Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos

Hybridizing research in computer science, robotics, and psychiatry, professor Nikolaos Papenikolopoulos heads a project at the University of Minnesota that is building “robotic pets” and “robotic sandboxes” that can analyze behavior abnormalities of children suggesting autism, attention deficit and obsessive compulsive disorders.  The key to this is in creating computer vision algorithms that interpret movement and emotional features of these problems.  Currently, psychiatrists/psychologists screen videos of childhood behavior and use a numerical scheme for their subjective assessments. The Minnesota group believes there is both objective advantage and cost savings in their robotic approach.  MORE

Image Credit:  University of Minnesota