Discussion

The study provides an open-source toolkit for the autism application developers and indicates that the spatial interfaces developed using MR technologies can be an alternative for autistic people with SPD to draw their attention away from the disturbing situations in their surroundings. In this way, it is suggested that they can continue their daily lives, be focused on their work without any disruption and it can improve the quality of their life. Autism app developers can integrate My Ho Me interface into their apps, so the users can access it when they feel uncomfortable due to the disturbing elements or situations in their surroundings.

There are however some challenges determined within the study. In the pilot study, autistic children are able to use the HoloLens device and gestures easily. Nevertheless, it is still unknown that if most of the autistic people with SPD can benefit from the interface. More user testing is required for further development. Apart from that, all participants in the pilot study like the device. They imply that HoloLens is like a cool futuristic glass. But it is important to note that the device is heavy to wear for more than an hour and the field of view is limited to 35 degrees. This may lead to unanticipated user reactions.

There are also some problems detected during the cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluations. Even though some of these problems are fixed for the next version of the interface, auto correction system and copy-paste function are still open for development, which are relatively advanced functionalities and may require additional processing power and sensory technologies. A part of these inconsistencies may be related to the lack of the interface design guidelines in AR, VR, and MR environments. And since obsessions of the autistic people may widely vary, the interface could not be tested to cover all possibilities. Specific problems may come about for certain symptoms and reactions. Thus, developing a highly customizable interface for people on ASD may be a very beneficial solution. Besides, machine learning could be implemented to the interface and so the interface can gain ability to adapt to each user and improve itself over time.

My Ho Me is formed by using real world physical characteristics. It uses the light and shadows, so that the user can understand the objects are 3D. And some of the objects are placed in different angles to give the user the sense of depth. The interface is not limited to the users field of view but limited to the real-world boundaries. The user can place the objects in real world, move through them, and interact with them naturally via hand gestures. Thus, My Ho Me interface still provides an opportunity for both autistic people and developers. It can increase the awareness of developers about the sensory problems of autistic people. And if it is applied today, even simple applications may show large benefit.

The user model of the study is specified as autistic people with SPD, but it should be noted that one of the three common symptoms of autism is also adaptation problem to the new environments (Schwenck & Freitag, 2014). So, the end product can also be useful for most of the autistic people that can have environmental adaptation problems.

Since it is mentioned in different studies that autistic people like using technological devices (Goldsmith & LeBlanc, 2004; Lofland, 2016; Diener, Wright, Wright, & Anderson, 2016; Fletcher-Watson, 2015), there are many applications on the market. The current apps offer mostly 2D interfaces and they are also difficult to use related to their interface designs (Hussain, Abdullah, Husni, Mkpojiogu, 2016). For the autistic people that have the sensory disorder, there are not any applications accessible that can allow modifying the space they are in. Hence, the proposed spatial interface is a different approach. AR-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets require to interact with the 2D screen, they do not help the kids to get to know their environment and interact with the real world. With the help of MR, the autistic kids and people can recognize the places better, change the things they do not like and prevent the meltdowns related to sensory problems.