Fast and Accurate Diagnosis of Autism (FADA): a novel hierarchical fuzzy system based autism detection tool

The main aim of this research work was to develop and validate a novel graphical user interface based hierarchical fuzzy autism detection tool named as "Fast and Accurate Diagnosis of Autism" for the diagnosis of autism disorder quickly and accurately and in addition, this tool also highlights the highly impaired area in each participant. Two groups of children had been participated in this study which includes autism group (N = 40) and normal group (N = 40). The hierarchical fuzzy expert system had been developed using IF-Then rules based on the experiences of the specialists and both the groups were tested on the designed system. It had been validated that the designed system was easily discriminating between the autistic participants and normal participants with an accuracy of 99%. Moreover, the results of the designed system were compared with Childhood Autism Rating Scale; also the tool was clearly highlighting the most impaired area in each participant. It had also been seen that the designed system has a sensitivity of 98.2% and specificity of 99.2%. It can be said that the designed tool can be used by doctors to diagnose autism along with its severity levels and to highlight the highly impaired area accurately and in no time.