Toward Robotic Companions that Enhance Psychological Wellbeing with Smartphone Technology.

Despite the fact that depression is becoming more and more prevalent, mental healthcare still has high barriers for many people. In order to lower these barriers, we plan to study the efficacy of using socially assistive robots with mobile phone technology to improve people's psychological wellbeing. We propose a longitudinal experimental study that explores (1) the impact of a social agent's physical presence on therapeutic interactions and (2) the benefits of leveraging mobile phone data to personalize and intelligently select psychological interventions for maximized therapeutic effect. Results from the study will provide insights into interactive technologies that deeply understand individuals.