Virtual World Environment for Cognitive State Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for assessing cognitive and mood states, particularly in adolescents and young adults, are often invasive, stigmatizing, and ineffective in capturing sporadic or long-term mood changes, leading to inaccurate assessments and low patient compliance due to perceived threats to their status and stigma associated with psychiatric evaluations.
Innovation Solution
A computerized system and method utilizing a virtual world environment, accessible on personal devices, where users interact with a customizable avatar and virtual world, allowing for real-time, long-term monitoring and assessment of cognitive and mood states through user-selectable parameters and tasks, providing a less intimidating and more accessible means to assess depression severity using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional in-person psychiatric assessments are used, then diagnostic accuracy may be improved through direct interaction, but patient compliance deteriorates due to perceived stigma and threat to status
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual world environment as an intermediary between the patient and the assessment process. Patients interact with virtual characters and scenarios rather than facing a clinician directly, which reduces stigma and perceived threat while still collecting valid diagnostic data about cognitive and mood states
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the assessment experience that mirrors traditional psychiatric evaluation purposes but delivers it through a different medium. The virtual world replicates assessment functions without the negative social consequences of in-person evaluation
2Device complexity
If scheduled appointments are used for psychiatric visits, then structured assessment can be improved, but capture of sporadic mood states deteriorates due to infrequent monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables continuous assessment through the virtual world environment that patients can access between scheduled appointments. This allows mood and cognitive state monitoring to occur continuously rather than only at discrete time points, capturing sporadic changes that would be missed in traditional scheduling
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes baseline assessments and ongoing virtual world parameters before clinical visits occur, allowing clinicians to review accumulated data and identify changes that happened between appointments rather than relying solely on patient recall during scheduled visits
3Ease of operation
If ad hoc psychiatric assessments are used, then accessibility may be improved, but assessment accuracy deteriorates due to patient guardedness and denial
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual world acts as a mediator that allows patients to express themselves more openly about sensitive topics. By interacting with virtual characters rather than human clinicians, patients feel safer disclosing accurate information about their mood and cognitive states, improving both accessibility and accuracy simultaneously
Data Source
AI summary
Cognitive and mood states of a real world person are assessed according to activity in a virtual world environment with which the person interacts. The virtual world is configured to provide interactive experiences for assessing the person's cognitive and/or mood states. The system requires configuration of a session avatar during each virtual world session to provide then-current insight into the person's mood state. The system may require configuration of an avatar reflective of the person's state. The system requires the person to configure the virtual world environment during each virtual session to provide then-current insight into the person's mood state. The system permits the user to visit destinations, perform tasks and play games that are included in the environment for the purpose of providing insight into the person's cognitive and/or mood states according to the person's selections and/or performance.