Description: Personal Embodied Trainers may provide two important advantages when added to conventional or digital systems to promote physical therapies: (1) Providing an animated biped model as an interface to represent exercises to be mimicked by the user, and (2) delivering verbal and nonverbal communication (e.g. intonation, mood and facial expression) to improve communication, enjoyment and build a social bond that may drive the user’s attitude towards a particular goal, for instance, training harder or for longer periods.
Status: A proof of concept of PET was developed in Fall 2017. An improved second version that works with a wristband instead of a smartphone for motion tracking is being developed to be tested in Summer 2018.