Empathy-XR: An Immersive AI-Based Tool for Mental Health Wellbeing

**挑战**在英国和全球范围内报告精神健康问题的总人数逐年上升。这意味着每月转介到社区精神卫生小组的人数增加，而与此同时，英国在精神卫生服务方面的投资实际下降了。在16至24岁的年轻女性中，超过四分之一（26%）的人报告有常见的心理健康问题，而老年人报告抑郁和孤独是影响心理健康的主要因素。在英国，获得精神卫生保健支持往往存在重大障碍，包括缺乏当地资源、社会耻辱、成本以及无法前往接受治疗。然而，研究表明，获得成功结果的关键是用户参与度，而不是治疗方式。这表明，通过新的数字手段提供心理健康支持有可能与某些形式的传统心理治疗一样有效。**Vision**Oxford Dynamics将开发Empathy-XR：一种创新的、基于人工智能的个人心理健康工具，能够监测和帮助焦虑和抑郁，这是最常见的心理健康挑战。Empathy-XR最初通过智能手机和/或平板电脑交付，将结合牛津动力公司在会话人工智能和基于人工智能的图像处理/视觉系统方面成熟的核心专业知识，提供独特的、高度个性化的、新颖的沉浸式体验。移情- xr将使人们能够立即获得独特的支持性护理，这种护理是非评判的、永远耐心的、随时可用的。通过规避心理健康提供的财务和地理障碍，以及对易用性和扩展现实用户体验的强烈关注，Empathy-XR将在沉浸式对话中提供突破，专注于社会面临的最大挑战领域之一。最终，共情- xr寻求成为健康从业者和患者武器库中有价值和强大的补充。该项目与英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）和一些心理健康慈善机构合作，旨在通过实地试验证明，用户报告的心理健康状况得到了循证改善。**该工业开发项目建立在牛津动力公司之前成功的工作和之前的用户参与基础上，以生产适合关键利益相关者的Beta现场试验的原型系统。该项目将涵盖Empathy-XR的商业、道德和技术方面，以及全面商业发布的路线图。

**The Challenge**The overall number of people reporting mental health problems in the UK and globally rises year on year. This translates into increasing monthly referrals to community mental health teams, whilst at the same time, UK investment in mental health services has fallen in real terms. Over a quarter (26%) of young women aged between 16--24 years old report having a common mental health problem, whilst the elderly report depression and loneliness as key impactors on mental health.Significant barriers often exist to obtaining mental health care support in the UK, including lack of local resources, social stigma, cost, and an ability to travel to receive care. However, research has shown that user engagement, rather than the modality of therapy is the key to achieving successful outcomes. This indicates that the provision of mental health support via new digital means has the potential to be as effective as some forms of traditional psychotherapy.**Vision**Oxford Dynamics will develop Empathy-XR: an innovative, AI-based personal mental health wellness tool able to monitor and assist with anxiety and depression, the most commonly reported mental health challenges. Initially delivered via smartphone and/or tablet, Empathy-XR will combine Oxford Dynamics' proven core expertise in Conversational AI and AI-based image procession/ vision systems, to deliver a unique, highly personalized, and novel immersive experience.Empathy-XR will enable immediate access to unique supportive care that is non-judgmental, eternally patient, and always available.By circumventing financial & geographic barriers to mental health provision, together with a strong focus on ease of use and an extended reality user experience, Empathy-XR will provide a breakthrough in immersive conversations, focussed on one the largest challenge areas to society.Ultimately Empathy-XR seeks to be a valuable and powerful addition to the health practitioner and patient's arsenal. Working with the NHS and a number of mental health charities, this project aims to demonstrate evidence-based improvements in users' reported mental health via field trials.**Project Deliverables**This Industrial Development project builds upon prior successful Oxford Dynamics work and previous user engagement, to produce a prototype system suitable for Beta field trials with key stakeholders. The project will cover Empathy-XR's commercial, ethical, and technical aspects, together with a roadmap for full commercial release.