In ICT’s new 4th floor demo space, Sharon Mozgai, Director, Virtual Human Therapeutics Lab (VHTL), led a discussion on the future of Virtual Humans at ICT, with a focus on VHTL’s current project, Battle Buddy, an innovative mHealth app dedicated to preventing veteran suicide.
Joining her were VHTL Lab’s researchers, advisors and summer interns including Veteran Advisor Joanna Satcher, Technical Support Lead Andrew Leeds, Senior Tech Lead Ed Fast, Lead Programmer Edwin Sookiassian, Programmer Analyst Kevin Kim, and interns Tanmay Rode and Pranav Kulkarni.
Mozgai also provided feedback from her participation in the 2024 VA Immersive Summit, where she spoke on the Mission Daybreak Panel, moderated by Anne Bailey, PharmD, Department of Veteran Affairs.
VHTL BACKGROUND
The Virtual Human Therapeutics Lab uses embodied conversational AI agents inside evidence-based mHealth software applications to demonstrate the role Virtual Humans can play in promoting mental, emotional, and physical health as well as behavioral change.
VHTL is dedicated to incorporating equitable and accountable AI practices, through interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and development, towards a bright bio-synthetic collaborative future.
BATTLE BUDDY BACKGROUND
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Mission Daybreak Challenge is a 10-year strategy to end Veteran suicide through a comprehensive, public health approach. In response to a call for proposals in 2022, ICT’s MedVR and Integrated Virtual Humans teams proposed Battle Buddy for Suicide Prevention, an AI-driven mobile health (mHealth) application tailored exclusively for Veterans.
The virtual human (VH) component of Battle Buddy leverages virtual embodiment, utilizing various multi-modal language cues such as text, speech, animated facial expressions, and gestures to interact with users. Inspired by the U.S. military practice of assigning fellow soldiers as partners to provide mutual assistance in both combat and non-combat situations, the name “Battle Buddy’’ symbolizes this app’s mission.
Battle Buddy’s comprehensive approach aims to establish a suicide prevention ecosystem that can be customized to meet the unique needs of individual users. Battle Buddy not only provides valuable in-app health and wellness content, it also acts as a springboard to real-world support networks, including friends, family, and various resources provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL). Veterans will also be able to opt-in to connect their wearable devices (sleep sensors, exercise trackers, etc.) to gain a better understanding, and develop agency, towards their body/mind holistic health.
In the event of a suicidal crisis, Battle Buddy’s primary focus will shift to guiding Veterans through their personalized safety plan, with the goal of creating time and space between suicidal thoughts and actions. By doing so, the app aims to play a crucial role in saving lives and providing the necessary support during critical moments.
Battle Buddy for Suicide Prevention is currently in development employing a user-centered design process to include Veterans in every step of the way. An early prototype received the award for Best Technical Demonstration at the International Conference for Persuasive Technology 2023, a top interdisciplinary conference focused on work at the intersection of computer science and psychology.
MORE INFORMATION
Sharon Mozgai, Director, Virtual Human Therapeutics Lab, wrote an essay for our ICT Turns 25 series: Our Virtual Humans are Here to Help, which goes into more detail about her vision for the VHTL lab.