Related papers: The EMPATHIC Project: Mid-term Achievements
The delivery of mental health interventions via ubiquitous devices has shown much promise. A conversational chatbot is a promising oracle for delivering appropriate just-in-time interventions. However, designing emotionally-aware agents,…
This study demonstrates how anticipated and actual interactions shape the QE of SARs among older adults. The study consisted of two parts: an online survey to explore the anticipated interaction through video viewing of a SAR and an…
The MNESIS Project aims to see whether the use of computerized environment by elderly people in medicalized residences stimulates their cognitive capacities and contributes to a better integration, recognition or acceptance within their…
Engagement in virtual learning is essential for participant satisfaction, performance, and adherence, particularly in online education and virtual rehabilitation, where interactive communication plays a key role. Yet, accurately measuring…
Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) are increasingly more realistic and capable of dynamic conversations. In online surveys, anthropomorphic agents could help address issues like careless responding and satisficing, which originate from…
We outline our work on evaluating robots that assist older adults by engaging with them through multiple modalities that include physical interaction. Our thesis is that to increase the effectiveness of assistive robots: 1) robots need to…
The EmoPain 2020 Challenge is the first international competition aimed at creating a uniform platform for the comparison of machine learning and multimedia processing methods of automatic chronic pain assessment from human expressive…
In this paper, we present a methodology for the development of embodied conversational agents for social virtual worlds. The agents provide multimodal communication with their users in which speech interaction is included. Our proposal…
The population of elderly people keeps increasing rapidly, which becomes a predominant aspect of our societies. As such, solutions both efficacious and cost-effective need to be sought. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a new approach which…
We describe the design and implementation of a vision based interactive entertainment system that makes use of both involuntary and voluntary control paradigms. Unintentional input to the system from a potential viewer is used to drive…
In online education, innovative tools are crucial for enhancing learning outcomes. SAM (Study with AI Mentor) is an advanced platform that integrates educational videos with a context-aware chat interface powered by large language models.…
In this paper we describe the design and validation of a virtual fitness environment aiming at keeping older adults physically and socially active. We target particularly older adults who are socially more isolated, physically less active,…
To address the global challenge of population aging, our goal is to enhance successful aging through the introduction of robots capable of assisting in daily physical activities and promoting light exercises, which would enhance the…
This paper presents an overview on how the PAL Robotics ARI robot is participating in the European SHAPES project to promote healthy and active living among older people, by integrating digital solutions from project partners and adapting…
In this paper, we introduce EmpBot: an end-to-end empathetic chatbot. Empathetic conversational agents should not only understand what is being discussed, but also acknowledge the implied feelings of the conversation partner and respond…
As aging societies grow, researchers are actively studying care systems concerning the life and diseases of the elderly. Among these diseases, dementia makes it difficult to maintain daily life due to the degradation of cognitive…
Agentic AI assistants that autonomously perform multi-step tasks raise open questions for user experience: how should such systems communicate progress and reasoning during extended operations, especially in attention-critical contexts such…
We explore new aspects of assistive living on smart human-robot interaction (HRI) that involve automatic recognition and online validation of speech and gestures in a natural interface, providing social features for HRI. We introduce a…
Computer-based assistants have recently attracted much interest due to its applicability to ambient assisted living. Such assistants have to detect and recognize the high-level activities and goals performed by the assisted human beings. In…
Little research has explored the communication needs of autistic adults. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can support these communication needs, but more guidance is needed on how to design AAC systems to support this…