Development of a low-cost tactile sleeve for autism intervention

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive disorder that can cause sensory-perceptual anomalies, such as a hypersensitivity to contact with other people. We have designed and developed a tactile sleeve to help ASD patients potentially learn how to manage hypersensitivities to human contact through virtual experiences of being touched. Our tactile sleeve simulates both simple and dynamic social touches on the upper arm of the user. These touch gestures are perceived from phantom tactile sensations and apparent tactile motions that are generated by a rectangular grid of vibrotactile actuators. Our design requirements for the sleeve included being inexpensive to produce and integrable with prior ASD intervention software. We describe our formative process for developing the sleeve and conclude with details of our final prototype.