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Psychotherapy reaches only a small fraction of individuals suffering from mental disorders due to social stigma and the limited availability of therapists. Large language models (LLMs), when equipped with professional psychotherapeutic…
We explore the use of inner speech as a mechanism to enhance transparency and trust in social robots for dietary advice. In humans, inner speech structures thought processes and decision-making; in robotics, it improves explainability by…
While recent research highlights the potential of social robots to support mood regulation, little is known about how prospective users view their integration into everyday life. To explore this, we conducted an exploratory case study that…
Speech emotion recognition (SER) is an important aspect of effective human-robot collaboration and received a lot of attention from the research community. For example, many neural network-based architectures were proposed recently and…
Online, people often recount their experiences turning to conversational AI agents (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) for mental health support -- going so far as to replace their therapists. These anecdotes suggest that AI agents have great…
Socially assistive robotics (SAR) has great potential to provide accessible, affordable, and personalized therapeutic interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, human-robot interaction (HRI) methods are still…
In this paper, we propose Evebot, an innovative, sequence to sequence (Seq2seq) based, fully generative conversational system for the diagnosis of negative emotions and prevention of depression through positively suggestive responses. The…
Recent studies have revealed that using social robots can accelerate the learning process of several skills in areas where autistic children typically show deficits. However, most early research studies conducted interactions via free play.…
Loneliness and social isolation are serious and widespread problems among older people, affecting their physical and mental health, quality of life, and longevity. In this paper, we propose a ChatGPT-based conversational companion system…
The goal of this study is to identify factors that support and enhance older adults' creative experiences in human-robot co-creativity. Because the research into the use of robots for creativity support with older adults remains…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized various fields, including medicine and mental health support. One promising application is ChatGPT, an advanced conversational AI model that uses deep learning techniques to provide human-like…
Robots hold significant promise to assist with providing care to an aging population and to help overcome increasing caregiver demands. Although a large body of research has explored robotic assistance for individuals with disabilities and…
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, which can significantly impact an individual's daily functioning and quality of life.…
Depression is a global health concern with a critical need for increased patient screening. Speech technology offers advantages for remote screening but must perform robustly across patients. We have described two deep learning models…
One of the major areas where social robots are finding their place in society is for healthcare-related applications. Yet, very little research has mapped the deployment of socially assistive robots (SARs) in real settings. Using a…
Beyond mere formality, small talk plays a pivotal role in social dynamics, serving as a verbal handshake for building rapport and understanding. For conversational AI and social robots, the ability to engage in small talk enhances their…
Office Assistant Robots (OARs) offer a promising solution to proactively provide in-situ support to enhance employee well-being and productivity in office spaces. We introduce OfficeMate, a social OAR designed to assist with practical…
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in which patients have difficulties related to inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Those patients are in need of a psychological…
Social robots hold promise for reducing job interview anxiety, yet designing agents that provide both psychological safety and instructional guidance remains challenging. Through a three-phase iterative design study (N = 8), we empirically…
Our project aims at supporting the creation of sustainable and meaningful longer-term human-robot relationships through the creation of embodied robots with face recognition and natural language dialogue capabilities, which exploit and…