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Virtual Environments for Social Training

Objective

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a clinical diagnostic label used to characterize a wide array of individuals exhibiting some common degree of core difficulty in the domain of social communication. This difficulty is reflected in contextually inappropriate social behavior, limited understanding of social norms, expectations, and others’ mental states, eye gaze abnormalities, etc. Such impairments often lead to social exclusion and failure to develop age-appropriate peer relationships. Although current behavioral interventions for autism show some effectiveness, their generalizability is limited insofar as they are often set in structured settings that are decontextualized from situations of everyday life. Also, most of the interventions that have been effective tend to train skills that do not pertain to core areas of social communication where individuals with autism encounter difficulties (e.g. they target improvements in language, IQ etc.). To overcome the shortcomings of traditional interventions we have begun exploring how to train social skills through interactive role-playing scenarios experienced through immersive Virtual Reality (VR). With VR autistic individuals can practice, in realistic but safe environments, useful and typical tasks from everyday life. We have designed a prototype software package with a number of tasks embedded in virtual environments aiming at (1) capitalizing on known cognitive strengths of autistic individuals (e.g. good skills in visual search) and generalizing them to social settings, and (2) improving the transfer of skills across tasks that are conceptually similar despite surface differences. This software runs on a variety of platforms including low-cost Head-Mounted-Displays and 3D TVs. Based on what we know about autism and current interventions, with this PoC grant we aim to explore the potential of commercializing affordable software/hardware VR systems for social skills training in clinical settings and at home.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2014-PoC

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Host institution

UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 147 687,50
Address
AVENUE PANEPISTIMIOU 2109 AGLANTZI
1678 Nicosia
Cyprus

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Region
Κύπρος Κύπρος Κύπρος
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 147 687,50

Beneficiaries (1)

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