Google Glass app to help autistic kids

Washington: A Massachusetts-based startup called Brain Power is developing Google Glass app to help autistic kids learn social and communication skills.

The app will also provide feedback to care-givers on how to help austistic children cope with their life.

Called the Empowered Brain Suite for Autism, the app encourages kids to interact with their parents and make eye contact by presenting exercises like a game, TechCrunch reported.

According to neuroscientist Ned T. Sahin, who developed the app, Google Glass has an advantage because it keeps children with autism connected to their families and the real world.

The app has “social engagement module monitors” that assess how a child engaged with his or her parents, specifically if they are looking at their parents’ face and eyes.

Brain Power’s software helps kids interpret their family members’ expressions through a series of games and exercises.

Children will eventually be able to receive personalised language and conversation coaching through the app.

According to Sahin, Google Glass is ideal for helping kids with autism because it has an accelerometer chip that enables head gestures which Brain Power uses to track when kids look or do not look at their parents.

Brain Power has focused its initial development on children with moderate to high-functioning autism and will extend app’s capabilities to other kids as well, the report said.