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Multisensory Cues for Gait Rehabilitation with Smart Glasses: Methodology, Design, and Results of a Preliminary Pilot
No full textRecent advances in mobile technology have shown that augmented unisensory feedback can be leveraged to improve gait using wearable systems, but less is known about the possible benefits and usability of multisensory (i.e., multimodal) feedback. This paper introduces the preliminary results of an innovative research project aiming to develop an mHealth system including Android smart glasses, and providing multisensory cues for gait rehabilitation of people affected by Parkinson’s disease in and out of the medical context. In particular, the paper describes a preliminary pilot focusing on the design of visual, auditory, and haptic cues, and testing the design methodologies to be used in further developments of the project. Considered research questions were: Which kinds of images, sounds, and vibrations mostly influence gait speed, stride length, and cadence? Which are the ones stressing the user the least? Which ones induce the most immediate reaction? Thus, in this starting part of the research project, different typologies of sensory cues were designed, tested, and evaluated considering quantitative and qualitative parameters to properly answer the research questions
Multimodal Cues for Gait Rehabilitation With Smart Glasses in Persons With Parkinson’s Disease (PD): A Methodology for the Selection of Effective Design Solutions
No full textIntroduction: Persons with PD are affected by motor impairments that compromise their autonomy. Recent advances in wearable systems showed that sensory biofeedback (BF) can improve gait in PD. Through verbal BF, an existing smartphone-based gait rehabilitation system (CuPiD-system) makes PD subjects better aware of their gait performance. Thanks to Smart Glasses (SG), real-time visual and haptic cues are also feasible: this study describes strategies to design an innovative mHealth system obtained by integrating the smartphone-based CuPiD-system with SG. The aim is to rehabilitate postural and transient gait disturbances and to provide gait training at home for persons with PD. Methods: We performed a pilot trial on five subjects not belonging to a particular category of users, following a Human-Centered design research approach. We proposed sensory BF suggesting a rhythm to be followed: auditory by wireless earphones, visual and haptic by the SG. We analyzed the subjects’ qualitative and quantitative responses through an interview and a specific gait analysis protocol. Results: This testing phase investigated how sensory BF influences the user’s gait, the most efficient cues to improve user’s performance, and acceptance of the mHealth system. We applied an ad-hoc redesigned version of the Quality-Function-Deployment (QFD) design tool to manage the complexity of the collected data, Figure 33. Discussion: While visual BF improves spatial gait parameters, auditory and somatosensory BF improve temporal gait features (cadence). QFD’s results confirm the role of sensory BF on gait rehabilitation: auditory and haptic BF reach a higher efficacy than the visual one. Some critical aspects emerged: the gap between the user’s cadence and the target one; the subjects’ sensory preferences. In the next phase on PD subjects, the target cadence will be subject-specific, and questionnaires should be used to evaluate subjects’ sensory preferences and integrate them into the QFD matrix
Usability of a touchscreen assessment tool (TATOO) prototype for clinicians and typically developing children
No full textTouchscreen devices are widely used in modern life and have quickly become part of daily life for children, including during Occupational Therapy sessions for children with disabilities. Touchscreen Assessment Tool (TATOO) is a prototype application used to evaluate children's performance when using touchscreen devices. The purpose of this study, based on the logical user-centred interaction design framework, was to evaluate TATOO's usability for occupational therapists and typically developing children and to examine the correlations between their usability scores
User-Centered Design Methodologies for the Prototype Development of a Smart Harness and Related System to Provide Haptic Cues to Persons with Parkinson’s Disease
Full text linkThis paper describes the second part of the PASSO (Parkinson smart sensory cues for older users) project, which designs and tests an innovative haptic biofeedback system based on a wireless body sensor network using a smartphone and different smartwatches specifically designed to rehabilitate postural disturbances in persons with Parkinson’s disease. According to the scientific literature on the use of smart devices to transmit sensory cues, vibrotactile feedback (particularly on the trunk) seems promising for improving people’s gait and posture performance; they have been used in different environments and are well accepted by users. In the PASSO project, we designed and developed a wearable device and a related system to transmit vibrations to a person’s body to improve posture and combat impairments like Pisa syndrome and camptocormia. Specifically, this paper describes the methodologies and strategies used to design, develop, and test wearable prototypes and the mHealth system. The results allowed a multidisciplinary comparison among the solutions, which led to prototypes with a high degree of usability, wearability, accessibility, and effectiveness. This mHealth system is now being used in pilot trials with subjects with Parkinson’s disease to verify its feasibility among patients
Analysis of Biofeedback Effects in Parkinson’s Disease at Multiple Time-Scales
No full textIn this study we investigate the effects of motor adaptation and motor learning in persons with Parkinson’s disease during an home-based gait training program built on auditory biofeedback (BF). For this purpose, we assessed the motor response produced immediately after auditory BF messages and analysed it at multiple time-scales, within and between all training sessions. The findings indicate that motor adaptation is possible in a home-based training context for persons with PD using a wearable BF system
Valutazione attraverso EMG di superficie del ruolo dei muscoli di piede e gamba nel controllo posturale sul piano frontale
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Sviluppo e validazione di una App Android per il riconoscimento dell'attivita motoria tramite Smartphones e Smartwatch
Full text linkIn questo progetto di tesi saranno applicate tecniche appartenenti al campo della bioingegneria, indirizzate al riconoscimento delle attività motorie e all’analisi del movimento umano.
E' stato definito un protocollo di ricerca necessario per il raggiungimento degli obiettivi finali. Si è quindi implementata un’App Android per l’acquisizione e il salvataggio dei dati provenienti dai principali sensori di Smartwatch e Smartphone, utilizzati secondo le modalità indicate nel protocollo.
Successivamente i dati immagazzinati nei dispositivi vengono trasferiti al Pc per effettuarne l’elaborazione off-line, in ambiente Matlab.
Per facilitare la seguente procedura di sincronizzazione dei dati intra e inter-device, tutti i sensori sono stati salvati, dall’App Android, secondo uno schema logico definito.
Si è perciò verificata la possibilità del riconoscimento del contesto e dell’attività nell’uso quotidiano dei dispositivi.
Inoltre si è sviluppato un algoritmo per la corretta identificazione del numero dei passi, indipendentemente dall’orientamento del
singolo dispositivo. Infatti è importante saper rilevare in maniera corretta il numero di passi effettuati, soprattutto nei pazienti che, a causa di diverse patologie, non riescono ad effettuare una camminata fluida, regolare.
Si è visto come il contapassi integrato nei sistemi commerciali per il fitness più diffusi (Smartwatch), pecca soprattutto in questa valutazione, mentre l’algoritmo, appositamente sviluppato, è in grado di garantire un’analisi accettabile a prescindere dal tipo di attività svolta, soprattutto per i dispositivi posizionati in L5.
Infine è stato implementato un algoritmo, che sfrutta il filtro di
Kalman e un modello biomeccanico appositamente sviluppato, per estrapolare l’evoluzione dell’angolo Tronco-Coscia. Avere a disposizione tale informazione e perciò conoscere la biomeccanica e la cinematica del corpo umano, rende possibile l’applicazione di questa procedura in svariati campi in ambito clinico e non
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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