3D Animated Facial Expression and Autism in Taiwan

The paper reports a preliminary study of the feasibility of using 3D animated facial expression for people with autism in Taiwan. This study to date has concentrated on the ability of autistic children to understand basic emotions as represented by a 3D humanoid character; and understanding the 3D expressive characters in cause-effect situation. Further, the 3D animated character of emotions is designed in the context of an interactive multimedia system, and requires users with autism to work through three stages in this system. An empirical study of this system has been implemented and the participants involved with people with autism. The preliminary statistical analysis and results suggest that autistic children may be able to accurately recognise emotions as displayed by 3D animated facial expression and the caused emotion in the context of social event within the interactive multimedia system.