At some stage in their life, one in four people around the world will be affected by a form of mental health condition; from anxiety to bipolar disorder to depression, disorders manifest in myriad forms. It carries an estimated global economic cost of over USD$2 trillion a year, as well as presenting some of the most formidable challenges to promoting well-being in healthcare systems across the world.
One such challenge is to provide help to those who need it but lack it. Although effective and affordable treatments are available for most conditions – and in some instances preventable given timely interventions – approximately two-thirds of those affected will never seek help for their psychological ailments. Moreover, the roots of mental health issues can grow from a young age; 50% of instances of disorders occur by 14 years old, and 75% by 24 years old.
Ostensibly, there are many reasons for this- inadequate institutions, neglect, social stigma or simple misinformation- for instance. People may not have access to care; indeed, they may not want or even know that they need help. But the issue is clear: coverage needs to be widened to include those without it.
This is exactly what Mindbin Technologies, a tech startup, is trying to do. With mental health in mind, they are building an intelligent virtual assistant, Booost, where users can chat with in-app avatars which track and assess mental wellbeing.
Emphasising the mental health needs of the young, Mindbin is trying to drive youth engagement by incorporating gaming elements into the app. An avatar is created when the user registers, who then takes care of the avatar. 
Importantly, Booost learns and customises itself to the nuances of the user’s linguistic preferences and idiosyncrasies, such that each avatar becomes personalised to its user and a relationship develops. 
The aim is to make it so Booost is “not just an app but a game, a friend,” says Nare Vardanyan, founder of Mindbin, who also describes the app as “a Siri with empathy… or a Tamagotchi with artificial intelligence.”
Claiming an 80% accuracy of successful emotional detection, Booost works through a mood and a semantic engine which allocate sentiment values to words- ‘pleased’ being a weak positive, and ‘grief’ being a strong negative, for instance. This in turn allows the app to analyse the conversations it has with the user and determine their mental state. If an issue is detected, the app would then suggest avenues of address such as encouraging therapy or providing numbers to helplines, or notify guardians in the case of young children.

from Forbes – Tech http://ift.tt/2aJsR82
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