Toward an ambient empathic health companion for self care in the intelligent home

Motivation--This paper describes our work in progress to develop a personal monitoring system that can monitor the physical and emotional condition of a patient by using contextual information from a sensor network, provide the patient with feedback concerning their health status and motivate the patient to adopt behavior with a positive health impact (such as exercising or taking medication at the right moment). Research approach -- We will extend the capabilities of an existing robotic health buddy with a (DBN based) sensor network. Then we will carry out a series of controlled, long-term field experiments where we identify and evaluate the effects of various agent social communicative behaviours on the user's adoption of health improving lifestyle patterns. Findings/Design -- The findings of the experiments will inform the final design of the health buddy and it's behaviours. We will also realise system adaptivity of the data processing and data fusion methods as well as the health buddy adaptivity to the user's emotional state. Research limitations/Implications -- The project will limit itself to monitoring and motivating people who suffer from cardiovascular chronic conditions and to the home environment. Originality/Value -- The research makes a contribution to the needs of health monitoring for a specific user group. The health buddy will use social behaviours to motivate users over a long-term time period. Take away message -- Home health monitoring and self care can be more enjoyable and easier through motivating smart health buddies.