(iTers News) -Children who are suffering from autism, tend to be afraid to make eye contacts with other people. According to some estimates, more than 60 million people are diagnosed with autism globally, and there is a lack of hospitals and readily-available facilities to treat them effectively, however.

Treatment costs are also high and there are often long waiting lists for the treatment. Yet, some studies shwo that children with autism like to interact smart devices.  

To keep up with the study results,  Samsung Electronics has cooperated with doctors and professors from Seoul National University and Yonsei University to develop "Look At Me" app and conducted joint clinical trial with 20 children for 8 weeks.

Professor Kyong-Mee Chung at Yonsei University noted that “60% of the children tested showed improvement in making eye contact. They could also identify emotional expressions more easily. This app will help children with autism improve their perception and expression of diverse emotions, such as happiness, surprise and fear.”

Knowing that autistic children interact well with technology, we wondered if we could help in some way to support the development of their communication skills,” Chung Lyong Lee, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Group at Samsung, “Look At Me is a light, fun and game-like app that parents can play with their children to get them accustomed to making eye contact and reading people’s emotions. We hope we can play a small part in improving the lives of children around the world.”  

The inspiration for Look At Me came from Samsung’s Launching People Campaign that crowdsources the best ideas from around the world, to put technology to use to make the world a better place Look At Me was developed in collaboration with professor Hee-Jeong Yoo from Seoul National University Bundag Hospital and professor Kyong-Mee Chung and Sang-Chul Chong from Yonsei University Department of Psycology. The app can be downloaded from Google Play and is optimized for Samsung smart devices including Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Zoom 2, Galaxy Zoom and Galaxy Tab S.