IVACS: Intelligent Voice Assistant for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Self-Assessment

TL;DR

This paper introduces IVACS, a voice-based assistant designed for COVID-19 self-assessment, which uses CDC and WHO guidelines and has been empirically tested with positive user feedback.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel voice assistant for COVID-19 self-assessment based on health guidelines, with initial empirical validation involving human subjects.

Findings

IVACS is beneficial to users according to empirical testing.

User performance accuracy was measured using NASA TLX.

Further development is needed for widespread adoption.

Abstract

At the time of writing this paper, the world has around eleven million cases of COVID-19, scientifically known as severe acute respiratory syndrome corona-virus 2 (SARS-COV-2). One of the popular critical steps various health organizations are advocating to prevent the spread of this contagious disease is self-assessment of symptoms. Multiple organizations have already pioneered mobile and web-based applications for self-assessment of COVID-19 to reduce this global pandemic's spread. We propose an intelligent voice-based assistant for COVID-19 self-assessment (IVACS). This interactive assistant has been built to diagnose the symptoms related to COVID-19 using the guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The empirical testing of the application has been performed with 22 human subjects, all volunteers, using the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), and subjects performance accuracy has been measured. The results indicate that the IVACS is beneficial to users. However, it still needs additional research and development to promote its widespread application.