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A Semantic Memory Bank Assisted by an Embodied Conversational Agents for Mobile Devices

Received: 1 February 2021     Accepted: 8 February 2021     Published: 23 February 2021
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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes memory loss and interferes with intellectual abilities seriously. It has no current cure and therapeutic efficiency of current medication is limited. However, there is evidence that non-pharmacological treatments could be useful to stimulate cognitive abilities. In the last few year, several studies have focused on describing and under- standing how Virtual Coaches (VC) could be key drivers for health promotion in home care settings. The use of VC gains an augmented attention in the considerations of medical innovations. In this paper, we propose an approach that exploits semantic technologies and Embodied Conversational Agents to help patients training cognitive abilities using mobile devices. In this work, semantic technologies are used to provide knowledge about the memory of a specific person, who exploits the structured data stored in a linked data repository and take advantage of the flexibility provided by ontologies to define search domains and expand the agent’s capabilities. Our Memory Bank Embodied Conversational Agent (MBECA) is used to interact with the patient and ease the interaction with new devices. The framework is oriented to Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers, and therapists.

Published in Engineering and Applied Sciences (Volume 6, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11
Page(s) 1-17
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Semantic Embodied Conversational Agents, Semantic Knowledge, Alzheimer’s Disease, Mobile Computing, Virtual Coaching (VC)

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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Francisco Seron, Angel Zaldivar, Alfonso Blesa, Jose Martin-Albo, Juan Magallon. (2021). A Semantic Memory Bank Assisted by an Embodied Conversational Agents for Mobile Devices. Engineering and Applied Sciences, 6(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11

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    ACS Style

    Francisco Seron; Angel Zaldivar; Alfonso Blesa; Jose Martin-Albo; Juan Magallon. A Semantic Memory Bank Assisted by an Embodied Conversational Agents for Mobile Devices. Eng. Appl. Sci. 2021, 6(1), 1-17. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11

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    AMA Style

    Francisco Seron, Angel Zaldivar, Alfonso Blesa, Jose Martin-Albo, Juan Magallon. A Semantic Memory Bank Assisted by an Embodied Conversational Agents for Mobile Devices. Eng Appl Sci. 2021;6(1):1-17. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11,
      author = {Francisco Seron and Angel Zaldivar and Alfonso Blesa and Jose Martin-Albo and Juan Magallon},
      title = {A Semantic Memory Bank Assisted by an Embodied Conversational Agents for Mobile Devices},
      journal = {Engineering and Applied Sciences},
      volume = {6},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-17},
      doi = {10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.eas.20210601.11},
      abstract = {Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes memory loss and interferes with intellectual abilities seriously. It has no current cure and therapeutic efficiency of current medication is limited. However, there is evidence that non-pharmacological treatments could be useful to stimulate cognitive abilities. In the last few year, several studies have focused on describing and under- standing how Virtual Coaches (VC) could be key drivers for health promotion in home care settings. The use of VC gains an augmented attention in the considerations of medical innovations. In this paper, we propose an approach that exploits semantic technologies and Embodied Conversational Agents to help patients training cognitive abilities using mobile devices. In this work, semantic technologies are used to provide knowledge about the memory of a specific person, who exploits the structured data stored in a linked data repository and take advantage of the flexibility provided by ontologies to define search domains and expand the agent’s capabilities. Our Memory Bank Embodied Conversational Agent (MBECA) is used to interact with the patient and ease the interaction with new devices. The framework is oriented to Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers, and therapists.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    AU  - Alfonso Blesa
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20210601.11
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    AB  - Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes memory loss and interferes with intellectual abilities seriously. It has no current cure and therapeutic efficiency of current medication is limited. However, there is evidence that non-pharmacological treatments could be useful to stimulate cognitive abilities. In the last few year, several studies have focused on describing and under- standing how Virtual Coaches (VC) could be key drivers for health promotion in home care settings. The use of VC gains an augmented attention in the considerations of medical innovations. In this paper, we propose an approach that exploits semantic technologies and Embodied Conversational Agents to help patients training cognitive abilities using mobile devices. In this work, semantic technologies are used to provide knowledge about the memory of a specific person, who exploits the structured data stored in a linked data repository and take advantage of the flexibility provided by ontologies to define search domains and expand the agent’s capabilities. Our Memory Bank Embodied Conversational Agent (MBECA) is used to interact with the patient and ease the interaction with new devices. The framework is oriented to Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers, and therapists.
    VL  - 6
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Author Information
  • Department of Informatics, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

  • Department of Informatics, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

  • Department of Electronics, University of Zaragoza, Teruel, Spain

  • Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Teruel, Spain

  • Department of Informatics, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

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