Simulation of patients in psychotherapy - prototype development and evaluation
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Eailab AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 300 000 |
| Project duration | March 2017 - August 2017 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Innovative Startups |
Purpose and goal
The goal with this project has been to take the first steps towards a simulator environment for psychotherapy training, in where we use the Furhat social robot to create simulated patients with clinical conditions. We have created a prototype for this that we have demonstrated for clinical psychologists and therapists, psychologist students and researchers in computer science and psychology. The prototype has been very well received and the interest for our idea has been large.
Expected results and effects
A main result is that we have showed that our idea has been possible to realize as a prototype. Furthermore, we have through conversation and surveys showed that the interest for a simulator environment for psychotherapy training is large among potential end users. We have also authored a scientific publication that has been published as part of the scientific conference Intelligent Virtual Agents 2017.
Planned approach and implementation
We worked with using Furhat´s software IrisTK to create prototypes of patients who could have conversations about clinical conditions. These were then implemented on the Furhat robot. We spent a substantial amount of time to create non-verbal expressions like sighing and looking away in a realistic way. As part of the project group we have the lead developer of Furhat´s software. This has enabled us to work very fast with our prototypes. Furthermore, we have with scientific means evaluated potential end users´ experience of our prototype.