Hoque holds a patent for the concept of utilizing a computer as a conversational mentor, which was introduced in 2012 and later integrated by
Microsoft as "Speaker Coach" in
PowerPoint, used by millions of users worldwide. In 2019, along with colleagues, he helped establish the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson's Disease Research by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS) at the University of Rochester. He has authored numerous publications spanning the areas of Artificial Intelligence, human-centered computing, and
medicine, including articles in peer-reviewed journals. Hoque’s research focuses on building AI systems that provide real-time, interpretable feedback to improve human communication, learning, and health outcomes.
Social skills training Hoque is regarded as a pioneer in developing computational techniques to enable social skills training. In 2012, he developed an Automated Conversation Helper that utilized a 3D virtual character to act as an interviewer during a job interview. It offered immediate feedback on the participant's nonverbal behavior by employing advanced technology to detect facial expressions, analyze speech patterns and respond in real-time with synthesized speech and behavior. In related research, his work concluded that automated technologies, specifically those that analyze nonverbal communication and provide feedback, such as My Automated Conversation coacH (MACH), offer a personalized approach to enhancing human social interaction and have the potential to be utilized for both practical and therapeutic purposes. He and his students have expanded the research to develop Live Interactive Social Skills Assistant (LISSA) and Standardized Online Patient for Healthcare Interaction Education (SOPHIE). LISSA provides real-time feedback on smiling, eye contact, body movement and volume in real-time and has been validated to help individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. SOPHIE has been designed to train doctors to have more empathy and be explicit with information while dealing with final-stage cancer patients. SOPHIE and LISSA are being adopted or piloted in medical education or clinical training.
Tele-neurology Hoque has worked on developing techniques, technologies, and theories, to improve the capacity to accurately recognize, interpret, and respond to human nonverbal cues. He demonstrated that those techniques have implications in health AI. He and his students have developed Parkinson's Analysis with Remote-Kinetic tasks (PARK)—a webcam-based system enabling neurological care to be available anytime, anywhere. The system allows remote participants to perform a set of UPDRS test using a webcam and a microphone and receive a screening for Parkinson's disease, and have the severity of their tremors being automatically measured. PARK has been evaluated across multiple sites or national cohorts. ==Awards and honors==