1,721,266 research outputs found
Automated Systems Based on Wearable Sensors for the Management of Parkinson's Disease at Home: A Systematic Review
Full text linkParkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative pathology that significantly influences quality of life (QoL) of people affected. The increasing interest and development in telemedicine services and internet of things technologies aim to implement automated smart systems for remote assistance of patients. The wide variability of Parkinson's disease in the clinical expression, as well as in the symptom progression, seems to address the patients' care toward a personalized therapy
An Ambient Assisted Living Approach in Designing Domiciliary Services Combined With Innovative Technologies for Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease: A Case Study
No full textBackground: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most disabling diseases to affect large numbers of elderly people worldwide. Because of the characteristics of this disease, patients with AD require daily assistance from service providers both in nursing homes and at home. Domiciliary assistance has been demonstrated to be cost effective and efficient in the first phase of the disease, helping to slow down the course of the illness, improve the quality of life and care, and extend independence for patients and caregivers. In this context, the aim of this work is to demonstrate the technical effectiveness and acceptability of an innovative domiciliary smart sensor system for providing domiciliary assistance to patients with AD which has been developed with an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) approach. Methods: The design, development, testing, and evaluation of the innovative technological solution were performed by a multidisciplinary team. In all, 15 sociomedical operators and 14 patients with AD were directly involved in defining the endusers’ needs and requirements, identifying design principles with acceptability and usability features and evaluating the technological solutions before and after the real experimentation. Results: A modular technological system was produced to help caregivers continuously monitor the health status, safety, and daily activities of patients with AD. During the experimentation, the acceptability, utility, usability, and efficacy of this system were evaluated as quite positive. Conclusion: The experience described in this article demonstrated that AAL technologies are feasible and effective nowadays and can be actively used in assisting patients with AD in their homes. The extensive involvement of caregivers in the experimentation allowed to assess that there is, through the use of the technological system, a proven improvement in care performance and efficiency of care provision by both formal and informal caregivers and consequently an increase in the quality of life of patients, their relatives, and their caregivers
Preliminary design issues for inertial rings in Ambient Assisted Living applications
No full textA wearable 9dof inertial system able to measure hand posture and movement is presented. The design issues for the deployment of measurement instrumentation based on no-invasive ring-shaped inertial units and of a wireless sensor network by them composed are described. Compromises between the physical and functional proprieties of a wearable device and the requirements for the hardware development are discussed with attention to an handsome design concept aesthetically effective. Techniques of power saving based on an optimized firmware programming are mentioned to realize a performing battery powered system featured by an exhaustive operation time. The printed circuit board (PCB) design rules, the choice of the components and materials, the fusion of inertial data with optical sensors outcomes are also discussed. Previous experience in the field of wearable systems are mentioned in the presentation of the results that emphasize the functional and application potential of a 9dof inertial system integrated in a ring-shaped device. � 2015 IEEE
Multiple communication roles in human–robot interactions in public space
No full textThis study looks at robots as media and aims to explore the multiple communication roles that they can play in public space. We have analyzed three scenarios: European Researchers’ Night in Pisa; the inauguration of the University of Udine’s 39th academic year; and the official video of the inauguration in Udine. These three scenarios represent three types of media interactions. The first is a human–robot interaction based on a one-to-one or circular communication model; the second is a robot–human interaction based on a one-to-many communication model in-presence; and the third is a robot–human interaction, based on the classical one-to-many communication model mediated through a television screen. Results show that public patterns of behavior toward the robot tend to replicate the ritualization of encounters between humans in the one-to-one model, and audience rituals in public events toward human characters in the one-to-many model. Second, greater proximity and familiarity with the robot increases the respondents’ positive evaluations of all the aspects of the interactions. These results are in line with results coming from research on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) use
Introduction to special section “Bridging from user needs to deployed applications of social robots”
Full text linkAmbient Assisted Living - Italian Forum 2016
No full textThis book documents the state of the art in the field of ambient assisted living (AAL), highlighting the impressive potential of novel methodologies and technologies to enhance well-being and promote active ageing. The coverage is wide ranging, with sections on assistive devices, elderly people monitoring, home rehabilitation, ICT solutions for AAL, living with chronic conditions, robotic assistance for the elderly, sensing technologies for AAL, and smart housing. The book comprises a selection of the best papers presented at the 7th Italian Forum on Ambient Assisted Living (ForitAAL 2016), which was held in Pisa, Italy, in June 2016 and brought together end users, technology teams, and policy makers to develop a consensus on how to improve provision for elderly and impaired people. Readers will find that the expert contributions offer clear insights into the ways in which the most recent exciti ng advances may be expected to assist in addressing the needs of the elderly and those with chronic conditions
Combining wearable physiological and inertial sensors with indoor user localization network to enhance activity recognition
Full text linkThanks to the pervasiveness of smart technologies, researchers could aggregate data and investigate user's activities thus to deliver personalized home-care services. Activity recognition system have been widely developed, however some challenges still need to be addressed. This paper presents a system where information on body movement, vital signs and user indoor location are aggregated to improve the activity recognition. The system was tested in a realistic environment with a total of 3279 instances acquired from ten healthy users. These results encouraged the use of this approach in activity recognition applications, indeed, the overall accuracy values are satisfactory increased
Enhancing Activity Recognition of Self-Localized Robot Through Depth Camera and Wearable Sensors
Full text linkRobots will become part of our everyday life as helpers and companions, sharing the environment with us. Thus, robots should become social and able to naturally interact with the users. Recognizing human activities and behaviors will enhance the capabilities of the robot to plan an appropriate action and tailor the approach according to what the user is doing. Therefore, this paper addresses the problem of providing mobile robots with the ability to recognize common daily activities. The fusion of heterogeneous data gathered by multiple sensing strategies, namely wearable inertial sensors, depth camera, and location features, is proposed to improve the recognition of human activity. In particular, the proposed work aims to recognize 10 activities using data from a depth camera mounted on a mobile robot able to self-localize in the environment and from customized sensors worn on the hand. Twenty users were asked to perform the selected activities in two different relative positions between them and the robot while the robot was moving. The analysis was carried out considering different combinations of sensors to evaluate how the fusion of the different technologies improves the recognition abilities. The results show an improvement of 13% in the F-measure when different sensors are considered with respect to the use of the sensors of the robot. In particular, the system is able to recognize not only the performed activity, but also the relative position, enhancing the robot capabilities to interact with the users
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