Browsing by Author "Paulino, Teresa"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Augmented Human Assistance (AHA)Publication . Bermúdez i Badia, Sergi; Odekerken-Schröder, Gaby; Mahr, Dominik; Čaić, Martina; Lee, Min Hun; Siewiorek, Dan; Smailagic, Assim; Gamboa, Hugo; Belo, David; Carnide, Maria Filomena Araújo da Costa Cruz; Baptista, Maria de Fátima Marcelina; Simão, Hugo; Avelino, João; Sousa, Honorato; Paulino, Teresa; Gonçalves, Afonso; Cardona, John Muñoz; Cameirão, Mónica S.; Bernardino, Alexandre; Gouveia, Élvio RúbioAging and sedentarism are two main challenges for social and health systems in modern societies. To face these challenges a new generation of ICT based solutions is being developed to promote active aging, prevent sedentarism and find new tools to support the large populations of patients that suffer chronic conditions as result of aging. Such solutions have the potential to transform healthcare by optimizing resource allocation, reducing costs, improving diagno ses and enabling novel therapies, thus increasing quality of life. The primary goal of the “AHA: Augmented Human Assistance” project is to de velop novel assistive technologies to promote exercise among the elderly and patients of motor disabilities. For exercise programs to be effective, it is essential that users and patients comply with the prescribed schedule and perform the ex ercises following established protocols. Until now this has been achieved by hu man monitoring in rehabilitation and therapy session, where the clinicians or therapists permanently accompany users or patient. In many cases, exercises are prescribed for home performance, in which case it is not possible to validate their execution. In this context, the AHA project is an integrative and cross-discipli nary approach of 4 Portuguese universities, the CMU, and 2 Portuguese industry partners, that combines innovation and fundamental research in the areas of hu man-computer interaction, robotics, serious games and physiological computing (see partner list in Appendix A). In the project, we capitalize on recent innova tions and aim at enriching the capabilities and range of application of assistive devices via the combination of (1) assistive robotics; (2) technologies that use well-understood motivational techniques to induce people to do their exercises in the first place, and to do them correctly and completely; (3) tailored and relevant guidance in regard to health care and social support and activities; and (4) tech nologies to self-monitoring and sharing of progress with health-care provider enabling clinicians to fine-tune the exercise regimen to suit the participant’s ac tual progress. We highlight the development of a set of exergames (serious games controlled by the movement of the user’s body limbs) specifically designed for the needs of the target population according to best practices in sports and human kinetics sciences. The games can be adapted to the limitations of the users (e.g. to play in a sitting position) so a large fraction of the population can benefit from them. The games can be executed with biofeedback provided from wearable sensors, to pro duce more controlled exercise benefits. The games can be played in multi-user settings, either in cooperative or competitive mode, to promote the social rela tions among players. The games contain regional motives to trigger memories from the past and other gamification techniques that keep the users involved in the exercise program. The games are projected in the environment through aug mented reality techniques that create a more immersive and engaging experience than conventional displays. Virtual coach techniques are able to monitor the cor rectness of the exercise and provide immediate guidance to the user, as well as providing reports for therapists. A socially assistive robot can play the role of the coach and provide an additional socio-cognitive dimension to the experience to complement the role of the therapist. A web service that records the users’ per formances and allows the authorized therapists to access and configure the exer cise program provides a valuable management tool for caregivers and clinical staff. It can also provide a social network for players, increasing adherence to the therapies. We have performed several end-user studies that validate the proposed ap proaches. Together, or in isolation, these solutions provide users, caregivers, health professionals and institutions, valuable tools for health promotion, disease monitoring and prevention.
- Characterizing the use of interactive technologies for cognitive rehabilitation in portuguese healthcare institutionsPublication . Paulino, Teresa; Cameirão, Mónica S.The increasing predominance of cognitive deficits following neurological conditions such as dementia and stroke is a major concern in Portugal. Cognitive rehabilitation has been shown to be fundamental to alleviate some of the deficits, but it is not always customized to the specific profile of each patient. More critically, patients typically do not have rehabilitation while they are in the waiting list or after discharge. One way to address these limitations is using interactive technologies specifically designed for cognitive rehabilitation. Their digital nature allows the customization of parameters enabling personalization and adaptation to each patient’s profile, as well as the possibility of quantification of performance. In addition, these tools have the potential to be used at home, allowing patients to continue their rehabilitation and being monitored remotely, alleviating the burden of institutionalization for both patients and healthcare systems. However, before proposing novel technologies, it is imperative to understand current practices, needs, preferences and expectations of health professionals in this domain. For this purpose, we developed an online questionnaire that was distributed among health professionals in Portugal. 116 participants have responded, with 35% reporting having experience in the use of interactive technologies for cognitive rehabilitation. Our results show that health professionals that use these technologies mainly value ease of interaction, diversity of activities, task personalization to the patient’s cognitive profile, and adaptation based on performance. These and other insights will be used to inform the development of novel tools for cognitive rehabilitation in clinical and home settings.
