Related papers: Nora: The Well-Being Coach
Socially assistive robots are increasingly being designed to interact with humans in various therapeutical scenarios. We believe that one useful scenario is providing exercise coaching for Persons with Dementia (PwD), which involves unique…
The development of technologies of multimedia, linked to that of Internet and democratization of high speed, has made henceforth E-learning possible for learners being in virtual classes and geographically distributed. One benefit to taking…
Emotions are an integral part of human cognition and they guide not only our understanding of the world but also our actions within it. As such, whether we soothe or flame an emotion is not inconsequential. Recent work in conversational AI…
Public speaking anxiety affects many individuals, yet opportunities for real-world practice remain limited. This study explores how augmented reality (AR) can provide an accessible training environment for public speaking. Drawing from…
Effective communication between a clinician and their patient is critical for delivering healthcare maximizing outcomes. Unfortunately, traditional communication training approaches that use human standardized patients and expert coaches…
Social media data can be a very salient source of information during crises. User-generated messages provide a window into people's minds during such times, allowing us insights about their moods and opinions. Due to the vast amounts of…
Conversational teachable agents offer a promising platform to support learning, both in the classroom and in remote settings. In this context, the agent takes the role of the novice, while the student takes on the role of teacher. This…
Culture moderates the way individuals perceive and express mental distress. Current understandings of mental health expressions on social media, however, are predominantly derived from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and…
Engaging with natural environments and representations of nature has been shown to improve mood states and reduce cognitive decline in older adults. The current study evaluated the use of virtual reality (VR) for presenting immersive 360…
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge to individuals around the globe. To mitigate the spread of the virus, many states in the U.S. issued lockdown orders to urge their residents to stay at their homes, avoid…
Effective communication and strong therapeutic relationships are critical to successful mental health interventions. For example, in 1957 Carl Rogers, a pioneer of person-centred therapy, proposed that an empowering relationship could, in…
Individuals with diverse motor abilities often benefit from intensive and specialized rehabilitation therapies aimed at enhancing their functional recovery. Nevertheless, the challenge lies in the restricted availability of…
As more and more AI agents are used in practice, it is time to think about how to make these agents fully autonomous so that they can (1) learn by themselves continually in a self-motivated and self-initiated manner rather than being…
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,…
With the development of online business, customer service agents gradually play a crucial role as an interface between the companies and their customers. Most companies spend a lot of time and effort on hiring and training customer service…
Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health…
Although engagement in self-directed wellness exercises typically declines over time, integrating social support such as coaching can sustain it. However, traditional forms of support are often inaccessible due to the high costs and complex…
Online peer-to-peer support platforms enable conversations between millions of people who seek and provide mental health support. If successful, web-based mental health conversations could improve access to treatment and reduce the global…
Social media is a potential source of information that infers latent mental states through Natural Language Processing (NLP). While narrating real-life experiences, social media users convey their feeling of loneliness or isolated…
Starting from the assumption that mood has a central role in domain-specific persuasion systems for well-being, the main goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of single-input methods to assess momentary…