Voice-Based Conversational Agents for self-reporting fluid consumption and sleep quality

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and testing of voice-based conversational agents, FluidMonitor and Sleepy, designed for at-home self-reporting of fluid intake and sleep quality, demonstrating user satisfaction and integration into daily routines.

Contribution

Introduces two novel voice-based agents for health self-monitoring, highlighting their design, implementation, and positive user feedback in real-world settings.

Findings

High user satisfaction with ease of use and likeability

Successful integration into daily routines

Potential to augment health monitoring capacity

Abstract

Intelligent conversational agents and virtual assistants, such as chatbots and voice assistants, have the potential of augmenting health service capacity to screen symptoms and deliver healthcare interventions. In this paper, we developed voice-based conversational agents (VCAs) in the Google Actions Console to deliver periodic self-assessment health surveys. The focus of this paper is to accommodate self-monitoring for patients with specific fluid consumption requirements or sleep disorders. Our VCAs, named FluidMonitor and Sleepy, have been tested to integrate naturally into a patient's daily lifestyle for the purpose of providing useful interventions. We show the functionality of our Google Actions and discuss the considerations for using VCAs as an at-home self-reporting survey technique. User testing showed satisfaction with the ease of use, likeability, and burden level of the VCAs.