- Comparing adaptive cognitive training in virtual reality and paper-pencil in a sample of stroke patientsPublication . Faria, Ana Lúcia; Paulino, Teresa; Bermúdez i Badia, SergiThe growing number of people with cognitive deficits creates an urgent need for new cognitive training solutions. Paper-and-pencil tasks are still widely used for cognitive rehabilitation despite the proliferation of new computer-based methods, like VR-based simulations of ADL’s. The health professionals’ resistance in adopting new tools might be explained by the small number of validation trials. Studies have established construct validity of VR assessment tools with their paper-and-pencil versions by demonstrating significant associations with their traditional construct-driven measures. However, adaptive rehabilitation tools for intervention are mostly not equivalent to their counterpart paper-and-pencil versions, which makes it difficult to carry out comparative studies. Here we present a 12-session intervention study with 31 stroke survivors who underwent different rehabilitation protocols based on the same content and difficulty adaptation progression framework: 17 performed paper-and-pencil training with the Task Generator and 14 performed VR-based training with the Reh@City. Results have shown that both groups performed at the same level and there was not an effect of the training methodology in overall performance. However, the Reh@City enabled more intensive training, which may translate in more cognitive improvements.
- Design and implementation of an integrative system for configurable exergames targeting the senior populationPublication . Paulino, Teresa; Cameirão, Mónica da Silva; Bermúdez i Badia, SergiExergames have been proposed as a solution for the promotion of physical activity in the senior population. The diversity of needs and limitations of the target users demand that the exergaming systems allow the configuration and adjustment of game parameters according to each user profile. Such systems are ideal to use in nursing homes, senior gymnasiums, or even rehabilitation centers. Health and sports professionals are then the main interacting users with the interface of such exergaming systems. Configuration can be difficult and time-consuming when considering complex systems with a significant amount of parameter choices. Since professionals working on such places already have time constraints, if they face long-time configuration of these systems they might give up of using them. Therefore, there is an evident need for systems that assist professionals in two ways. First, providing management support for training sessions and plans with exergames. Second, providing automatic decision-making processes that assist in game selection and parameters configuration to fit the user needs. The acceptance and effectiveness of such systems can only be achieved if the main prospective interactors with the system are involved in the development process so that the system can fulfill the users’ needs and expectations. This thesis reports on the design, implementation, and usability evaluation of an integrative system using some of the most-known human-centric techniques, such as interviews, card sorting, and paper prototyping. Results of a usability study of the UI and the main functionalities of the system showed a considerable acceptance and interest by the professionals. The usability study revealed to be a great resource to find aspects of the system that should be further considered for improvement in future iterations. Furthermore, the high results of the USE (Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use) questionnaire confirm that this system is a promising tool that sports professionals may be willing to use in their daily practice.
- " In search of light": enhancing touristic recommender services with local weather dataPublication . Dionisio, Mara; Paulino, Teresa; Suri, Trisha; Autzen, Nicolas; Schöning, JohannesMany destinations’ economies strongly rely on tourism. Therefore, it is crucial to meet tourists’ expectations, so they will return to the destination. The geographical formation of certain touristic islands often leads to local climates where it can be rainy and windy on one side of the island, whereas the other part is sunny. In this paper, we present a novel use for a network of sensors, LightBeam, a mobile location-based application aiming to improve the tourists’ experience. The application focuses on providing real-time guidance for tourists seeking sunlight to maximize their holiday experience by suggesting the closest points of interest (POIs) to the user with the “best sunlight”. To achieve this, we implemented and installed a network of geospatial sensors. The data from the sensor network is combined with the current location of the users to provide recommendations. We report on the initial design and prototype of LightBeam.
- Is it necessary to show virtual limbs in action observation neurorehabilitation systems?Publication . Modroño, Cristián; Bermúdez, Sergi; Cameirão, Mónica; Pereira, Fábio; Paulino, Teresa; Marcano, Francisco; Hernández-Martín, Estefanía; Plata-Bello, Julio; Palenzuela, Nereida; Núñez-Pádron, Daniel; Pérez-González, José M; González-Mora, José LAction observation neurorehabilitation systems are usually based on the observation of a virtual limb performing different kinds of actions. In this way, the activity in the frontoparietal Mirror Neuron System is enhanced, which can be helpful to rehabilitate stroke patients. However, the presence of limbs in such systems might not be necessary to produce mirror activity, for example, frontoparietal mirror activity can be produced just by the observation of virtual tool movements. The objective of this work was to explore to what point the presence of a virtual limb impacts the Mirror Neuron System activity in neurorehabilitation systems.
