Sequence Package Analysis: A New Natural Language Method for Mining User-Generated Content for Mobile Uses

Neustein, Amy

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6018-3_5

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…To integrate VAAs into health care, the design of voice-enabled user interfaces must consider the various needs of the end user, the setting (eg, background noise and multiple users of a single device in a home, such as the patient, their caregiver, home health nurse, etc), and the unique privacy and security issues that come with using these devices that are always listening in the background. With advancements in speech recognition and algorithms that enhance accuracy, VAA apps can become more sophisticated to recognize and respond to a diverse realm of users [ 3 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historically, VAA technologies have been able to perform a range of rudimentary tasks delegated by the user with the primary functions being to organize and manage information [ 2 ], such as provide facts or play music. With advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing, VAAs can now handle more complex interactions, such as commanding smart home devices and placing orders for merchandize [ 3 - 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence suggests that VAAs could increase accessibility to information for those with physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments and facilitate self-management or education [ 6 , 8 , 10 - 13 ]. Prior research concerning use cases for VAAs have featured health tracking and monitoring, assistance with locating health providers, and collecting data to aid in decision making [ 3 - 5 ], but VAAs studied were not commercially available products. At this writing, there are only a few studies that have utilized a commercially available VAA for a health use case.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Health and Fitness Apps for Hands-Free Voice-Activated Assistants: Content Analysis

Chung

Griffin

Selezneva

et al. 2018

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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BackgroundHands-free voice-activated assistants and their associated devices have recently gained popularity with the release of commercial products, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Voice-activated assistants have many potential use cases in healthcare including education, health tracking and monitoring, and assistance with locating health providers. However, little is known about the types of health and fitness apps available for voice-activated assistants as it is an emerging market.ObjectiveThis review aimed to examine the characteristics of health and fitness apps for commercially available, hands-free voice-activated assistants, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.MethodsAmazon Alexa Skills Store and Google Assistant app were searched to find voice-activated assistant apps designated by vendors as health and fitness apps. Information was extracted for each app including name, description, vendor, vendor rating, user reviews and ratings, cost, developer and security policies, and the ability to pair with a smartphone app and website and device. Using a codebook, two reviewers independently coded each app using the vendor’s descriptions and the app name into one or more health and fitness, intended age group, and target audience categories. A third reviewer adjudicated coding disagreements until consensus was reached. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize app characteristics.ResultsOverall, 309 apps were reviewed; health education apps (87) were the most commonly occurring, followed by fitness and training (72), nutrition (33), brain training and games (31), and health monitoring (25). Diet and calorie tracking apps were infrequent. Apps were mostly targeted towards adults and general audiences with few specifically geared towards patients, caregivers, or medical professionals. Most apps were free to enable or use and 18.1% (56/309) could be paired with a smartphone app and website and device; 30.7% (95/309) of vendors provided privacy policies; and 22.3% (69/309) provided terms of use. The majority (36/42, 85.7%) of Amazon Alexa apps were rated by the vendor as mature or guidance suggested, which were geared towards adults only. When there was a user rating available, apps had a wide range of ratings from 1 to 5 stars with a mean of 2.97. Google Assistant apps did not have user reviews available, whereas most of Amazon Alexa apps had at least 1-9 reviews available.ConclusionsThe emerging market of health and fitness apps for voice-activated assistants is still nascent and mainly focused on health education and fitness. Voice-activated assistant apps had a wide range of content areas but many published in the health and fitness categories did not actually have a clear health or fitness focus. This may, in part, be due to Amazon and Google policies, which place restrictions on the delivery of care or direct recording of health data. As in the mobile app market, the content and functionalities may evolve to meet growing demands for self-monitoring and disease management.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%