JKinect: A new Java Software for Designing and Assessing Gross Motor Activities in children with autism based on JFML Juan Carlos G´ amez-Granados Dept. Electr. & Computer Engineering University of C´ ordoba, Spain email: jcgamez@uco.es Francisco Javier Rodriguez-Lozano Dept. Electr. & Computer Engineering University of C´ ordoba, Spain email: fj.rodriguez@uco.es Giovanni Acampora Dept. Physics Ettore Pancini University of Naples Federico II, Italy email: giovanni.acampora@unina.it Chang-Shing Lee Dept. Computer Science & Information Engineering National University of Tainan, Taiwan email: leecs@mail.nutn.edu.tw Jose Manuel Soto-Hidalgo Dept. Computer Architecture and Computer Technology University of Granada, Spain email: jmsoto@ugr.es Abstract—Motor therapies can be considered as one of the social challenges that have a great impact in children with autism. Traditionally, exercises and activities as therapies have been used to mitigate and to rehabilitate problems related to gross motor skills. Nevertheless, from the perspective of children, these therapies are often repetitive, boring and they need an extra motivation aspect due to the target: children with autism. From the point of interaction with the target population, the use of technology is a key issue in these therapies. In this scenario, a new software named JKinect which is based on RGB-D sensors and computer based games. JKinect helps children with gross motor problems and presents great flexibility in the therapy design and game sharing among specialists. Additionally, a new module for linking JKinect with both fuzzy systems based on the IEEE std 1855-2016 and the JFML library to support experts’ decision making in therapies on the basis of fuzzy rules is also included. Index Terms—Motor therapies, Kinect, JFML, FRBS, ADHD I. I NTRODUCTION The sensory-motor area provides an exploratory capacity that promotes learning and stimulates intellectual development. This area allows people to interact properly with their envi- ronment [1]. The motor skills, which are related to execution and coordination of movements, can be classified into two groups depending on the type of movement: fine and gross. Fine motor refers to small, precision movements, mainly in the hand and the wrist, while gross motor refers to movements that use large muscles, such as the arms, legs or the upper body. The development of the ability to move the muscles of the body harmoniously [2], [3] is a fundamental key for the discovery of the environment, self-esteem and self-confidence among other skills. In this context, one of the main challenges to be addressed is these kind of therapies where children are involved. In this field, the advances in neuroscientific research, accompanied by technology, are one of the current objectives in the treatment of children with motor disorders. There are a growing number of studies [4]–[7] that show the effectiveness of training programs focused on gross motor skills in the improvement of different disorders. The current challenge consists of creating activities, in a comfortable way for the therapists, which motivate children to become playfully involved in them. On the one hand, technology brings important benefits to the realization of such programs. In particular, a technological area of special interest for its application and results in the perfor- mance of therapies with children is the multimodal interaction using RGB-D sensors, such as the Kinect devide [8]. These types of sensors combine RGB images with depth information providing the distance to the sensor for each pixel. This technology offers new alternatives to the traditional keyboard and mouse for interaction with a computer system. On the other hand, Fuzzy Logic Systems (FLS) have been successfully used in a wide range of real-world problems. They can include a priori expert knowledge and represent systems for which it is not possible to obtain a mathematical model. Recently, the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE- CIS) has sponsored the publication of the new standard for FLS (IEEE Std 1855-2016). This standard was established with the main objective to provide the fuzzy community with a unique and well-defined tool allowing a system design completely independent from the specific hardware/software. The new standard defines a new W3C eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based language, named Fuzzy Markup Lan- guage (FML) [9] aimed at providing a unified and well- defined representation of interoperable FLS. For example, distributing fuzzy reasoning through fuzzy markup language: An application to ambient intelligence [10]. Additionally, in order to make the IEEE standard operative and useful for the fuzzy community, the library JFML [11] that offers a complete implementation of the new IEEE standard has been developed. Some hardware/sensor developments based on JFML have also 978-1-7281-6932-3/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE