Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health. 4th International Symposium, MindCare 2014, Tokyo, Japan, May 8-9, 2014, Revised Selected Papers

The Fourth International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health – MindCare 2014 was hosted by the University of Tokyo, Japan during May 8–9, 2014. The MindCare event is receiving increasing attention of research communities from various technological, medical, and psychological disciplines, which are focused on maintaining and improving mental health. The fourth edition included the presentation of 11 accepted full papers, four short papers, nine posters, and one invited paper grouped into six sessions covering the areas of recognition and assessment of parameters relevant to mental health, efficient mental health management and self-treatment, facilitated communications for patients, and one session focusing on the always actual topic of depression. We were honored to have two distinguished keynote speakers, Manabu Honda, PhD, MD (Director of the Department of Functional Brain Research, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan) and Neema Moraveji, PhD (Director of Calming Technology Lab, Stanford University, USA). The symposium was successful in generating a brainstorming platform to discuss different factors that influence the effectiveness, design, and user acceptance of innovative approaches in maintaining and improving mental health.