impacts of humanoid robots on improvement of eye contact in children with autism

background and aims: this research evaluated the effects of humanoid robots on improvement of eye contact in autistic children. methods and materials: this research used a multiple baseline, single-subject design with control to test 5 autistic children (2 girls and 3 boys) in tehran during 2010. the children aged 7 to 9 years and were tested by gilliam autism rating scales (gars) to ensure the presence of substantial autistic symptoms. a semi-automatic humanoid robotic doll with remote control was used in this study. a short scenario was designed for the primary experimental sessions before the main test. the scenario was established by 3 pilot sessions on an autistic child. we observed children for 15 sessions. the experimental sessions were held twice a week for 7 weeks. each session lasted for 30 minutes, i.e. 15 minutes for eye contact between robot-human and 15 minutes to observe human-human eye contact development. all sessions were recorded by two cameras and finally rated by independent observers based on the number of seconds of human-human eye contact in each session. findings: the results showed that the duration of eye contact increased during the course of 15 sessions. this change could have been resulted from the effect of the independent variable . conclusion: robots have been shown to be a catalyst to improve some skills in autistic children. however, they need to be further studied in order to be effectively employed as a therapeutic intervention. in addition, many children may require extensive therapy for years to improve their behavior and facilitate integration in society.