| Acquisition Program: | |
Objective: | To develop a highly interactive PC or web-based application to allow family members to verbally interact with “virtual” renditions of deployed Service Members.
| Description: | The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury recognizes that family outreach and advocacy is pivotal for both the psychological health of the family and the resilience of the Service Member. Deployments put stress on the entire family, especially small children and communication is key. The ability to reach out and communicate with loved ones from areas of conflict is better than at any time in history. Nevertheless, the stresses of deployment might be softened if spouses and especially children could conduct simple conversations with their loved ones in immediate times of stress or prolonged absence. Historically, families have derived comfort and support from photographs or mementos, but current technology SHOULD allow for more personal interactive messages of support. Over 80% of American children between the ages of three and five regularly use computers, and 83% of families have a computer in their home. So, computer-based applications would resonate with children and capture their interest and imagination. The challenge is to design an application that would would allow a child to receive comfort from being able to have simple, virtual conversations with a parent who is not aivailable "in-person". We are looking for innovative applications that explore and harness the power of “advanced” interactive multimedia computer technologies to produce compelling interactive dialogue between a Service member and their families via a pc- or web-based application using video footage or high-resolution 3-D rendering. The child should be able to have a simulated conversation with a parent about generic, everyday topics. For instance, a child may get a response from saying "I love you", or "I miss you", or "Good night mommy/daddy." This is a technologically challenging application because it relies on the ability to have convincing voice-recognition, artificial intelligence, and the ability to easily and inexpensively develop a customized application tailored to a specific parent. We are seeking development of a tool which can be used to help families (especially, children) cope with deployments by providing a means to have simple verbal interactions with loved ones for re-assurance, support, affection, and generic discussion when phone and internet conversations are not possible. The application should incorporate an AI that allows for flexibility in language comprehension to give the illusion of a natural (but simple) interaction. The current solicitation is not aiming to build entertainment, but a highly accurate and advanced simulation platform. Voice-recognition and voice-interaction are required. The User Interface is a critical component for this program. Application must be user friendly and application must be easy to install and maintain. Verbal interactions should be as normal as current technology will allow. Proven track record for creating similar types of applications is desired, but not required. Development plans should include the use of trained psychological health and family advocacy experts with experience providing services to military populations. Project MUST include discussion of how personal information would be collected, recorded, and rendered as well as address issues about information content and complexity of proposed simulation application. If using a web-based application, security and maintenance issues must be addressed. Application must run on typical family-owned computer systems.
| | PHASE I: Work with DoD Subject Matter Experts to define exact needs and scope of the application. Provide for the development of a complete concept plan, concept design for the overall system and a simple working proof-of-concept demonstration. In this concept plan, address the following items with respect to the Phase II requirements:
1. Develop metrics to determine user acceptance, usability, and content requirements.
2. Describe, illustrate, and storyboard a complete scenario with the help of Subject Matter Experts.
3. Outline technology limitations and risks, including minimum system requirements.
4. Identify development tools for producing the simulation.
5. Devise an implementation and plan for a detailed usability study
6. Develop a basic proof-of-concept demonstration of technology
| | | PHASE II:
1. Finalize application design based on Phase I results
2. Build, refine, and demonstrate the prototype system.
3. Perform user acceptance and usability study
4. Develop strategy for customizing simulation for military families.
Phase III
| | DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: This technology would be useful for providing support for civilian families and could be easily expanded to provide highly-interactive training and “lessons-learned” from experts in the field.
| References: | 1. Bergeron, B. (2006). Developing Serious Games. Boston, MA: Charles River Media.
2. Prensky, M. 2000. Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw Hill.
3. Zyda, M., Hiles, J., Mayberry, A., Capps, M., Osborn, B., Shilling, R.,
Robaszewski, M., & Davis, M. (2003). Entertainment R&D for Defense, IEEE
CG&A, January/February, pp.28-36.
4. Graeff-Martins AS, Flament MF, Fayyad J, Tyano S, Jensen P, Rohde LA.
"Diffusion of efficacious interventions for children and adolescents with mental health problems" J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2008 Mar;49(3):335-52.
5. JENSEN, PETER S. M.D.; MARTIN, DAVID; WATANABE, HENRY M.D. "Children's Response to Parental Separation during Operation Desert Storm Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry" 35(4):433-441, April 1996.
6. Myers KM, Valentine JM, Melzer SM. "Child and adolescent telepsychiatry:
utilization and satisfaction" Telemed J E Health. 2008 Mar;14(2):131-7.
| | Keywords: | Interactive Simulation, Family Advocacy, Psychological Health, Behavioral Health, Dialogue, Family Support |
Questions and Answers: |
Q: In terms of subject matter experts, what resources exist for civilian firms to work with military personnel with experience in family psychology related to deployments? Would the family services personnel of a particular service branch qualify? |
A: At this time, we rely on the firms to establish those connections. We don't have the resources to connect each POTENTIAL performer to a military collaborator. Part of the evaluation will be to see how well you have established that relationship.
Clarification: The solicitation stated, "Development plans should include the use of trained psychological health and family advocacy experts with experience providing services to military populations". The expertise does not have to involve current government employees or military personnel if those relationships do not already exist.
Potential performers should not contact current Military or Civilian Government employees in order to develop active collaborations pertaining to the current solicitation. It is not allowed. Current government employees should not be involved in the proposal process or listed as collaborators.
The proposal can discuss Military/Civilian collaborations that may currently exist under existing government Contracts/Agreements that are not part of this solicitation to show
previously demonstrated ability to work with the military and medical communities. If the company does not have prior experience, they should show a demonstrated knowledge about how to develop these collaborations. Often, this might involve consultants or staff members who have prior experience working with these populations, but are not current government employees. Again, we are evaluating the contractor's ability to deal
expertly with military medical populations.
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Q: 1. Considering that speech recognition is still a somewhat unreliable technology and compounding that problem with the fact that children often have different speech patterns than adults, would text/type be a suitable feature to include?
2. Also, are there any real-world examples on the web that describe (even if remotely) the vision of the topic sponsor(s)? |
A: This is pretty innovative, so I don't think there would be anything online that espouses the vision of the project.
Although we DO want speech recognition, alternatives should also be considered. In fact, you may want to consider issues related to ADA 508 regulations concerning Americans with Disabilities.
We did not write that into the solicitation, but it would offer some flexibility for the software usage.
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Q: May I suggest someone use voice over Internet Protocol, VOIP, instead of speech recognition. Also, may I suggest video conferencing.
http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/videocall/ |
A: No. That would fundamentally change the concept for the current soliciation. The whole purpose is to help children cope with a parents absence when they are not available for phone or internet contact. |
Q: Is indexed retrieval of pre-recorded voice/video acceptable as well?
For example, a parent records diary for the day; in response to emotional state of child, system retrieves some words, clip (e.g. empathetic, encouraging, laughter, etc.); |
A: This application needs to be pre-recorded and created PRIOR to a parent deploying. Beyond that, we are open to a variety of innovative solutions and ideas. Remember, this application ALSO needs to be combined with a researchstudy to look at the effectiveness of the application and to also determine whether such an application provides POSITIVE effects for the child.
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Q: The topic refers to family members with emphasis on "small" children. It subsequently states how many children age 3-5 have access to computers but does not state if this is primary target population.
1. Does the Government have an age group they are most interested in supporting? |
A: No, we are open to determining appropriate age range. |