Related papers: Nora: The Well-Being Coach
Personalized content on social platforms can exacerbate negative phenomena such as polarization, partly due to the feedback interactions between recommendations and the users. In this paper, we present a control-theoretic recommender system…
Yoga is a discipline of physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditative practices rooted in ancient Indian traditions, now embraced worldwide for promoting overall well-being and inner balance. The practices are a large set of…
English has long been set as the universal language. Basically most, if not all countries in the world know how to speak English or at least try to use it in their everyday communications for the purpose of globalizing. This study is…
By utilizing different communication channels, such as verbal language, gestures or facial expressions, virtually embodied interactive humans hold a unique potential to bridge the gap between human-computer interaction and actual interhuman…
COVID-19 is a global epidemic. Till now, there is no remedy for this epidemic. However, isolation and social distancing are seemed to be effective preventive measures to control this pandemic. Therefore, in this paper, an optimization…
The introduction of COVID-19 lockdown measures and an outlook on return to normality are demanding societal changes. Among the most pressing questions is how individuals adjust to the pandemic. This paper examines the emotional responses to…
Social robots are increasingly being explored as tools to support emotional wellbeing, particularly in non-clinical settings. Drawing on a range of empirical studies and practical deployments, this paper outlines six key insights that…
Many people learn programming independently from online resources and often report struggles in achieving their personal learning goals. Learners frequently describe their experiences as isolating and frustrating, challenged by abundant…
College students often face academic challenges that hamper their productivity and well-being. Although self-help books and productivity apps are popular, they often fall short. Books provide generalized, non-interactive guidance, and apps…
Mindfulness meditation is a validated means of helping people manage stress. Voice-based virtual assistants (VAs) in smart speakers, smartphones, and smart environments can assist people in carrying out mindfulness meditation through guided…
In this paper, we explore the design and use of conversational telepresence robots to help homebound older adults interact with the external world. An initial needfinding study (N=8) using video vignettes revealed older adults' experiential…
Learning therapeutic counseling involves significant role-play experience with mock patients, with current manual training methods providing only intermittent granular feedback. We seek to accelerate and optimize counselor training by…
Twitter is currently a popular online social media platform which allows users to share their user-generated content. This publicly-generated user data is also crucial to healthcare technologies because the discovered patterns would hugely…
Social support in online mental health communities (OMHCs) is an effective and accessible way of managing mental wellbeing. In this process, sharing emotional supports is considered crucial to the thriving social supports in OMHCs, yet…
Given concerns about mental health during periods of Covid-19 lockdown, it important to understand how engagement with online Covid-19 related material can affect mood. In the UK and Ireland, online community support initiatives (OCSIs)…
We present and evaluate a prototype social robot to encourage daily exercise among older adults in a home setting. Our prototype system, designed to lead users through exercise sessions with motivational feedback, was assessed through a…
Loneliness has been associated with negative outcomes for physical and mental health. Understanding how people express and cope with various forms of loneliness is critical for early screening and targeted interventions to reduce…
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted the lives of minorities, such as members of the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) due to pre-existing social disadvantages and health disparities. Although…
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…
Systems that collect data on sleep, mood, and activities can provide valuable lifestyle counselling to populations affected by chronic disease and its consequences. Such systems are, however, challenging to develop; besides reliably…