Related papers: Dis/Immersion in Mindfulness Meditation with a Wan…
Mindfulness can be defined as increased awareness of and sustained attentiveness to the present moment. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the applications of mindfulness for empirical research in wellbeing and the use of…
Virtual assistants (VAs) have become ubiquitous in daily life, integrated into smartphones and smart devices, sparking interest in AI companions that enhance user experiences and foster emotional connections. However, existing companions…
Objective: Chronic pain is a critical public health issue affecting approximately 20% of the adult population in the United States. Given the opioid crisis, there has been an urgent focus on non-addictive pain management methods including…
Intelligent conversational agents and virtual assistants, such as chatbots and voice assistants, have the potential of augmenting health service capacity to screen symptoms and deliver healthcare interventions. In this paper, we developed…
Voice assistants (VAs) are becoming a feature of our everyday life. Yet, the user experience (UX) is often limited, leading to underuse, disengagement, and abandonment. Co-designing interactions for VAs with potential end-users can be…
Meditation, or mindfulness, is widely used to improve mental health. With the emergence of Virtual Reality technology, many studies have provided evidence that meditation with VR can bring health benefits. However, to our knowledge, there…
Navigating large and complex indoor environments, such as universities, airports, and hospitals, can be cognitively demanding and requires attention and effort. While mobile applications provide convenient navigation support, they occupy…
The radical advances in telecommunications and computer science have enabled a myriad of applications and novel seamless interaction with computing interfaces. Voice Assistants (VAs) have become a norm for smartphones, and millions of VAs…
Demographic growth and rise in the average age of the population is increasing the demand for the elderly assistance. Health care oriented ambient intelligence technologies are fundamental to support elderly peoples' autonomy. In this…
In this paper, we present a novel multi-modal attention guidance method designed to address the challenges of turn-taking dynamics in meetings and enhance group conversations within virtual reality (VR) environments. Recognizing the…
This study examined which variables predicted the sense of presence (being there) in an immersive audio experience, with a focus on the impacts of immersion technology (headphones with spatialised sound versus speaker with 2D stereo sound),…
Virtual Mental Health Assistants (VMHAs) are seeing continual advancements to support the overburdened global healthcare system that gets 60 million primary care visits, and 6 million Emergency Room (ER) visits annually. These systems are…
Visually impaired people face numerous challenges when it comes to transportation. Not only must they circumvent obstacles while navigating, but they also need access to essential information related to available public transport,…
Supporting older adults in health self-management is crucial for promoting independent aging, particularly given the growing strain on healthcare systems. While voice assistants (VAs) hold the potential to support aging in place, they often…
The emergence of voice-assistant devices ushers in delightful user experiences not just on the smart home front, but also in diverse educational environments from classrooms to personalized-learning/tutoring. However, the use of voice as an…
While standalone Voice Assistants (VAs) are promising to support older adults' daily routine and wellbeing management, onboarding and setting up these devices can be challenging. Although some older adults choose to seek assistance from…
Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used to support workplace well-being, but many interventions focus narrowly on a single activity or goal. Our work explores how VR can meet the diverse physical and mental needs of knowledge…
Conversational AIs, or chatbots, mimic human speech when conversing. Smart assistants facilitate the automation of several tasks that needed human intervention earlier. Because of their accuracy, absence of dependence on human resources,…
We present EmbodiedHead, a speech-driven talking-head framework that equips LLMs with real-time visual avatars for conversation. A practical embodied avatar must achieve real-time generation, unified listening-speaking behavior, and high…
In traditional journaling practices, authors express and process their thoughts by writing them down. We propose a somaesthetic-inspired alternative that uses the human body, rather than written words, as the medium of expression. We coin…