Autism and digital technology

On Tuesday July 12, the results of "Interact", a project for the development of digital applications to improve the daily life of autism patients and facilitate data sharing between patients and scientists, were presented. These results are the culmination of six months of collaboration between people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

For the project, scientists from the Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions team, led by Thomas Bourgeron, and a team of clinicians from Robert-Debré Hospital worked with IT students from the Paris-based "42" school, designers from the Condé school and from e-artsup, cognitive experts from the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity and also parents and members of the ABA autism association.

The students presented the three digital applications that were developed as a result of this partnership, as well as the website:

• My Daily Life - an application that monitors the actions and movements of autism patients to facilitate their treatment by psychologists.

• My Voice - non-verbal autism patients can express themselves by carrying around a series of small pictures in a binder (the PECS method). My Voice turns the binder into an app, making it easier for the patients to access the images they need.

• 
My Night - an application for sleep analysis (sleeping patterns, disturbances, sleeping time).

• Autism website: The students looked for ways of helping web users find information on autism more easily, especially by offering direct access to and explanations of the latest report by the French National Authority for Health, an authoritative text in this field.

Several Institut Pasteur departments attended this presentation. Axelle Lemaire, French Junior Minister for Digital Affairs, closed the evening.

The event in pictures