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This thesis focuses on the design and use of Extended Reality (XR) environments for supporting autistic children regarding sensory perception.While autism XR research, ranging from Augmented Reality (AR) to Virtual Reality (VR), is promising to extend practitioners' interventions, it mainly addresses the socio-emotional abilities of children with mild autism. Yet, common interventions address the entire spectrum by targeting a range of abilities, including sensory perception. Based on these observations, I conducted 34 interviews with autism stakeholders to compare their practical needs with the literature XR uses and designs. Findings confirmed the presence of a research gap, provided a set of XR guidelines, and called for further exploration of XR sensory and mediation approaches. Furthermore, to better consider moderate to severe autism, AR seemed more suited than VR, as allowing children to keep contact with the real environment and their usual practitioner. To examine this objective, two research endeavors were conducted within clinical settings in collaboration with practitioners.In the first part of this thesis, I investigated the possibility of using sensory and mediation XR approaches to support reassurance and to reinforce the child-practitioner relationship. To that end, an AR application called Magic Bubbles was created to complement usual sensory interventions, such as Snoezelen and Sensory Integration Therapy, which are sometimes limited in terms of flexibility or access. A user-centered design process was conducted for a day hospital setting with two psychologists and one psychiatrist, and validated by a clinical team of eleven practitioners. After acceptability and usability testing with ten children with neurodevelopmental disorders, a long-term field study with seven autistic children confirmed its potential for reassurance and social interaction. Moreover, using a grounded theory approach, I built a categorization of children's experiences, which could inform future autism XR research. To complement these findings, VR was explored to extend another type of sensory intervention called music therapy. Two applications were created which respectively focus on the music performance in collaboration with a music therapist at a music conservatoire, and the music dialogue in collaboration with two psychologists at the day hospital. Preliminary tests with three autistic children were positive in terms of their acceptability and engagement. In order to make the multisensory XR spaces previously presented even more reassuring, they must be adapted based on a better assessment of the stimuli inducing negative or positive experiences among autistic individuals.In the second part of this thesis, I thus focused on using AR to assess the Atypical Auditory Functioning (AAF) of autistic children, in collaboration with a psychomotor therapist. Indeed, although AAF largely impacts the everyday life of autistic people, current sensory profiles and auditory exams prevent practitioners from testing various auditory stimuli in ecological settings. This makes it hard to differentiate between emotional and physical reactions towards sounds, and thus to develop appropriate sensory strategies. To address this issue, I started by developing a sound taxonomy being representative of autistic AAF through a systematic literature review. The items of the taxonomy were then validated, ranked, and enhanced, through an online questionnaire answered by 68 stakeholders. At last, an AR application was designed to perform such assessments. Future field tests are planned with autistic individuals at the therapist's office.The thesis concludes by drawing research perspectives based on the main research findings.; Cette thèse se concentre sur la conception et l'utilisation d'environnements de Réalité Etendue (RE) comme soutien à la perception sensorielle d'enfants autistes.Alors que la recherche sur l'autisme en RE, allant de la Réalité Augmentée (RA) à la Réalité Virtuelle (RV), est prometteuse pour étendre les interventions des praticiens, elle se concentre sur les compétences socio-émotionnelles d'enfants autistes légers. Pourtant, les interventions courantes ciblent le spectre entier au travers de nombreux aspects, dont la perception sensorielle. Partant de ce constat, j'ai mené 34 entretiens avec des personnes de la communauté de l'autisme pour comparer leurs besoins éventuels avec les études existantes en RE. Les résultats ont confirmé que certaines approches demeurent sous-explorées, permis de dresser un ensemble de recommandations de conception d'environnements de RE, et encouragé à plus explorer les approches sensorielles et de médiation. Pour considérer l'autisme modéré à sévère, la RA semble également plus adaptée que la RV, car permet de garder un contact avec l'environnement réel. A partir de ces résultats, deux initiatives de recherche ont été lancées au sein d'environnements cliniques en collaboration avec des praticiens.Dans la première partie de cette thèse, j'ai étudié la possibilité d'utiliser des approches sensorielles en RE pour sécuriser des enfants autistes et renforcer leur lien avec le praticien. L'application de RA Magic Bubbles a ainsi été créée pour compléter les interventions sensorielles courantes, telles que Snoezelen et la thérapie par l'intégration sensorielle, qui sont parfois limitées en termes de flexibilité ou d'accès. Un processus de conception centrée utilisateur a été mené pour un hôpital de jour avec deux psychologues et une médecin psychiatre, puis validé avec onze praticiens. Après des tests d'acceptabilité et d'usabilité avec dix enfants avec des troubles neurodéveloppementaux, une étude de terrain de plusieurs mois avec sept enfants autistes a confirmé son potentiel de réassurance et d'interaction sociale. De plus, en utilisant la théorie ancrée, j'ai construit une catégorisation de leurs expériences qui pourrait renseigner de futures recherches en RE sur l'autisme. Pour compléter ces résultats, deux applications de RV ont été créées, basées sur une autre intervention sensorielle, la musicothérapie. Elles explorent respectivement la performance musicale, en collaboration avec une musicothérapeute dans un conservatoire de musique, et le dialogue musical, avec les psychologues de l'hôpital de jour. Des pré-tests avec trois enfants autistes ont été positifs quant à leur acceptabilité et engagement. Afin de rendre les environnements présentés ci-dessus encore plus sécurisants, ils doivent maintenant être individualisés selon une meilleure évaluation des stimuli perçus comme négatifs ou positifs par les individus.Dans la seconde partie de cette thèse, je me suis donc concentré sur l'utilisation de la RA pour évaluer le Fonctionnement Auditif Atypique (FAA) d'enfants autistes, en collaboration avec un psychomotricien. En effet, bien que le FAA impacte fortement leur vie quotidienne, les profils sensoriels et tests auditifs actuels ne permettent pas de tester des stimuli variés dans des contextes écologiques. Ceci empêche de différencier les réactions émotionnelles et physiques par rapport aux sons et donc de développer des stratégies sensorielles appropriées. J'ai commencé par développer une taxonomie sonore représentative du FAA autistique au travers d'une revue systématique de la littérature. Je l'ai ensuite validée, hiérarchisée, et améliorée avec un questionnaire en ligne répondu par 68 personnes de la communauté de l'autisme. Une application en RA a enfin été conçue pour réaliser de telles évaluations. Des tests futurs sont prévus avec des personnes autistes dans un cabinet de psychomotricité.Cette thèse conclut en dressant des perspectives de recherches issues des résultats principaux.

