A Virtual Coach for Active Ageing Based on Sentient Computing and M-Health

Abstract

As life expectancy increases it has become more necessary to find ways to support healthy ageing. A number of active ageing initiatives are being developed nowadays to foster healthy habits in the population. This paper presents our contribution to these initiatives in the form of a conversational agent that acts as a coach for physical activities. The agent can be developed as an Android app running on smartphones and coupled with cheap widely available sport sensors in order to provide meaningful coaching. It can be employed to prepare exercise sessions, provide feedback during the sessions, and to discuss the results after the exercise. It incorporates an affective component that informs dynamic user models to produce adaptive interaction strategies.