- Knowledge-driven profile dynamicsPublication . Fermé, Eduardo; Garapa, Marco; Reis, Maurício D. L.; Almeida, Yuri; Paulino, Teresa; Mariana Rodrigues; Garapa, Marco; Aristides da Silva Godinho de Almeida, Yuri; Fermé, Eduardo; Reis, Maurício; Paulino, TeresaIn the last decades, user profiles have been used in several areas of information technology. In the literature, most research works, and systems focus on the creation of profiles (using Data Mining techniques based on user’s navigation or interaction history). In general, the dynamics of profiles are made by means of a systematic recreation of the profiles, without using the previous profiles. In this paper we propose to formalize the creation, representation, and dynamics of profiles from a Knowledge-Driven perspective. We introduce and axiomatically characterize four operators for changing profiles using a belief change inspired approach.
- Modulation of physiological responses and activity levels during exergame experiencesPublication . Muñoz, John Edison; Cameirão, Mónica S.; Rúbio, Élvio; Paulino, Teresa; Bermúdez i Badia, SergiExergames are exercise-oriented games that offer opportunities to increase motivation for exercising and improving health benefits. However, Exergames need to be adaptive and provide accurate feedback for physiologically correct exercising, sustaining motivation and for better personalized experiences. To investigate the role of physiological computing in those aspects, we employed a repeated measures design exploring changes in physiological responses caused by the gaming and exercising components of an Exergame intervention. Seventeen older adults (64.5±6.4 years) interacted with a videogame in two modes (Control, Exergaming) in different difficulty levels. Electrocardiography, Electrodermal and Kinematic data were gathered synchronously with game data. Findings show that Exercise intensities and heart rate changes were largely modulated by game difficulty, and positive feedback was more likely to produce arousal responses during Exergaming than negative feedback. A heart rate-variability analysis revealed strong influences of the interaction mode showing that Exergaming has potential to enhance cardiac regulation. Our results bring new insights on the usefulness of psychophysiological methods to sustain exercising motivation and personalizing gameplay to the individual needs of users in Exergaming experiences.
- Open Rehab initiative: second development iterationPublication . Freitas, Diogo; Paulino, Teresa; Bermúdez i Badia, Sergi; Llorens, Roberto; Deutsch, Judith E.A substantial part of rehabilitation tools are developed in the context of research projects, which rarely reach their target audience, in particular clinicians and patients. To address this challenge, the Open Rehab Initiative (ORI) emerged as an international independent online portal with the goal of connecting clinicians, scientists, engineers, game developers, and end-users to interact and share virtual rehabilitation tools. The quality and efficacy of such platform can only be attained iteratively based on a user-centered design approach. This paper describes the design process and features implemented on the second development iteration subsequent to a formative evaluation of the first version of ORI. The main goal of the second iteration was to implement new features and make the platform functional and ready for a second evaluation process with beta testers, which will certainly prompt new features for improvement and will serve as a step toward the final release of the site.
- PhysioVR: a novel mobile virtual reality framework for physiological computingPublication . Muñoz, John Edison; Paulino, Teresa; Vasanth, Harry; Baras, KarolinaVirtual Reality (VR) is morphing into a ubiquitous technology by leveraging of smartphones and screenless cases in order to provide highly immersive experiences at a low price point. The result of this shift in paradigm is now known as mobile VR (mVR). Although mVR offers numerous advantages over conventional immersive VR methods, one of the biggest limitations is related with the interaction pathways available for the mVR experiences. Using physiological computing principles, we created the PhysioVR framework, an Open-Source software tool developed to facilitate the integration of physiological signals measured through wearable devices in mVR applications. PhysioVR includes heart rate (HR) signals from Android wearables, electroencephalography (EEG) signals from a low cost brain computer interface and electromyography (EMG) signals from a wireless armband. The physiological sensors are connected with a smartphone via Bluetooth and the PhysioVR facilitates the streaming of the data using UDP communication protocol, thus allowing a multicast transmission for a third party application such as the Unity3D game engine. Furthermore, the framework provides a bidirectional communication with the VR content allowing an external event triggering using a real-time control as well as data recording options. We developed a demo game project called EmoCat Rescue which encourage players to modulate HR levels in order to successfully complete the in-game mission. EmoCat Rescue is included in the PhysioVR project which can be freely downloaded. This framework simplifies the acquisition, streaming and recording of multiple physiological signals and parameters from wearable consumer devices providing a single and efficient interface to create novel physiologically-responsive mVR applications.