Numerous children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit abnormal eye gaze pattern in communication and social interaction. Due to the high cost of ASD interventions and a shortage of professional therapists, researchers have explored the use of virtual reality (VR) systems as a supplementary intervention for autistic children. This paper presents the design of a novel VR-based system called the Hide and Seek Virtual Reality System (HSVRS). The HSVRS allows children with ASD to enhance their ocular gaze abilities while engaging in a hide-and-seek game with a virtual avatar. By employing face and voice manipulation technology, the HSVRS provides the option to customize the appearance and voice of the avatar, making it resemble someone familiar to the child, such as their parents. We conducted a pilot study at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China, to evaluate the feasibility of HSVRS as an auxiliary intervention for children with autism (N=24). Through the analysis of subjective questionnaires completed by the participants' parents and objective eye gaze data, we observed that children in the VR-assisted intervention group demonstrated better performance compared to those in the control group. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the utilization of face and voice manipulation techniques to personalize avatars in hide-and-seek games can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the system.

翻译：许多被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的儿童在沟通和社交互动中表现出异常的眼球注视模式。由于ASD干预成本高昂且缺乏专业治疗师，研究人员探索使用虚拟现实（VR）系统作为自闭症儿童的辅助干预手段。本文提出了一种名为"捉迷藏虚拟现实系统（HSVRS）"的新型VR系统设计。HSVRS允许ASD儿童在与虚拟化身进行捉迷藏游戏的过程中提升其眼球注视能力。通过应用人脸与语音操控技术，HSVRS提供自定义化身外貌和声音的选项，使其可模拟为儿童熟悉的人物（如父母）。我们在中国中山大学附属第三医院开展了一项试点研究（N=24），以评估HSVRS作为自闭症儿童辅助干预手段的可行性。通过对参与者家长完成的主观问卷及客观眼球注视数据的分析，我们发现VR辅助干预组儿童的表现优于对照组。此外，研究结果表明，在捉迷藏游戏中运用人脸与语音操控技术个性化定制化身，可提升系统的效率与有效性。