2023.02.02 Hyundai Motor Group
Heals on Wheels Campaign: Hyundai Motor Group Helps Abused Children
Hyundai Motor Group unveiled its mobility technology that supports counseling for the psychological stability of abused children. Hyundai Motor Group’s mobility technology can be seen in the ‘Heals on Wheels’ video, which shows the healing process of abused children.
Hyundai Motor Group released a video titled “Heals on Wheels”, which uses its mobility technology to help abused children with psychological counseling and rehabilitation. This campaign introduced various mobility technologies of Hyundai Motor Group to help the stability of abused children and support effective psychological counseling. For this project, Hyundai Motor Group developed iCAREcar, a counseling mobility vehicle that helps abused children. The video shows the mobility visiting abused children and providing psychological counseling; then it shows how abused children find psychological stability and heal from trauma by using the car as a medium to access a virtual space.
This video begins with an interview with a therapist who provides counseling for abused children. The therapist shows the children’s real counseling environment, and the video leads to the development process of iCAREcar to provide children with a safe space. Meanwhile, the video also details the counseling process for abused children using iCAREcar’s mobility technology: the therapist making eye contact with a child in a cozy indoor space, counseling using a mobile application, measuring stress using earphones, and a child enjoying virtual space travel. The campaign video emphasizes the good deed by highlighting efficient and humane counseling through iCAREcar.
Beyond the limits of simple means of transportation, Hyundai Motor Group housed various mobility technologies in its vehicles to help counseling and healing of abused children. Hyundai Motor Group introduced a counseling application housed with AI voice separation technology - Smart Sound Recognition, SSR - to support efficient counseling. Also, the automaker unveiled an Immersive Display - an EEG-based stress-measurement technology utilized during the therapy process and to help with emotional healing. Above all, through this video, Hyundai Motor Group shows that its various mobility technologies are being developed to provide practical help to abused children.
One of the technologies presented by Hyundai Motor Group is the iCAREcar application that houses AI voice separation technology. This app is a counseling tool that supports counselors so that they can conduct counseling more efficiently, evolving from what therapists have been doing manually. The application utilizes AI voice recognition technology to convert all consultation contents into voice / text files and save them. The voice data transmission pre-processing technology collects raw voice data, converts it into a file compatible with the voice recognition engine, and divides the converted text into sentence units. In addition, it automatically extracts keywords from counseling content so that counselors can consult more efficiently and help identify psychological risk factors.
The sophisticated AI voice separation technology in the application also plays an important role in increasing the efficiency of consultations. The AI voice recognition technology in the application boasts fast recognition speed and high accuracy. Batch Transcription extracts dialogue sections from large-capacity media data and processes speech recognition in parallel, quickly and accurately recognizing and processing speech in a consultation environment where many conversations occur. In addition, the voice recognition technology is housed with a Multi-Speaker Detector (MSD) that separates clear voice from multiple human voices and background noise. This advanced voice recognition technology helps child patients to proceed with therapy more smoothly without anxiety.
The technology also analyzes counseling content with AI to collect keywords that appear to be related to abuse. Through this, it is possible to quickly and actively respond by quickly identifying the details of abuse during the consultation process with child patients and seeking cooperation from related organizations such as child protection agencies and the police.
Another mobility technology introduced in the campaign is a stress index measurement technology using brain wave signals - M.Brain. As the video shows, when a child patient wears earphones in their ears during a therapy session, the earphones detect EEG signals and detect the child’s stress level in real time. For reference, M.Brain technology is the world’s first EEG-based driver monitoring system developed by Hyundai Mobis, and it won the CES Innovation Awards in product at the Consumer Electronics Show 2023.
Hyundai Motor Group developed this technology based on objective indicators after consulting with Korea National Transportation Rehabilitation Hospital and Seoul National University Hospital, and improved measurement accuracy with EEG filtering technology that removes noise generated while moving. In addition, by miniaturizing the parts so that even a small-sized ear set can have a measurement function, it is easy to measure brain waves. Counselors can work more safely and efficiently while accurately monitoring child patients.
