Best Paper Award

Face to face action is important in social situations. Looking at the face of a communication partner makes it possible to estimate their internal state such as the other's intentions or emotions by using gaze or facial expressions as a clue. For example, it can be understood that a supervisor's words "Isn’t it good that you can get a day off" are ironic with the meaning "Don't take a day off when we are busy" by looking at the eyes that do not smile. In addition, when infants segment their knowledge about the physical and social world (knowledge acquisition), it is said that the gaze and facial expressions of caregivers become important cues. On the other hand, it is known that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) r avoid looking at the face and have difficulty with eye contact with other people, which might cause difficulty in the social communication of people with ASD. From such a background, in this research, the authors developed a device aimed at measuring facing behavior and assisting face to face action. The device is a simple light-emitting device like the form of a hair band worn by the communication party on the front of the head. The device is equipped with an infrared communication module, and by measuring the state of the optical axis mutually, it is possible to identify the state in which both are not facing each other, the state in which only one is looking, and the state in which they face each other. It is also possible to change the luminescent color according to the facing conditions. In this paper, a performance evaluation experiment was performed using the developed device, and it was shown that it has basic performance. This device makes it possible to clearly indicate what kind of face-to-face behavior should be taken for people with ASD by using data of people with typical development. That is, the visualization of implicit social rules. Explicitly indicating social rules is effective for people with autistic spectrum disorder. This device realized this visualization in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. From the above, this device has the possibility of eliminating the difficulties that people with developmental disabilities have, and because it is expected to contribute in the real world, it can be highly evaluated as a paper suitable for the paper award of the Society.