US start up developing Google Glass apps to help autistic kids learn social skills

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Brain Power is developing apps for its Google Glass device that could help autistic kids learn social and communication skills, newstonight.co.za reported.

The apps in the device would also provide feedback to caregivers to help kids learn in a better and faster manner. The start-up founded by neuroscientist Ned T Sahin was working to improve the lives of autistic people. Sahin had studied at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Brain Power was for starters focusing on children with moderate to high-functioning autism as the autism disorder spectrum was wide.

The company is planning to expand its capabilities to other kids. About 200 people had already signed up for the company's beta programme.

The beta programme of the company would be conducted in three phases under protocols of Harvard Medical School by Brain Power's team members.

According to Sahin, this way the company would provide numerical, objective, repeatable assessment of a child's current behaviour, as also progress over time.

Brain Power's Google Glass apps - Empowered Brain Suite for Autism - encouraged kids to interact with their parents and make eye contact by presenting exercises like a game, PTI reported.

According to Sahin, the apps had "social engagement module monitors" that assessed how a child engaged with parents, he added.

The software also helped kids interpret people's expressions through a series of games. According to Sahin, parents were often surprised to find how quickly their children had adapted to Google Glass.

Other areas of the suite would tackle language. When a child focuses on an object through Google Glass, the object is identified and its name displayed and spoken through the Glass's earbud.