About 15 percent of working people's sick days are due to mental disorders and mental illnesses in Germany still do not receive the attention that would actually be necessary to prevent longer absences and early retirement. The legislator has reacted to this alarming development and obliges employers to carry out a risk assessment regarding psychological factors and to take appropriate countermeasures. In the "EmmA" project supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), partners from industry and science are working on the use of a digital coaching assistant to support psychological stress at the workplace!
The aim of the EmmA project is to develop a mobile assistance system that can be used to assess the risk of psychological stress at the workplace and to reintegrate employees after a mental illness. The starting point is a multimodal real-time sensor analysis using smartphones to interpret physiological and social signals. Based on this, a socio-emotional behaviour model will be developed and coupled to a virtual avatar, which offers context-dependent help in difficult situations.
The development of an interactive assistance system that individually advises employees in the event of mental (over) stress would be helpful in everyday working life in order to implement the legal requirements. At present, less than a quarter of all companies have a sufficient risk assessment, partly because there are often no psychological specialists available in the companies.
Project partners:
Charamel GmbH - Project management
DFKI German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
University of Augsburg
paragon semvox GmbH
WIPS GmbH
Volume: 1,57 Mio €
Running time: 09/2018 - 08/2021
More information http://www.emma-projekt.de
