Amelie has a “beautiful and impossible” task: to help girls with Rett’s syndrome get out of situation of perennial lockdown in which the disease forces them. Congenital neurological disease, which almost exclusively affects women, causes developmental arrest. Followed by a regression. Little girls lose the use of hands, speech and, in most cases, walking. And they communicate only with the eyes. Who is Amelie then? Or rather: what is it? An innovative technological platform launched byItalian Association of Rett Syndrome (Airett), with eye tracking (eye tracker) and smartphone app, designed and built to facilitate communication, interaction and learning of small children. Thanks to a research call from the Vodafone Foundation, the team of Airett Research and Innovation Center (Cari) of Verona born with the aim of innovating and researching at an international level all the news for both motor and cognitive qualification of Rett syndrome.
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An app and software that “translates” images into tables
«Our girls’ eyes are the most direct and immediate way to communicate, to be understood, to learn with a cognitive enhancement program and to play while having fun and training », he explains Lucia Dovigo, President Airett. How does Amelie work? In practice, thanks to the smartphone app and specifically designed software it is possible to photograph people or things and create communication tables (or use pre-loaded ones) even “live”. The tables are transmitted to a PC with which the girls, using a digital camera, with the only movement of the eyes “choose” one of the images sent and then interact with those who sent them.
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Immediately decide on the hair cut
«In the testing phase we have involved ten of our little girls, five of which already had eye tracker experience, gathering feedback from therapists, families, girls and their teachers. This helped us overcome the limits of communication systems already on the market, often difficult to use for people with this pathology », explains the professor Rosa Angela Fabio, scientific director of Airett. A little girl, for example, was able decide immediately by which of two hairdressers to get their hair cut and the type of cut. Others have used Amelie in school (before the pandemic) and this has attracted the curiosity of classmates with benefits on socialization. “By December we will also complete the cognitive enhancement part of the program – adds Professor Fabio, who is also full professor of General Psychology at the University of Messina -. We plan to start using 10 girls every month, because a refresher course is needed for caregivers who will then use it “.
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January 6, 2021 (change January 6, 2021 | 20:11)
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