International audience; Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by profound communication and social interaction deficits. It can lead to social anxiety and depressive thought patterns, leaving the individual unable to be a productive member of society. Music therapy is a method that applies musical experiences and the relationships that develop through the sessions to train communication skills, thus addressing one of the core difficulties of ASD. However, music therapy requires musical instruments that are not always easily accessible and can be an anxiety-inducing experience. This paper presents a multiplayer virtual reality application designed to allow a music therapist to help a child develop social skills in a virtual environment through musical activities. The application is designed in collaboration with two music therapists and two psychologists and includes a qualitative evaluation of the application.

Reproducibility Study: Do Channels Matter? Illuminating Interpersonal Influence on Music Recommendations The report can be found in `reproducibility_study.pdf`. Source code of the statistical analysis and raw data can be found in `source_code_data.zip`. The Latex sources and figures used to create the final report can be found in `tex_sources_figures.zip`. An example of the survey page that was presented to participants can be seen in `google_survey_example.pdf`. For questions and improvements please contact one of the authors: - Bauer, Valentin (valentin.bauer@tuwien.ac.at) - Bobinac, Josip (josip.bobinac@tuwien.ac.at) - Tang, Fung Yee (e51850916@student.tuwien.ac.at) This work is the result of an assignment in the Experiment Design for Data Science course at Technical University of Vienna in the winter semester of 2021.

International audience; Ce poster présente la conception de l’application Magic Bubbles, basée sur la plateforme MirERA, qui vise à rendre des enfants avec TSA de bas niveau disponiblesen leur offrant une stimulation multisensorielle adapté, afin de pouvoir ensuite accéder à des tâches complexes, comme par exemple la communication.

eXtended Reality (XR) autism research, ranging from Augmented Reality to Virtual Reality, focuses on socio-emotional abilities and high-functioning autism. However common autism interventions address the entire spectrum over social, sensory and mediation issues. To bridge the gap between autism research and real interventions, we compared existing literature on XR and autism with stakeholders' needs obtained by interviewing 34 skateholders, mainly practitioners. It allow us first to suggest XR use cases that could better support practitioners' interventions, and second to derive design guidelines accordingly. Findings demonstrate that collaborative XR sensory-based and mediation approaches would benefit the entire spectrum, and encourage to consider the overall intervention context when designing XR protocols., Comment: submitted to Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder

International audience

Musicians face challenges when using stereo headphones to perform with one another, due to a lack of audio intelligibility and the loss of their usual benchmarks. Also, high levels of click tracks in headphone mixes hinder performance subtleties and harm performers’ aural health. This chapter discusses the approaches and outcomes of eight case studies in professional situations that aimed at comparing the experiences of orchestra conductors and instrumentalists while monitoring their performances through binaural versus stereo headphones. These studies assessed three solutions combining augmented and mixed reality technologies that include binaural with head tracking to conduct a large film-scoring orchestra and jazz symphonic with a click track; binaural without head tracking to improvise in trio or on previously recorded takes in the studio; and active binaural headphones to record diverse genres on a click track or soundtrack. Findings concur to show that better audio intelligibility and recreated natural-sounding acoustics through binaural rendering enhance performers’ listening comfort, perception of a realistic auditory image, and musical expression and creativity by increasing their feeling of immersion. Findings also demonstrate that the reduction of source masking effects in binaural versus stereo headphone mixes enables performers to monitor less click track, and therefore protect their creative experience and aural health.