Hyundai Motor Group has developed a display therapy technology that reduces the stress of children receiving counseling and further provides fun to children. iCAREcar is equipped with a digital interactive treatment technology (Digital Therapeutic) platform using large displays on all four sides of the room. Through this, children can draw pictures on the tablet PC and enjoy interactive painting play (Night Safari) where the pictures are projected on the screen. Through this play, the child can build rapport* with the counselor, create a sense of security for space and therapy, and develop interest and concentration. The company also developed a deep breathing guide (belly breathing, landing, butterfly hug) that is identical to the psychological stabilization technique provided by the National Center for Mental Health in Korea. This program helps the child’s emotional regulation and relaxes the mind. On the other hand, as shown in the video, the child can have a virtual experience of going on a space trip in a car in an immersive environment. As such, iCAREcar is realizing metamobility that provides a virtual moving experience, and promotes effective counseling by inducing psychological stability and interacting with children.
*rapport building: a psychological term that indicates developing mutual trust, friendship and affinity with someone
Based on Hyundai Motor Company’s Staria, the interior of iCAREcar is ideal for psychological counseling. Inside Staria’s spacious cabin, there is a rotating seat where the victim and counselor can sit facing each other. Also on the back of the cabin are four large displays to stabilize child patients. In addition, the cabin is delicately designed to provide psychological stability and relaxation by housing a sound bar and mood lamp to improve the sense of immersion in the content. Through this reinterpretation of space, iCAREcar, which provides psychological stability and sympathy beyond a simple means of transportation, has been perfected.
Through Hyundai Motor Group’s humane mobility technology, iCAREcar was developed in collaboration with five companies: Hyundai Motors Kia Motors, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Autoever, and 42dot, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motors. The Sustainability Planning Team of Hyundai Motor Group, in charge of the iCAREcar CSR project, reviewed actual needs and solutions identified through the iCAREcar project over the past several years with Good Neighbors, a global NGO specializing in children’s rights. Through interviews with counselors conducting therapy for abused children, Hyundai Motor Group’s mobility technology and the help to provide to child patients were integrated and housed in iCAREcar.
For the development of the iCAREcar application, Hyundai Motor Group’s global software center, 42dot, provided AI voice recognition technology, and Hyundai AutoEver designed the consultation application through workshops with consultants. In addition, Hyundai Mobis developed an ear set for measuring brain waves and a technology for measuring stress using real-time brain wave detection. And Hyundai completed iCAREcar, which focuses on therapy for child patients, by utilizing digital treatment technology to reduce stress using the in-vehicle display.
In addition, the Hyundai Motor Group Communication Center promoted the event by showing a video of actual consultation taking place inside the new iCAREcar. In particular, this video is more than just a technical introduction; There is a beautiful narrative of an abused child finding hope in the counseling process. There is another charm of the ‘Heals on Wheels’ video in the emotional change of the child during the counseling process and the transition from a lonely atmosphere to a warm one.
Meanwhile, child abuse is still a serious social problem. According to a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, child abuse increased by about 3.2 times from 11,715 cases in 2015 to 37,605 cases in 2021. Hyundai Motor Group has also been carrying out the ‘iCARE project’ as part of its social contribution activities since 2014. Over the past seven years, Hyundai Motor Group has donated 136 vehicles to 69 child protection agencies across the country, and the donated vehicles have been used for field investigations of child abuse, home visits, and counseling.
In fact, counseling for abused children is often done in dispatch vehicles. This is because abused children often live in areas far from the city center, and it takes a lot of time and money to travel to child rights protection agencies for counseling and treatment. In addition, as more than 80% of perpetrators of child abuse are counted as parents, a safe counseling environment separated from the perpetrators is needed. Therefore, Hyundai Motor Group developed Eye Care Car, a mobile consultation mobility. Hyundai Motor Group focused on providing practical help to abused children by using various mobility technologies housed in iCAREcar and the advantages of mobility to visit abused children, provide them with a safe space, and help with psychological healing.
Hyundai Motor Group successfully suggested the benefits of future technology and the possibility of metamobility through the ‘Heals on Wheels’ video campaign. The iCAREcar in the video showed an example of the use of warm mobility technology by reducing the stress of victimized children and providing a new level of mobility experience. In addition, the advantages of next-generation mobility - iCAREcar, for example, creating a consultation space wherever you go - are well exposed. Hyundai Motor Group plans to continue providing iCAREcar to child protection agencies across the country, and plans to continue support activities in consideration of geographical conditions, characteristics, and technology updates in the region.
