Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Designing an Avatar-Based Virtual Coach for Obesity Patients

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
The Next Wave of Sociotechnical Design (DESRIST 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12807))

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic reveals that digital health interventions will be indispensable to care for special patient groups in the long-term successfully. Current research focuses on embodied conversational agents (ECAs) that promise patient support by emulating interpersonal communication. Against the background of high relapse rates in obesity care and significant costs for the healthcare systems, this work presents a prototype of an ECA as a virtual coach for morbidly obese patients, along with a first evaluation of its acceptability from a patient’s perspective. The results indicate that a virtual coach meets the patients' needs and motivate further investigations of the technological concept.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.khronos.org/webgl/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/.

  3. 3.

    https://unity.com/.

  4. 4.

    https://crazyminnowstudio.com/unity-3d/lip-sync-salsa/.

  5. 5.

    http://rageproject.eu/bml-realizer/.

  6. 6.

    https://www.luis.ai/.

  7. 7.

    https://aws.amazon.com/de/polly/.

  8. 8.

    Video demonstration of the prototype: https://youtu.be/EwJYHuewe9o.

References

  1. WHO: Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. WHO (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Effertz, T., Engel, S., Verheyen, F., Linder, R.: The costs and consequences of obesity in Germany: a new approach from a prevalence and life-cycle perspective. Eur. J. Health Econ. 17(9), 1141–1158 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-015-0751-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Fischer, M., Oberänder, N., Weimann, A.: Four main barriers to weight loss maintenance? A quantitative analysis of difficulties experienced by obese patients after successful weight reduction. Eur J Clin Nutr. 74, 1192–1200 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tropea, P., et al.: Rehabilitation, the great absentee of virtual coaching in medical care: scoping review. J. Med. Internet Res. 21, e12805 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Watson, A., Bickmore, T., Cange, A., Kulshreshtha, A., Kvedar, J.: An internet-based virtual coach to promote physical activity adherence in overweight adults: randomized controlled trial. J. Med. Internet Res. 14, e1 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Stein, N., Brooks, K.: A fully automated conversational artificial intelligence for weight loss: longitudinal observational study among overweight and obese adults. JMIR Diabetes 2, e28 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Michie, S., et al.: The behavior change technique taxonomy (v1) of 93 hierarchically clustered techniques: building an international consensus for the reporting of behavior change interventions. Ann. Behav. Med. 46, 81–95 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Asbjørnsen, R.A., et al.: Persuasive system design principles and behavior change techniques to stimulate motivation and adherence in electronic health interventions to support weight loss maintenance: scoping review. J. Med. Internet Res. 21, e14265 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gregor, S., Chandra Kruse, L., Seidel, S.: Research perspectives: the anatomy of a design principle. J. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 21, 2 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Voigt, I., et al.: A digital patient portal for patients with multiple sclerosis. Front. Neurol. 11, 400 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. MacDorman, K.F., Green, R.D., Ho, C.-C., Koch, C.T.: Too real for comfort? Uncanny responses to computer generated faces. Comput. Hum. Behav. 25, 695–710 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Nahum-Shani, I., Hekler, E.B., Spruijt, D.: Building health behavior models to guide the development of just-in-time adaptive interventions: a pragmatic framework. Health Psychol. 34, 1209 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Bickmore, T.W., Picard, R.W.: Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 12, 293–327 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Laugwitz, B., Held, T., Schrepp, M.: Construction and evaluation of a user experience questionnaire. In: Holzinger, A. (ed.) USAB 2008. LNCS, vol. 5298, pp. 63–76. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89350-9_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Wirtschaftsinformatik, Esp. Systems Development, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Thure Weimann & Hannes Schlieter

  2. Klinikum St. Georg gGmbH, Leipzig, Germany

    Martin Fischer

Authors
  1. Thure Weimann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hannes Schlieter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Martin Fischer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thure Weimann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Leona Chandra Kruse

  2. University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Stefan Seidel

  3. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Geir Inge Hausvik

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Weimann, T., Schlieter, H., Fischer, M. (2021). Designing an Avatar-Based Virtual Coach for Obesity Patients. In: Chandra Kruse, L., Seidel, S., Hausvik, G.I. (eds) The Next Wave of Sociotechnical Design. DESRIST 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12807. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82405-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82405-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82404-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82405-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation