FaceMaze is not only a powerful research tool,
but a fun game too!

Research

We are currently developing a computerized game, "FaceMaze" to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) express their facial emotions. In the FaceMaze game, the child navigates a Pac-man character through a maze with the goal of collecting as many candies as possible. In order to score points, the child poses a happy or angry facial expression that is recorded by a webcam and evaluated by the computer software program.

In the research study, children will be asked to produce facial expressions before and after playing the FaceMaze game. We are interested in knowing whether the game improves their facial expression abilities. Based on this research, we hope to design a cost-effective intervention that will improve the social communication skills of children with ASD.