UbiMyTherapist: the AI that anticipates your stress

An AI Assistant to Detect Stress Before You Even Ask

Expressing stress or anxiety is not always an easy task. Aware of this difficulty, researchers have developed a new assistant based on artificial intelligence, named UbiMyTherapist. This innovative system is designed to detect signs of emotional distress before the user even feels the need to ask for help.

The uniqueness of UbiMyTherapist lies in its ability to analyze signals emitted by connected devices such as smartwatches, earbuds, or smartphones. By interpreting this data, the assistant can identify early signs of stress and offer proactive assistance.

A Proactive Approach to Psychological Support

Current psychological support tools, such as chatbots, have a major limitation: they require the user to initiate the conversation. However, for someone struggling with anxiety or stress, taking that first step can be particularly challenging.

It is in this perspective that the University of Ottawa developed UbiMyTherapist. Unlike traditional assistants, this AI system does not merely respond to requests. It adopts a dual approach:

• Reactive: it responds to explicit requests from the user.
• Proactive: it continuously monitors various emotional indicators to detect potential distress and intervene even before the user seeks help.

The Mechanisms of UbiMyTherapist

To accomplish its mission, UbiMyTherapist relies on a meticulous analysis of several types of data. Among these are:

• Heart rate variability, measured by a connected watch.
• Variations in voice tone, captured by earbuds or a smartphone.
• Written messages from the user.

By combining this information, the AI assesses the user's emotional state and tailors its responses according to the context. The system goes even further by creating a "digital twin" of each user, which incorporates their medical and psychological history along with real-time emotional data collected. This approach allows the assistant to provide responses that are much more personalized than those of traditional chatbots.

Initial trials were conducted with 24 participants, and the responses generated by the system were evaluated by licensed therapists. According to the University of Ottawa, UbiMyTherapist demonstrated a high level of empathy and personalization, thus surpassing conventional conversational models.

A Complement to Mental Health Professionals

Researchers emphasize that the goal of UbiMyTherapist is not to replace psychologists or psychiatrists, but to serve as a complementary tool. The project aims to overcome certain barriers to accessing care, such as the cost of consultations, social stigma, or the lack of available professionals.

Currently, UbiMyTherapist is still in the research stage and is not intended for the general public. However, it illustrates the potential of AI to play a concrete role in supporting mental health.

The development team is working to improve the prototype so that it can react instantly to data transmitted by the user's connected devices. Researchers are also looking to strengthen collaboration with a larger number of licensed therapists to enhance the system's clinical accuracy.