APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://www.autismcenterofpittsburgh.com/Interbots/CMU_Application.pdf
As you may know, AutismLink & The Autism Center of Pittsburgh are working hand
in hand with Interbots, a Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute spinoff Company,
Community Alternatives and Community Psychiatric Centers to test a new and
exciting technology for children with autism.
Thanks to a generous grant from The Sprout Fund, we will begin accepting
applications for the trial therapy very shortly.
Meet “Popchilla” — http://www.youtube.com/user/interbots
About the Project
AutismLink and the Autism Centers of Pittsburgh have been working hand in hand with Interbots, a Carnegie Mellon University high tech spinoff company to develop a robot geared toward interacting with children with autism — preferably those who are nonverbal or who have emerging verbal skills.
The idea behind the project is that children w/autism are more likely to, and more interested in, interacting with a robot rather than a human. But the more endearing and “human like” and non-threatening the robot is — the more we feel that we can teach certain verbal and emotional skills to children with autism, which will hopefully later be generalized into every day life.
There are many applications for this innovative idea, but we are just scratching the surface. It is our belief that this robot can be used to initially engage a child and eventually result in the acquisition of many skills, including emotion, language, etc. We are currently developing an iPad application to allow therapists and clinicians to work with the robots to teach various skills.
