It is known that early diagnosis and treatments are very important for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, finding the infant patients who have this disease is quite difficult and takes long-term observations by psychiatrists. In recent years, several projects have been started in U.S to solve this issue. These projects aim to develop a way to quickly diagnose the disorder by introducing digital technologies including image/video analysis, wearable sensing devices and speech recognition.
This workshop is held by Japanese researchers related to this field and U.S and international researchers who are mainly joining the NSF Expedition project “Computational Behavior Science (CBS)”, and includes the following topics:
・Digital visual behavioral analysis techniques for infants, in particular, facial expression, eye gaze and motion analyses.
・Behavior analyses using wearable sensing devices and speech analysis
・Lectures about ASD by psychologists and caseworkers.

Studies about ASD have been conducted in the psychologists’ community and Autistic
Spectrum Society; however, there are few studies introducing digital analysis techniques. Therefore, this workshop is unique in the sense that it is held by computer scientists and focuses on introducing digital analysis techniques for this task.
Through this workshop, we potentially have the following benefits:
・Develop/share knowledge about the studies related to digital technology for finding an infant’s ASD.
・Create domestic/international interpersonal relationships in this field.
・Create international projects to develop the techniques for this issue, including eye gaze tracking and behavioral analysis based on the RAPID ABC video database developed by NSF CBS group.