PROJECT CONVEY

About the Work Two years ago, most of life went online, and with it, so did a basic human need: connection. Most of us shifted relatively quickly and easily to using video chat to connect with the people in our lives. But for many people on the autism spectrum, regular video chat is difficult, because they have a harder time understanding other people’s emotions—they often struggle to read non-verbal cues like facial expressions and tone of voice, leading to difficulties connecting with others. However, according to research, people on the spectrum have reported that emojis, with their exaggerated, simple expressions, are much easier to comprehend. So we created Project Convey. A video chat prototype that uses sentiment AI to translate human emotions into emojis in real-time, enabling people on the spectrum to understand, and connect. Or more simply put: it’s a tool that conveys how the person on the other side of the screen is feeling. While the main goal of the work was to create a video chat tool for people on the spectrum, we also created a 360 campaign to raise awareness on the importance of internet inclusion for an overlooked group: people on the spectrum. The campaign ran content over five months on online and social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. Total video views: 18 million. Total impressions: 71 million.