An Edge Computing Robot Experience for Automatic Elderly Mental Health Care Based on Voice
This work addresses mental health care for the elderly by providing an automated, accessible tool for specialists, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing concepts of robotic interfaces and edge computing without introducing major breakthroughs.
The researchers tackled the problem of elderly mental health care by developing a multi-language robot interface that interacts with seniors through questions, enabling specialists to create queries and receive answers via a web-based interface, with the prototype implemented on an embedded edge computing device for noise filtering and home placement.
We need open platforms driven by specialists, in which queries can be created and collected for long periods and the diagnosis made, based on a rigorous clinical follow-up. In this work, we developed a multi-language robot interface helping to evaluate the mental health of seniors by interacting through questions. The specialist can propose questions, as well as to receive users' answers, in text form. The robot can automatically interact with the user using the appropriate language. It can process the answers and under the guidance of a specialist, questions and answers can be oriented towards the desired therapy direction. The prototype, was implemented on an embedded device meant for edge computing, thus it is able to filter environmental noise and can be placed anywhere at home. The experience is now available for specialists to create queries and answers through a Web-based interface.