虚拟现实技术帮自闭症儿童“旅行”看世界

Virtual Reality Helps Autistic Children ‘Travel’ to New Places
虚拟现实技术帮自闭症儿童“旅行”看世界
A school in England for children with autism is finding a new use for virtual reality, or VR headsets. Prior’s Court is a school in Berkshire, southern England. The workers at the school are also using high technology to learn more about individual students.
英国一所专为自闭症儿童开设的学校发现了虚拟现实或者叫VR头盔的新用途。普赖尔学院是英格兰南部伯克郡的一所学校。学校的工作人员也在使用高科技来更多地了解每个学员。
People with autism may find it hard to deal with places and situations they have not experienced before. VR headsets make the wearer feel like they are in a different place. For example, someone wearing a VR headset can have a 360-degree view of a place as they turn around. With video, they can even hear the sounds of the place.
自闭症患者会对陌生的环境或情形感到难以适从。而VR头戴设备能让佩戴者感觉自己像是身处新的环境。比如，一个戴着VR头盔的人在转身时能够看到某个360度的全景景观。如果再配上视频，他们甚至可以听到这个地方的声音。
Teachers at Prior’s Court are using VR to introduce children to situations like visiting a shopping mall or getting on a plane. They can do so in the safety of their classroom.
普赖尔学院的教师们使用虚拟现实技术向孩子们介绍参观购物中心或乘坐飞机等情境。他们可以在自己感到很安全的教室里这样做。
In addition to getting used to everyday places in the real world, the children may learn to enjoy new experiences such as skiing or deep-sea diving.
除了能帮助他们适应现实世界中的日常场所，孩子们还得以学习并感受新的体验，如滑雪或深海潜水。
Nuno Guerreiro is a computing teacher at Prior’s Court School. He told Reuters: “Our young people, they have difficulties with sensory issues so they can find it overwhelming going to very busy places.”
努诺·格雷罗是普赖尔学院的一名计算机教师。他告诉路透: “我们的学生在感官问题上很敏感，去到很喧闹的地方会让他们感到很有压力。“
Guerreiro added that children with autism find it hard to be in a new place. “They like what is familiar, they like their routine.”
格雷罗还补充道，患有自闭症的儿童很难适应一个新的环境。“他们喜欢自己熟悉的东西，只喜欢按常规生活。”
The school officials hope the VR experiences will help children feel better about changes from their routine.
学校高层希望虚拟现实体验能帮助孩子们更好地适应日常生活中的变化。
Prior’s Court cares for around 95 young people with more severe signs of autism. Some cannot speak or communicate their needs.
普赖尔学院拥有大约95名有较为严重自闭症症状的年轻学生。有些学生甚至无法表达或诉说他们的需求。
Big data on behavior
行为大数据
The charity is also hoping data can help. They are trying a new data collection system. The system, called Prior Insight, puts together information about each young person’s day: what they have eaten, how much sleep and exercise they have had and all their activities. Then it compares those facts to how they are behaving and medical events.
该慈善机构也希望大数据能够帮上忙。他们目前也在测试一种新的数据收集系统。该系统被称为“普赖尔洞察力”，它将每个年轻学员每天的数据信息整合在一起：他们每天吃了什么、睡了多久、做了多少运动以及其他所有活动。然后再将这些信息与他们的日常行为及医疗信息进行对比。
Project leader Elaine Hudgell said the school hopes to share what it learns.
项目负责人伊莱恩·哈吉尔表示，学校有意共享研究成果。
“We’re hoping to not only increase our knowledge and awareness about the world of young people with autism at Prior’s Court, but we’re also hoping to be able to, in time, share that with the wider autism world.”
“我们不仅希望增加对普赖尔学院学生世界的认知，同时我们也希望能够及时与更广泛的自闭症世界的人们分享这些知识。”
I’m Jill Robbins.
吉尔·罗宾斯报道。