Research Projects
VINNIE
Behavioral therapeutic AI toy for children and youths with psychosomatic disorders
Start: 03/2025
End: 02/2028
Mental health disorders, and psychosomatic disorders in particular, have increased significantly among children and adolescents. Those affected suffer from pain, nausea, psychogenic paralysis, and many other symptoms, often making regular school attendance impossible. Long waiting lists for treatment lead to high rates of absenteeism and the chronification of conditions.
VINNIE aims to develop a blended therapy approach for children awaiting inpatient psychosomatic treatment. To achieve this, we are developing an intelligent therapeutic toy designed for children aged 7 to 12 to use in their daily lives. The solution consists of two components:
An Online Platform: Children work with a digital character to gain a fundamental understanding of their illness and practice various coping strategies to help alleviate symptoms.
A Smart Plush Toy: Coping strategies previously selected online can be transferred to the toy. In stressful situations, the toy can suggest these strategies at the touch of a button (via quiet audio playback).
Furthermore, the plush toy is linked to a fitness tracker that monitors changes in heart rate variability (HRV). Based on these metrics, the toy provides the child with biofeedback when strategies are successfully implemented. The result: not only do the child's symptoms decrease, but so do the symptoms of the digital character, which mirrors the child's progress. The character receives rewards, and the success of individual strategies is recorded online.
Since the demand for behavioral therapy for psychosomatic complaints faces challenges regarding the use of AI-based methods, neuroethics specialists are involved in the project. Should the research project yield positive results, VINNIE anticipates high transdiagnostic potential for treating anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorders that respond well to behavioral therapy approaches.
VINNIE aims to develop a blended therapy approach for children awaiting inpatient psychosomatic treatment. To achieve this, we are developing an intelligent therapeutic toy designed for children aged 7 to 12 to use in their daily lives. The solution consists of two components:
An Online Platform: Children work with a digital character to gain a fundamental understanding of their illness and practice various coping strategies to help alleviate symptoms.
A Smart Plush Toy: Coping strategies previously selected online can be transferred to the toy. In stressful situations, the toy can suggest these strategies at the touch of a button (via quiet audio playback).
Furthermore, the plush toy is linked to a fitness tracker that monitors changes in heart rate variability (HRV). Based on these metrics, the toy provides the child with biofeedback when strategies are successfully implemented. The result: not only do the child's symptoms decrease, but so do the symptoms of the digital character, which mirrors the child's progress. The character receives rewards, and the success of individual strategies is recorded online.
Since the demand for behavioral therapy for psychosomatic complaints faces challenges regarding the use of AI-based methods, neuroethics specialists are involved in the project. Should the research project yield positive results, VINNIE anticipates high transdiagnostic potential for treating anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorders that respond well to behavioral therapy approaches.
Role of the FZI
The work of the FZI focuses primarily on biosignal acquisition and analysis. The FZI is responsible for selecting suitable sensor systems specifically tailored to the needs of children, ensuring high wearing comfort and safety. A particular focus lies on measuring Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for the objective determination of stress levels. Furthermore, the FZI develops AI-based methods to recognize patterns within vital data, aiming to predict emotional states such as anxiety or stress at an early stage.
The collected data is processed in a way that allows the plush toy to provide the child with direct, easily understandable biofeedback (e.g., via LED signals or vibration) as soon as a coping strategy has successfully contributed to relaxation. By utilizing techniques such as transfer learning and data augmentation, the FZI is developing a framework that enables reliable predictions of psychological states, even when only a limited individual database is available.
The collected data is processed in a way that allows the plush toy to provide the child with direct, easily understandable biofeedback (e.g., via LED signals or vibration) as soon as a coping strategy has successfully contributed to relaxation. By utilizing techniques such as transfer learning and data augmentation, the FZI is developing a framework that enables reliable predictions of psychological states, even when only a limited individual database is available.
Contact person
Staff
Division: Embedded Systems and Sensors Engineering
Branch Office Berlin
Funding notice:
The VINNIE project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology, and Space as part of the research program 'Interactive and Gamification-based Technologies for the Promotion of Mental Health in Childhood' (GamKi).
