Title
Reusable Virtual Coach for Smoking Cessation and Physical Activity Coaching
Author
Baccinelli, Walter (Netherlands eScience Center)
van der Burg, Sven (Netherlands eScience Center)
Richardson, Robin (Netherlands eScience Center)
Scheltinga, Bouke (Biomedical Signals and Systems, University of Twente)
Albers, N. (TU Delft Interactive Intelligence) 
Smits, Djura (Netherlands eScience Center)
Geng, Cunliang (Netherlands eScience Center)
Brinkman, W.P. (TU Delft Interactive Intelligence)
Reenalda, Jasper (Roessingh Research and Development)
Date
2022
Abstract
Smoking tobacco and physical inactivity are key preventable behavioural risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Computerised coaching systems can help individuals to modify risky behaviours, thereby preventing CVD. However, most reported eHealth or computerized coaching systems are hard to reuse in slightly different settings. To provide an open-source, reusable computer coaching system, we developed Perfect Fit. The reusability is manifested by building around the open-source text- and voice-based contextual assistant framework Rasa. Rasa provides a simple, standard interface to many popular messaging and voice channels, and custom connectors are easily implemented. A set of algorithms have been developed and connected to Rasa to drive and personalize the conversation flow and the coaching process. Such algorithms make use of data stored in a devoted database. Furthermore, Perfect Fit adheres to best practices and standards in software engineering. The modular design of Perfect Fit will allow researchers to connect the virtual coach to any messaging or voice channel with only modest modification. Perfect Fit is available under open-source license in GitHub and is currently in prototype-phase. Concluding, Perfect Fit will deliver a virtual coach that can easily be adapted and reused in different settings. The coach helps individuals to achieve and maintain abstinence from smoking and sufficient physical activity (PA).
Subject
Contextual assistant
Conversational agent
eHealth
Open-source
Rasa
Software reusability
Virtual coach
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ad3ccae6-36e9-43ca-8ad6-ff7ef0e4d485
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3514197.3551252
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Embargo date
2023-07-01
ISBN
978-1-4503-9248-8
Source
IVA 2022 - Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents
Event
IVA '22: ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 2022-09-06 → 2022-09-09, Faro, Portugal
Series
IVA 2022 - Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
conference paper
Rights
© 2022 Walter Baccinelli, Sven van der Burg, Robin Richardson, Bouke Scheltinga, N. Albers, Djura Smits, Cunliang Geng, W.P. Brinkman, Jasper Reenalda, More Authors