Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

spectrum.ieee.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 108 posts

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#11

Post by DoreenMichele »

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents.

You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks.

That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinner not being ready. I taught him he was allowed to set the table to keep himself occupied and help me get dinner ready faster.

He wasn't required to set it. He was empowered to do so if he chose rather than being a pain in the butt for me.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#12

Post by lallysingh »

hrdwdmrbl wrote: post #9

Unfortunately it seems that something will need to change within society at large in order for these to be acceptable outside of the home.

Outside of tech circles, does anyone care enough to remember? It was a fad for a week.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#13

Post by inportb »

carlinmack wrote: post #8
pishpash wrote: post #5

Is this a claim that computers are better at emotions than some humans? Something does not sit well.

this robot can walk better than a disabled human in a wheelchair? something does not sit well.

The robot does not sit well.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#14

Post by thedance »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents. You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks. That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinn…

The point is that autistic people may not possess a theory of mind. They do not understand or anticipate the desires and intentions of others, and may not be aware that other people even have desires and intentions. You can't explain dinner to them if they are unable to comprehend that you intend to make it and that you desire the space and time to do so efficiently.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#15

Post by scarejunba »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents. You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks. That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinn…

Situation is fictional to illustrate utility of device.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#16

Post by DoreenMichele »

thedance wrote: post #14
DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents. You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks. That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinn…

The point is that autistic people may not possess a theory of mind. They do not understand or anticipate the desires and intentions of others, and may not be aware that other people even have desires and intentions. You can't explain dinner to them if they are unable to comprehend that you intend to make it and that you desire the space and time to do so efficiently.

Most likely, both my sons qualify as somewhere on the autism spectrum. They were never formally diagnosed and I used to routinely give advice to parents whose children did have a formal diagnosis when I was involved with an educational organization.

Edit: I left out the critical part. I gave them advice and routinely said for the longest time "I don't have any ASD kids, but when my kid does that..." It happened so much, I began to wonder if maybe I did, actually, have ASD kids. (It was later somewhat confirmed by unofficial professional feedback.)

My first website was a homeschooling blog. It grew out of the seeming popularity of my emails on a homeschooling list with a lot of parents of special-needs kids.

I know quite a lot about autism and related issues.

My oldest was such a pill, he was nicknamed demon child when he was little. He was an adolescent before he understood what I meant because I absolutely wasn't vilifying him, though he was hugely challenging to deal with.

Humans aren't just born with social skills. There is a huge component of being raised right that I think is currently given short shrift by a society too quick to medicalize every parenting challenge, as if there weren't any socially awkward or shy kids before we had fancy labels for them.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#17

Post by goodside »

tines wrote: post #4

I imagine that there are nuances to facial expression that might be difficult to extract from an image or video, depending on the parameters to your ML model. For example, if someone looks into my eyes, furrows their brows, and shakes their head slowly back and forth, this could mean that they are intensely sympathetic with me (when I am talking), or it could mean that they are disgusted with what I have said (when I…

I assume there are potential users who can’t easily perceive furrowing of brows, but who could infer its context-dependent meaning if it were made more obvious when it’s happening.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#18

Post by DoreenMichele »

scarejunba wrote: post #15
DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents. You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks. That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinn…

Situation is fictional to illustrate utility of device.

It's a lousy assumption then. Ick. Expect better of parents.

I yelled at my special-needs son for opening the oven door and using it as a stepping stool to see what I was cooking. I wasn't mad. I was scared he would climb on it while the oven was hot.

Because I wasn't mad and he heard me yell "no!!!" at full volume, he thought that's just how you pronounced the word and yelled it the first two weeks he began using it. I would look at him funny and he would look funny like "Did I pronounce it wrong?" After two weeks, he stopped yelling the word.

Re: Upgraded Google Glass helps autistic kids “see” emotions

#19

Post by MagnumPIG »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

It sounds to me like you could do a lot more to just educate the parents. You don't get mad and shout at a young child who has decided to put the silverware away. You talk to them about the process of making and serving dinner. He could have been shown that one way to make the silverware more orderly is set the table for everyone while Mom cooks. That was my response to my then five year old being impatient with dinn…

The example is just one example. For some parents, it's this but all the time with different things.

ASD* kids don't learn like neurotypical kids and if you treat them the same you will quickly get exhausted. As someone who has had classes on this, you can't "educate" the kid out of being autistic, and many have tried. This technology is just an adaptive tool, and a great one if it works.

Post reply on HN