Embodied Conversational Virtual Patients

Abstract

Recent research has established the potential for computer generated virtual characters to act as virtual patients (VP) for the assessment and training of novice clinicians in interpersonal skills, interviewing, and diagnosis. These VPs are embodied interactive conversational agents who are designed to simulate a particular clinical presentation of a patients illness with a high degree of consistency and realism. In this chapter we describe the architecture developed for virtual patients, and the application of the system to subject testing with virtual patients that exhibit a set of clinical conditions called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The primary goal of these conversational agents was evaluative: can a VP generate responses that elicit user questions relevant for PTSD categorization? The results of the interactions of clinical students with the VP will be discussed. This chapter also highlights a set of design goals for increasing the visual, physical and cognitive realism when building VP systems including the design of the language, scenarios and artwork that is important when developing these characters. Finally, future research directions and challenges will be discussed for conversational virtual patients.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2011
Accession Number
AD1170908

Entities

People

  • Patrick G. Kenny
  • Thomas D Parsons

Organizations

  • University of Southern California

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ad Hoc Networks
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computing System Architectures
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • Heart Rate
  • Language
  • Mesh Networks
  • Multiagent Systems
  • Personality
  • Prejudice
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Reasoning
  • Routing Protocols
  • Students
  • Thinking
  • Training
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Neurotrauma and Rehabilitation Medicine.