Watch out - the 'virtual coach' is on its way!

As reported in NewScientist.com, researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands are developing an 'anti smoking chatbot' - a female virtual coach that will help smokers trying to quit by answering their questions and 'listening' to them with appropriate facial expressions and voice tones. They plan to develop more 'virtual coaches' for other user groups.

Shrouded in the anonymity provided by the internet, smokers can log on to a website and type questions and confessions into a chat box. The coach is programmed to respond with the same answers and facial expressions that Stivoro's human counsellors use.

Virtual coaches have a good track record. Frequent conversations with the chatbot Laura, the brainchild of Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, helped to persuade a group of elderly people to exercise more (New Scientist, 3 December 2005, p 42).

Thanks to for Andy Smith for this article as he posted in the Eurocoach-list.