Authors:
Bo Fu
1
;
Katrina Orevillo
1
;
Dennis Lo
1
;
Andrew Bae
1
and
Melissa Bittner
2
Affiliations:
1
Computer Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Long Beach, U.S.A.
;
2
Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Long Beach, U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Real-Time Heart Rate Visualization, Eye Tracking, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Technology Assisted Exercise.
Abstract:
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience negative relationships with physical activity and a severe lack of motivation for exercise. While specialized exercise technologies such as internet-enabled machines and mobile applications have provided some solutions for typically developing individuals, there is a lack of research in providing exercise technology that specifically considers the needs of individuals with ASD. This paper presents a real-time heart-rate visualization application, namely the HeartRunner 2.0 App, which aims to engage individuals with ASD to exercise at higher intensity. When used to supplement exercise sessions, amongst a group of 20 participants with ASD, evaluation results showed that the App helped 83% of participants achieve higher heart rates, 66.6% to maintain heart rates at or above 90 BPM, and 27.7% to re-engage and achieve heart rates at or above 90 BPM after dropping below that threshold. Furthermore, eye tracking analyses indic
ate that those individuals who achieved higher heart rates have employed a more focused gaze patterns with less distributed fixations in their visual searches, as well as greater efforts in scanning various cues in the given visual scene, suggesting that visual interaction with the App may have contributed to elevated performance in the experiment.
(More)