The Local Moran’s I statistic is a valuable tool for identifying localized patterns of spatial autocorrelation. Understanding these patterns is crucial in spatial analysis, but interpreting the statistic can be difficult. To simplify this process, we introduce three novel visualizations that enhance the interpretation of Local Moran’s I results. These visualizations can be interactively linked to one another, and to established visualizations, to offer a more holistic exploration of the results. We provide a JavaScript library with implementations of these new visual elements, along with a web dashboard that demonstrates their integrated use.

Joint attention is critical to the education and development of a child. Deficits in joint attention are considered by many researchers to be an early predictor of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Training of joint attention have been a significant topic in ASD intervention education research. We propose a novel joint attention training approach using a Customizable Virtual Human (CVH) and a Virtual Reality (VR) game to assist with joint attention training. Previous work has shown that CVHs potentially help the users with ASD to increase their performance in hand-eye coordination, motivate the users to play longer, as well as improve user experience in a training game. Based upon these discovered CVH benefits, we hypothesize that CVHs may also be beneficial in training joint attention for users with ASD. To test our hypothesis, we developed a CVH with customizable facial features in an educational game - Imagination Drums - and conducted a user study on adolescents with high functioning ASD to investigate the effects of CVHs. We collected users' eye-gaze data and task performance during the game to evaluate the users' joint attention with CVHs and the effectiveness of CVHs compared with Non-Customizable Virtual Humans (NCVHs). The study results showed that the CVH make the participants gaze less at the irrelevant area of the game's storyline (i.e. background), but surprisingly, also provided evidence that participants react slower to the CVH's joint attention bids, compared with NCVH. Overall, the study reveals insights of how users with ASD interact with CVHs and how these interactions affect joint attention.

Training games have many potential benefits for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) intervention, such as increasing motivation and improving the abilities of performing daily living activities, due to their ability to simulate real world scenarios. A more motivating game may stimulate users to play the game more, and it may also result in users performing better in the game. Incorporating users' interests into the game could be a good way to build a motivating game, especially for users with ASD. We propose a Customizable Virtual Human (CVH) which enables users with ASD to easily customize a virtual human and then interact with the CVH in a 3D interaction task. Previous work has shown that users with ASD may have less efficient hand-eye coordination in performing 3D interaction tasks than users without ASD. We developed a hand-eye coordination training game - Imagination Soccer - and presented a user study on adolescents with high functioning ASD to investigate the effects of CVHs. We compare the differences of participants' 3D interaction performances, game performances and user experiences (i.e. presence, involvement, and flow) under CVH and Non-customizable Virtual Human (with randomly generated appearances) conditions. As expected, the results indicated that for users with ASD, CVHs could effectively motivate them to play the game more, and offer a better user experience. Surprisingly, results also showed that the CVHs improved performance in the hand-eye-coordination task users had higher success rate and blocked more soccer balls with the CVH than with a non-customizable virtual human.

Virtual Reality (VR) training games have many potential benefits for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) therapy, such as increasing motivation and improving the abilities of performing daily living activities. Persons with ASD often have deficits in hand-eye coordination, which makes many activities of daily living difficult. A VR game that trains hand-eye coordination could help users with ASD improve their quality of life. Moreover, incorporating users' interests into the game could be a good way to build a motivating game for users with ASD. We propose a Customizable Virtual Human (CVH) which enables users with ASD to easily customize a virtual human and then interact with the CVH in a 3D task. Specifically, we investigated the effects of CVHs with a VR hand-eye coordination training game — Imagination Soccer — and conducted a user study on adolescents with high functioning ASD. We compared the differences of participants' 3D interaction performances, game performances and user experiences (i.e. presence, involvement, and flow) under CVH and Non-customizable Virtual Human (NCVH) conditions. The results indicate that CVHs could effectively improve performance in 3D interaction tasks (i.e., blocking a soccer ball) for users with ASD, motivate them to play the game more, and offer a better user experience.

Most literature on the usability of 3D user interfaces (3DUI) in ASD therapy consists of a series of case studies based on games for rehabilitation. These games have been largely successful. However, it is difficult to generalize the results of these specific case studies. The usability of atomic 3DUI interactions (e.g., rotation, translation) with respect to adolescents with ASD has not yet been evaluated. Adolescents with ASD often have enhanced spatial cognitive abilities and less efficient hand-eye coordination. Our main research question is "Do adolescents with ASD perform 3DUI tasks differently than typically developed adolescents and if so, why?" To address this question, we present a matched pair user study including adolescents without ASD (i.e. as controls) paired with adolescents who had a high ASD severity score, but were still considered high functioning. Our results give insight into the usability of 3DUI for adolescents with ASD and provide generalizable guidelines for future 3DUI applications for children with autism.