Building an on-demand avatar-based health intervention for behavior change

Building an on-demand avatar-based health intervention for behavior change Conference

Lisetti, C, Yasavur, U, De Leon, C et al. (2012). Building an on-demand avatar-based health intervention for behavior change . 175-180.

We discuss the design and implementation of the prototype of an avatar-based health system aimed at providing people access to an effective behavior change intervention which can help them to find and cultivate motivation to change unhealthy lifestyles. An empathic Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) delivers the intervention. The health dialog is directed by a computational model of Motivational Interviewing, a novel effective face-to-face patient-centered counseling style which respects an individual's pace toward behavior change. Although conducted on a small sample size, results of a preliminary user study to asses users' acceptance of the avatar counselor indicate that the system prototype is well accepted by 75% of users. Copyright © 2012, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved.