2,887 research outputs found
Robotics Technology in Mental Health Care
This chapter discusses the existing and future use of robotics and
intelligent sensing technology in mental health care. While the use of this
technology is nascent in mental health care, it represents a potentially useful
tool in the practitioner's toolbox. The goal of this chapter is to provide a
brief overview of the field, discuss the recent use of robotics technology in
mental health care practice, explore some of the design issues and ethical
issues of using robots in this space, and finally to explore the potential of
emerging technology
Can an LLM-Powered Socially Assistive Robot Effectively and Safely Deliver Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? A Study With University Students
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a widely used therapeutic method for
guiding individuals toward restructuring their thinking patterns as a means of
addressing anxiety, depression, and other challenges. We developed a large
language model (LLM)-powered prompt-engineered socially assistive robot (SAR)
that guides participants through interactive CBT at-home exercises. We
evaluated the performance of the SAR through a 15-day study with 38 university
students randomly assigned to interact daily with the robot or a chatbot (using
the same LLM), or complete traditional CBT worksheets throughout the duration
of the study. We measured weekly therapeutic outcomes, changes in
pre-/post-session anxiety measures, and adherence to completing CBT exercises.
We found that self-reported measures of general psychological distress
significantly decreased over the study period in the robot and worksheet
conditions but not the chatbot condition. Furthermore, the SAR enabled
significant single-session improvements for more sessions than the other two
conditions combined. Our findings suggest that SAR-guided LLM-powered CBT may
be as effective as traditional worksheet methods in supporting therapeutic
progress from the beginning to the end of the study and superior in decreasing
user anxiety immediately after completing the CBT exercise
Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities
Research and development work relating to assistive technology
2010-11 (Department of Health)
Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197
Augmented Human Assistance (AHA)
Aging and sedentarism are two main challenges for social and health
systems in modern societies. To face these challenges a new generation of ICT
based solutions is being developed to promote active aging, prevent sedentarism
and find new tools to support the large populations of patients that suffer chronic
conditions as result of aging. Such solutions have the potential to transform
healthcare by optimizing resource allocation, reducing costs, improving diagno ses and enabling novel therapies, thus increasing quality of life.
The primary goal of the “AHA: Augmented Human Assistance” project is to de velop novel assistive technologies to promote exercise among the elderly and
patients of motor disabilities. For exercise programs to be effective, it is essential
that users and patients comply with the prescribed schedule and perform the ex ercises following established protocols. Until now this has been achieved by hu man monitoring in rehabilitation and therapy session, where the clinicians or
therapists permanently accompany users or patient. In many cases, exercises are
prescribed for home performance, in which case it is not possible to validate their
execution. In this context, the AHA project is an integrative and cross-discipli nary approach of 4 Portuguese universities, the CMU, and 2 Portuguese industry
partners, that combines innovation and fundamental research in the areas of hu man-computer interaction, robotics, serious games and physiological computing
(see partner list in Appendix A). In the project, we capitalize on recent innova tions and aim at enriching the capabilities and range of application of assistive
devices via the combination of (1) assistive robotics; (2) technologies that use
well-understood motivational techniques to induce people to do their exercises in
the first place, and to do them correctly and completely; (3) tailored and relevant
guidance in regard to health care and social support and activities; and (4) tech nologies to self-monitoring and sharing of progress with health-care provider enabling clinicians to fine-tune the exercise regimen to suit the participant’s ac tual progress.
We highlight the development of a set of exergames (serious games controlled
by the movement of the user’s body limbs) specifically designed for the needs of
the target population according to best practices in sports and human kinetics
sciences. The games can be adapted to the limitations of the users (e.g. to play in
a sitting position) so a large fraction of the population can benefit from them. The
games can be executed with biofeedback provided from wearable sensors, to pro duce more controlled exercise benefits. The games can be played in multi-user
settings, either in cooperative or competitive mode, to promote the social rela tions among players. The games contain regional motives to trigger memories
from the past and other gamification techniques that keep the users involved in
the exercise program. The games are projected in the environment through aug mented reality techniques that create a more immersive and engaging experience
than conventional displays. Virtual coach techniques are able to monitor the cor rectness of the exercise and provide immediate guidance to the user, as well as
providing reports for therapists. A socially assistive robot can play the role of the
coach and provide an additional socio-cognitive dimension to the experience to
complement the role of the therapist. A web service that records the users’ per formances and allows the authorized therapists to access and configure the exer cise program provides a valuable management tool for caregivers and clinical
staff. It can also provide a social network for players, increasing adherence to the
therapies.
We have performed several end-user studies that validate the proposed ap proaches. Together, or in isolation, these solutions provide users, caregivers,
health professionals and institutions, valuable tools for health promotion, disease
monitoring and prevention.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Music, computing and health: A roadmap for the current and future roles of music technology for health care and well-being.
Health and self-regulatio
Assistive technologies to address capabilities of people with dementia: from research to practice
Assistive technologies (AT) became pervasive and virtually present in all our life domains. They can be either an enabler or an obstacle leading to social exclusion. The Fondation Médéric Alzheimer gathered international experts of dementia care, with backgrounds in biomedical, human and social sciences, to analyse how AT can address the capabilities of people with dementia, on the basis of their needs. Discussion covered the unmet needs of people with dementia, the domains of daily life activities where AT can provide help to people with dementia, the enabling and empowering impact of technology to improve their safety and wellbeing, barriers and limits of use, technology assessment, ethical and legal issues. The capability approach (possible freedom) appears particularly relevant in person-centered dementia care and technology development. The focus is not on the solution, rather on what the person can do with it: seeing dementia as disability, with technology as an enabler to promote capabilities of the person, provides a useful framework for both research and practice. This article summarizes how these concepts took momentum in professional practice and public policies in the past fifteen years (2000-2015), discusses current issues in the design, development and economic model of AT for people with dementia, and covers how these technologies are being used and assessed
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