Immersive Visualizations in a VR Cave Environment for the Training and Enhancement of Social Skills for Children with Autism Skevi Matsentidou and Charalambos Poullis Immersive and Creative Technologies Lab, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus Keywords: Training, Immersion, Visualization, VR Systems and Toolkits, Autism. Abstract: Autism is a complex developmental disorder characterized by severe impairment in social, communicative, cognitive and behavioral functioning. Several studies investigated the use of technology and Virtual Reality for social skills training for people with autism with promising and encouraging results (D. Strickland, 1997; Parsons S. & Cobb S., 2011). In addition, it has been demonstrated that Virtual Reality technologies can be used effectively by some people with autism, and that it had helped or could help them in the real world; (S. Parsons, A. Leonard, P. Mitchell, 2006; S. Parsons, P. Mitchell, 2002). The goal of this research is to design and develop an immersive visualization application in a VR CAVE environment for educating children with autism. The main goal of the project is to help children with autism learn and enhance their social skills and behaviours. Specifically, we will investigate whether a VR CAVE environment can be used in an effective way by children with mild autism, and whether children can benefit from that and apply the knowledge in their real life. 1 INTRODUCTION The goal of the project is to design and develop an immersive visualization application in a VR CAVE environment for educating and treating children with mild autism. The main goal of the project is to help children with autism enhance and improve their social skills and behaviors. We address the following research questions: - Can virtual reality technologies, and in particular the aforementioned application, be effectively involved in enhancing the social skills and behaviors of children? - Can the immersive visualization application be considered as a new and innovative method of treatment? Autism is a complex developmental disorder characterized by severe impairment in social, communicative, cognitive and behavioral functioning. It belongs to a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and a broader category of pervasive developmental disorders (D. Strickland, 1997). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction, social communication and imagination, stereotyped and repetitive behaviors and a resistance to change in routine. Intellectual disability is present in a large proportion of individuals (B. Robins, K. Dautenhahn, R. te Boekhorst, 2005; G. Dawson, 2010; K. Dautenhahn, 2000). Some basic characteristics of people with autism are reduced emotional attachment, absence or abnormal speech, ritualistic behaviors, aggression and self-harm. Typical is also the lack of eye contact (Matson J.L., Matson M.L., Rivet T.T., 2007; C. Lord, 2000), attention deficit, motor incoordination, symptoms of anxiety and depression (E. L. Hill and U. Frith, 2003). In addition some other characteristics are the reduced repertoire of activities and interests, and a tendency of fixation to stable environments (K. Dautenhahn, 2000). Recent research investigated the use of virtual environments for social skills training, as an augmentation to existing methods and approaches. People with ASDs had the ability to use Virtual Environments (VEs) successfully, and learn simple social skills using the technology. VR technologies provide safe, realistic-looking 3-D scenarios that can be built to depict everyday social scenarios. The possibility of exploring these scenarios in real-time makes them an attractive tool for teaching social 230 Matsentidou S. and Poullis C.. Immersive Visualizations in a VR Cave Environment for the Training and Enhancement of Social Skills for Children with Autism. DOI: 10.5220/0004844602300236 In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP-2014), pages 230-236 ISBN: 978-989-758-009-3 Copyright c  2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)