Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts individuals' perceptual, social, motor, and cognitive skills. Joint attention skills are pivotal for social and communication development. Moreover, ASD individuals often face motion and depth perception challenges, affecting their daily life. While traditional interventions existed, computing technology, particularly Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), offers novel therapeutic solutions.

Objectives: This study has dual aims: assessing the efficacy of an AR and VR joint attention (JA) training platform for ASD individuals and analyzing eye-tracking data concerning 3D motion and depth perception among them. Focusing on participants aged 6-13, the research uses avatar-based AR and VR platforms to establish joint attention and compares ASD participants' responses to typically developing (TD) peers.

Methods: 19 ASD and 13 TD participants aged 6-13 participated. Their health was robust, with autism severity measured using SRS and SCQ. They engaged in 20-minute sessions using AR and VR headsets with eye-tracking. The JA platform featured a virtual avatar directing attention to virtual objects, tracking participants' eye movements to determine gaze focus.

Results: ASD participants in the JA experiment had slower responses than TD participants, who quickly responded to cues and maintained eye contact with avatars. TD participants showcased better motion and depth perception, effectively tracking stimuli.

Conclusion: This research evaluates a VR and AR-based JA platform for ASD children and observes perceptual differences between ASD and TD groups, with notable performance discrepancies between them.

Ashirbad Samantaray
Indian Institute of Technology
India

Chayan Majumdar
Indian Institute of Technology
India

Tapan Kumar Gandhi
Indian Institute of Technology
India

Sheffali Gulati
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
India