Duke University Smartphone App Can Identify Autism In Toddlers
DURHAM, N.C. – A digital app successfully detected one of the telltale characteristics of autism in young children, suggesting the technology could one day become an inexpensive and scalable early screening tool, researchers at Duke University report.
The research team created the app to assess the eye gaze patterns of children while they watched short, strategically designed movies on an iPhone or iPad, then applied computer vision and machine learning to determine whether the child was looking more often at the human in the video, or objects.
“We know that babies who have autism pay attention to the environment differently and are not paying as much attention to people,” said Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development.