Image credit – Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University
People with autism do not operate on the same levels that the rest of us do, and as such, their behavior can sometimes be unpredictable where they can be prone to sudden aggressive outbursts. All of this is manageable, of course, but wouldn’t it be better to know if a person with autism was on the verge of such an outburst?
That’s what researchers at Northeastern University are hoping to achieve, where they have created a wearable which at least based on initial findings, seems to be able to predict aggressive outbursts in people with autism. The initial tests only consisted of 20 observed children over an 87 hour period, meaning that it is far from accurate, but it seems that it was good enough to show some promise.
According to Matthew Goodwin, the researcher who created the wearable, “As our data set grows and we use more sophisticated machine learning models, I think we might get more than 60 seconds.” How the wristband works is that it measures things like the wearer’s heart rate, sweat production, and skin surface temperature.
From there, it will be able to predict if the wearer could be getting close to an outburst, with about a 60-second window which should give caretakers time to get themselves ready and to relax the individual.
Filed in . Read more about Health, Science and Wearable Tech. Source: engadget