Optitrack Autism Study

About

This was Vanessa E. R.'s master's thesis project at the University of Twente, which aimed to see if motion tracking could help identify movement patterns related to autism. You can read about her incredible research here (https://www.utwente.nl/en/eemcs/interaction-lab/research-projects/vanessaproject/). I was brought onto the project to handle the technical side of things. My job was to build the software that would run the experiments. I created a program in Unity that displayed the interactive tasks and, crucially, connected it to the OptiTrack motion capture system. To do this, I set up a websocket that streamed the tracking data for the participants' hands directly into Unity in real-time.

My Role & Technical Hurdles

The main challenge was getting two very different systems, OptiTrack and Unity, to talk to each other without any lag. The research needed precise, real-time data, so any delay was an issue. I solved this by building a stable websocket connection to stream the raw tracking data within Unity. Another task was making the experiment environment feel less like a sterile lab. I helped design the Unity tasks to be more like simple games, which made the experience more comfortable and natural for the participants.

Results

Vanessa's research uncovered some interesting findings. For example, she found that some participants with autism showed such intense focus that they were completely unfazed by on-screen interruptions designed to distract them.