Duke University researchers have demonstrated an app which is AI driven that can run on a tablet to screen for autism in children by measuring and weighing a variety of behavioral indicators.
Published online in the October 2023 journal Nature Medicine, an app called SenseToKnow evaluates and measures a variety of behavioral indicators and delivers scores that suggest the probability that the child tested may be on the autism spectrum. The results are fully interpretable, meaning that they spell out exactly which of the behavioral indicators led to its conclusions and why.
This ability gives health care providers detailed information on what to look for and consider in children referred for full assessments and intervention. The researchers state that SenseToKnow’s ease of use and lack of hardware limitations, combined with its demonstrated accuracy across sex, ethnicity and race, could help eliminate known disparities in early autism diagnosis and intervention by allowing autism screening to take place in any setting, even in the child’s own home.
The app uses almost every sensor in the tablet’s arsenal to measure and characterize the child’s response without the need for any sort of calibration or special equipment. It then uses AI to analyze the child’s responses to predict how likely it is that the child will be diagnosed with autism.
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