent memory for the negative objects of scenes, but only in the sleep group. This suggests that larger reactions to negative images at the time of encoding set the stage for the preferential consolidation of these images during a night of sleep. Although arousal responses are often thought to account for emotional enhancement in long-term memory, these findings suggest that both an arousal response at encoding and a subsequent period of sleep are needed to optimize selective emotional memory consolidation.

Semantic and Affective Salience: The Role of Meaning and Preference in Attentional Capture and Disengagement

Emotion appears to have a substantial impact on a wide variety of attentional functions. However, stimuli that elicit affective responses also tend to be meaningful. Here we attempted to disentangle the effects of meaning from the effects of affect on attentional capture by irrelevant distractors. Experiment 1 used a previously unfamiliar distractor stimulus, and manipulated the amount of knowledge provided to observers about the distractor. The results suggested that increases in meaning can reduce attentional capture. Experiments 2 and 3 used both familiar and unfamiliar symbols (baseball logos and flags, respectively) as distractors. Critically, of the two familiar symbols, one was rated as affective-positive and the other was rated as affective-negative. As in Experiment 1, the results showed that unfamiliar distractors can capture attention. In addition, the results also suggested that the two affective distractors captured attention (so long as they were sufficiently intense). This finding suggests that while increased knowledge can reduce capture, affect can restore an items ability to capture attention. Finally, the results of Experiment 4 showed that observers were slower to disengage from a negative item than from a positive item. This evidence emphasizes the differential roles of semantic knowledge versus affect on attentional capture.

Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD

This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. Eight individuals with ASD and eight TD peers ages 12–17 participated in a weeklong robotics camp, during which they learned robotic facts, actively programmed an interactive robot, and learned “career” skills. The ASD group showed a significant decrease in social anxiety and both groups showed an increase in robotics knowledge, although neither group showed a significant increase in social skills. These initial findings suggest that this approach is promising and warrants further study.

Relative efficacy of various strategies for visual feedback in standing balance activities

Seventy-nine young, healthy adults were led through static balance and weight-shifting activities in order to study the effects of visual feedback on balance. Based on their performance, the relative effects of various feedback properties were analyzed: (1) arrangement [direct center of pressure (CoP) vs. lateral weight distribution feedback], (2) numbers (presence vs. absence of numeric feedback), and (3) dimensionality (1D vs. 2D CoP information). In the static balance activity, subjects were instructed to maintain equal weight across both feet; in the dynamic weight-shifting activity, subjects were instructed to shift their weight to each displayed target location. For static balance, lateral symmetry and sway were measured by classical parameters using CoP, center of gravity (CoG), and the difference between the two (CoP–CoG). Weight-shifting balance performance was measured using the time required to shift between target CoP positions. Results indicated that feedback arrangement had a significant effect on static sway and dynamic weight shifting, with direct CoP feedback resulting in better balance performance than lateral weight distribution. Also, numbers had a significant effect on static sway, reducing lateral sway compared to feedback without numbers. Finally, 2D CoP feedback resulted in faster performance than 1D CoP feedback in dynamic weight shifting. These results show that altering different properties of visual feedback can have significant effects on resulting balance performance; therefore, proper selection of visual feedback strategy needs to take these effects into consideration.

The Role of Non-Numerical Stimulus Features in Approximate Number System Training in Preschoolers from Low-Income Homes

Recent findings have suggested that adults’ and children’s approximate number system (ANS) acuity may be malleable through training, but research on ANS acuity has largely been conducted with adults and children who are from middle- to high-income homes. We conducted 2 experiments to test the malleability of ANS acuity in preschool-aged children from low-income homes and to test how non-numerical stimulus features affected performance. In Experiment 1, mixed-effects models indicated that children significantly improved their ratio achieved across training. Children’s change in probability of responding correctly across sessions was qualified by an interaction with surface area features of the arrays such that children improved their probability of answering correctly across sessions on trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets significantly more than on trials in which total surface area positively correlated with numerosity. In Experiment 2, we found that children who completed ANS acuity training performed better on an ANS acuity task compared with children in a control group, but they only did so on ANS acuity trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets. These findings suggest that training affects ANS acuity in children from low-income homes by fostering an ability to focus on numerosity in the face of conflicting non-numerical stimulus features.

Effects of Filtering the Center of Pressure Feedback Provided in Visually Guided Mediolateral Weight Shifting.

Thirty healthy adults completed a mediolateral weight-shifting balance task in which they were instructed to shift their weight to visually displayed target regions. A model-based filter and three different moving average filters employing 10, 34, and 58 samples were applied to the center of pressure visual feedback that guided the activity. The effects of filter selection on both the displayed feedback and the shift performance were examined in terms of shift time and non-minimum phase behavior. Shift time relates to feedback delay and shift speed, whereas non-minimum phase behavior relates to the force applied in shift initiation. Results indicated that increasing the number of samples in moving average filters (indicative of stronger filtering) significantly increases shift speed and shift initiation force. These effects indicate that careful selection and documentation of data filtering is warranted in future work and suggest opportunities for strategic filtering of visual feedback in clinical weight-shifting balance activities in order to improve outcomes based on such feedback.

Measurement and quantification of gross human shoulder motion

The shoulder girdle plays an important role in the large pointing workspace that humans enjoy. The goal of this work was to characterize the human shoulder girdle motion in relation to the arm. The overall motion of the human shoulder girdle was characterized based on motion studies completed on test subjects during voluntary natural/unforced motion. The collected data from the experiments were used to develop surface fit equations that represent the position and orientation of the glenohumeral joint for a given humeral pointing direction. These equations completely quantify gross human shoulder girdle motion relative to the humerus. The equations are presented along with goodness-of-fit results that indicate the equations well approximate the motion of the human glenohumeral joint. This is the first time the motion has been quantified for the entire workspace, and the equations provide a reference against which to compare future work.

Unconventional Students in Robotics and HRI Education: A Review of Two Initiatives

Robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI) are growing fields that may benefit from an expanded perspective stimulated by more interdisciplinary contributions. One way to achieve this goal is to attract non-traditional students from the social sciences and humanities into these fields. This present paper describes two educational initiatives that focused on teaching non-engineering students about robotics and HRI. In one initiative, a group of younger students, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), received hands-on experience with robotics in a context that was not overly technical, while in the other initiative, college students in the social sciences and humanities learned about basic HRI concepts and developed robotics applications. Themes common to both initiatives were to reach non-technical students who are not traditional targets for robotics education and to focus their learning on creating interactive sequences for robots based on key HRI design considerations rather than on the underlying mechanical and electrical details related to how those sequences are enacted inside the robot. Both initiatives were successful in terms of producing desired learning outcomes and fostering participant enjoyment.