&You: Design of a sensor-based wearable device for use in cognitive behavioral therapy

Abstract

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapy treatment that trains an individual to adjust negative patterns of thinking and behavior associated with their disorder. In this paper, we present &You, a low-cost nonintrusive wearable device for use in CBT to assist patients with anxiety disorders. Our device reinforces habit forming processes by passively detecting measurable stress symptoms and notifying the user before a stimulus elicits a severe anxiety attack. Notifications are delivered as a series of brief vibrating pulses that can be stopped by tapping the device, which is strategically placed at the nape of the user’s neck. The gesture of deactivating the notification forces the wearer into a body position that naturally expands their chest and increases lung capacity, which directly calms the user and disrupts the user’s negative thought pattern.