An Empathic Virtual Caregiver for assistance in exer-game-based rehabilitation therapies

The use of empathic virtual coaches to support psychological and rehabilitation therapies is growing in popularity. These embodied empathic agents that try to establish an emotional connection with patients to increase their engagement and adherence to therapy have been shown to be effective in various studies. We present Hannah, an Empathic Virtual Caregiver based on fuzzy inference of patient’s emotional state, designed for being integrated into an exer-games platform for postural at-home rehabilitation. The EVC monitors the patient during the game by emotionally reacting to her performance and provides consults to patients that want to explicitly express their feelings.