The Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas is expanding its Charisma Virtual Social Coaching program through a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which began earlier this year.

Leveraging generative AI and pixel streaming technology, the collaboration aims to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of Charisma, a program originally launched in 2016 that uses video game technology to create virtual environments where individuals can practice social skills with the guidance of a coach. Since its launch, Charisma has supported over 500 participants, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), social anxiety, ADHD, and learning difficulties, according to an AWS Gametech blog.

Now, with demand growing, Charisma is at an inflection point, according to the center. The partnership with AWS is set to make the platform more scalable and accessible to a broader audience, including school counselors, clinicians, and other professionals.

Virtual reality training to help more people

To expand Charisma beyond its current reach, The Center for BrainHealth is using AWS’s generative AI and pixel streaming—technology typically used in cloud gaming—to streamline adoption for outside professionals. “Social rules shift, and it is easy to feel alone,” said Kathleen Shaffer, CCC-SLP, a clinician and coach at the Center for BrainHealth, in a statement. “Charisma helps make these transitions easier, but as we’ve uncovered over the years, it’s also helping people looking to sharpen their job interview skills or improve customer service interactions.”

The AI-driven enhancements are designed to assist coaches in evaluating and documenting social behaviors during sessions, allowing them to focus more on interaction than on data management. “With additional gen AI tools embedded in the platform, we can increase both the quantity and quality of services. I can be more consistent, and my own cognitive load is reduced so that I can see more people,” Shaffer said on the Gametech blog. “A lot of our strategies are second nature to me now, but prompts can help newer coaches get up to speed quickly and minimize multitasking overall.”

Building AI Models to Track Social Behavior

The center’s generative AI models are designed to assist coaches by recognizing key social behaviors such as facial expressions, gaze, and tonal recognition. The AI models provide real-time prompts to guide coaches during sessions, helping them maintain focus on the client and enhancing the overall coaching experience. “When it comes to helping clients retrain their brain through Charisma sessions — I’m a fly on the wall, observing, and offering guidance as needed,” Shaffer explained. “The new AI features provide a similar function and offer assurance that we’re understanding the full picture for each session so we can best serve the user.”

By allowing AI models to flag specific moments during sessions, coaches can review key interactions without sifting through full recordings, enhancing efficiency and reducing the workload. The models are continually refined with data collected during coaching sessions, enabling the platform to scale and support more users.

AWS Partnership Powers Charisma’s Cloud Transformation

Charisma’s shift to a cloud-based platform began at the 2019 Game Developers Conference, where Aaron Tate, director of Emerging Technology at the Center for BrainHealth, first explored AWS’s pixel streaming capabilities. The transition allowed Charisma to move away from a resource-heavy, on-premise model to a more accessible, web-based system. “Our lead software dev jumped in, uploaded our packages, and showed me what Charisma would look like using AWS. We were blown away how much smoother it was than our home-grown pixel streaming,” Tate said on AWS GameTech.

Now, Charisma is available as a one-click game launcher via a web browser, streamlining client access from more devices.

By integrating AWS services like Amazon GameLift, the center developed a scalable, low-latency solution that provides seamless access to Charisma from multiple devices, reducing the need for physical downloads and tech support. “AWS streaming technology really changed the game for accessibility to the type of interactions we’re providing in Charisma,” Tate noted. “We shortened the friction for start-up and reduced the frustration that coaches might experience when managing multiple pieces of software.”

Gallery

Based on research, Charisma combines realistic social interactions and immediate feedback from clinicians and virtual avatars with in-the-moment practice in a virtual environment, such as the ones below.

Images via The Center for BrainHealth video.

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