In the modern world of today where almost everyone is heavily and deeply looking down on their smartphones and tablets, there are others who just have difficulty making eye contact, and these are people with autism.
In line with this observation, Samsung has released an "interactive camera app" named "Look at Me", that helps children with autism make eye contact through a set of games installed on it. The app consists of six missions for the player to complete, and requires at least 15-20 minutes of gameplay. One challenge is about reading the moods of the pictures of people flashed on the screen, and another is about making the right facial expression over a situation presented by the app; these are games that all require concentration, focus, and most importantly, practice of eye contact. The player is then given points and other special items depending on how well the performance is.
In recent findings by Samsung, which has been mentioned on the app"s webpage, the app helped about 60% of the 20 children who took advantage of the app in a span of 8 weeks.
Also, Autism Speaks Canada has partnered with Samsung in the fight against autism, providing 200 Samsung Galaxy Tab S devices to families with autistic children, which are all preloaded with the "Look at Me" app.
It has been mentioned by Samsung that the app"s effectiveness towards the user is not indisputable, and depends upon the parent"s guidance.
Recently, a similar app had been proposed to fight anaemia, called Eyenaemia, created by two Australian students at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2014.
The app is only compatible with a number of Galaxy devices. You can download "Look at Me" on the Google Play Store here.
Source: Mashable | Image and video via Samsung Tomorrow