KR: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. TSJ: Software, Validation, Investigation, Data curation, Writing—review & editing. AMH: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. All authors confirm their authorship of this manuscript, affirm that they have contributed to its development, including its conceptual design, implementation, and analysis. They have also read and approved the submitted version.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest, financial or personal, that could have influenced the outcomes or interpretation of this research.
Ethical approval
This study used publicly available, de-identified facial images from a Kaggle dataset; no new data were collected. For deployment, we advocate on-device processing, minimal data retention, and optional de-identification (e.g., landmark-only or blur-based strategies) to mitigate re-identification risks.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent to publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
The facial images used in this study were obtained from a publicly available Kaggle dataset, Autistic Children Facial Data Set (https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/imrankhan77/autistic-children-facial-data-set). The data were used under the dataset’s stated terms of use; no additional images were collected by the authors. The processed splits and training scripts are available from the authors upon reasonable request (Accessed: 2025 Jan 12).
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from public, commercial, or not-for-profit funding agencies.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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