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

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.