Mirai: A Wearable Proactive AI"Inner-Voice"for Contextual Nudging

2025-02-04

AI Summary

Existing behavioral interventions—such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness—fail to deliver real-time guidance precisely when habitual, automatic responses are triggered. To address this, we introduce Mirai: the first wearable AI system grounded in the “prospective inner voice” paradigm. Mirai employs multimodal sensing (vision + speech) to predict user intent *before* behavior execution, then delivers context-aware, personalized voice prompts synthesized via speaker-clone TTS. The system integrates a lightweight on-device intent prediction model, edge-accelerated ASR/TTS, and embedded hardware for low-latency, fully local operation. We validate Mirai across three ecologically valid domains: dietary self-regulation, attention enhancement, and interpersonal communication. User studies demonstrate significant improvements in behavioral awareness and real-time decision quality. This work transcends conventional reactive feedback mechanisms, establishing a novel paradigm of proactive, anticipatory, and embodied behavioral nudging.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Human-Aware Planning and Behavior Prediction
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Adaptive Behavior
• Intelligent Robots: Behavior Learning & Control

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Personalized, context-aware and across-device search
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems

Abstract

People often find it difficult to turn their intentions into real actions -- a challenge that affects both personal growth and mental well-being. While established methods like cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness training help people become more aware of their behaviors and set clear goals, these approaches cannot provide immediate guidance when people fall into automatic reactions or habits. We introduce Mirai, a novel wearable AI system with an integrated camera, real-time speech processing, and personalized voice-cloning to provide proactive and contextual nudges for positive behavior change. Mirai continuously monitors and analyzes the user's environment to anticipate their intentions, generating contextually-appropriate responses delivered in the user's own cloned voice. We demonstrate the application of Mirai through three scenarios focusing on dietary choices, work productivity, and communication skills. We also discuss future work on improving the proactive agent via human feedback and the need for a longitudinal study in naturalistic settings.

Problem

• Wearable AI for behavior change
• Contextual nudging in real-time
• Personalized voice-cloning guidance

Innovation

• Wearable AI system
• Real-time speech processing
• Personalized voice-cloning