1,720,965 research outputs found
Assisted Driving for Power Wheelchair: A Segmentation Network for Obstacle Detection on Nvidia Jetson Nano
No full textRecently, an ever-growing focus and attention is given to accessibility and enabling technologies for people with disabilities. In the mobility field, people with motor skill impairments exploit power wheelchairs to move in indoor and outdoor scenarios. AI-Drive aims to design an assistive power wheelchair for outdoor use, providing obstacle detection and avoidance in urban scenarios, leveraging low-cost digital cameras and artificial intelligence. This paper focuses on the implementation of a convolutional neural network for semantic segmentation of urban scenes, to detect obstacles in an outdoor setting. A U-Net-like architecture was trained on GPU over multiple datasets, representative of the final environment. The selected trained network was then customised to perform inference on the Nvidia Jetson Nano hardware accelerator, to be mounted directly on the wheelchair. The resulting model achieves an accuracy of around 85% and inference time of 35 ms, thus providing a concrete solution towards the target assisted power wheelchair
Simulation framework to train intelligent agents towards an assisted driving power wheelchair for people with disability
No full textSeveral million people with disabilities exploit power wheelchairs for outdoor mobility on both sidewalks and cycling paths. Especially those with upper limb motor impairments have difficulty reacting quickly to obstacles along the way, creating dangerous situations, such as wheelchair crash or rollover. A possible solution could be to equip the power wheelchair with a neural network-based assisted driving system, able to detect, avoid or warn the users of obstacles. Therefore, a virtual environment is required to simulate the system and then test different neural network architectures before mounting the best performing one directly on board. In this work, we present a simulation framework to train multiple artificial intelligent agents in parallel, by means of reinforcement learning algorithms. The agent shall follow the user's will and identify obstacles along the path, taking the control of the power wheelchair when the user is making a dangerous driving choice. The developed framework, adapted from an existing autonomous driving simulator, has been used to train and test multiple intelligent agents simultaneously, thanks to a customised synchronisation and memory management mechanism, reducing the overall training time. Preliminary results highlight the suitability of the adapted framework for multiple agent development in the assisted driving scenario
Telemonitoring in the Covid-19 era: The tuscany region experience
Full text linkCovid-19 has brought many difficulties in the management of infected and high-risk patients. Telemedicine platforms can really help in this situation, since they allow remotely monitoring Covid-19 patients, reducing the risk for the doctors, without decreasing the efficiency of the therapies and while alleviating patients’ mental issues. In this paper, we present the entire architecture and the experience of using the Tel.Te.Covid19 telemedicine platform. Projected for the treatment of chronic diseases, it has been technologically updated for the management of Covid-19 patients with the support of a group of doctors in the territory when the pandemic arrived, introducing new sensors and functionalities (e.g., the familiar use and video calls). In Tuscany (Central Italy), during the first wave of outbreak, a model for enrolling patients was created and tested. Because of the positive results, the latter has been then adopted in the second current wave. The Tel.Te.Covid19 platform has been used by 40 among general practitioners and doctors of continuity care and about 180 symptomatic patients since March 2020. Both patients and doctors have good opinion of the platform, and no hospitalisations or deaths occurred for the monitored patients, reducing also the impact on the National Healthcare System
SatNav E@syCare Telemedicine Platform in the Management of Covid-19 Patients: Field Trial Results
No full textIn the framework of the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technology has played a key role in the healthcare sector, becoming essential for improving the quality of care and well-being of individuals and populations. In this scenario, telemedicine platforms have enabled remote monitoring, reducing the contacts between patients and doctors and automating health processes. In this paper, we present the experience of SatNav E@syCare, a telemedicine platform enhanced with new functionalities to respond to the outbreak. In particular, Global Navigation Satellite System technology has been added to the system to geo-tag vital parameters, together with the possibility of digitizing examinations (e.g., lung ultrasound), planning access to the territory, automatically managing patient visits and monitoring patient physical activity. The system has been used by general practitioners and doctors of continuity care in different ways according to the phase of the pandemic and the adopted model of care (patient self-measurements vs home visits). More than 2000 patients of all ages have been monitored with SatNav E@syCare. Among the doctors involved in the project, more than 90% are using the system for at least one hour per day, leading to a reduction of time spent to manage patients. Moreover, the system has simplified their daily work, thanks to the digitization of information and sharing of data with colleagues. In their opinion, in a non-pandemic future, the use of the system will introduce benefits both for patients and healthcare professionals in the monitoring of chronic conditions on the territory
Leveraging from the SatNav E@syCare Experience in COVID-19 Pandemic Towards an Extensive Use of Telemedicine in Chronic Patients Long-Term Care Model
No full textThe current COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technologies, in all sectors and in particular in healthcare. In this scenario, in fact, telemedicine systems have been adopted to remotely monitor and manage infected patients or patients subjected to quarantine regulations. In Tuscany region, Italy, SatNav E@syCare, a telemonitoring platform resulted from the integration of E@syCare, designed for chronic patients, and satellite technologies, has been experimented, receiving positive feedback both from doctors and patients. Such a system could be used also in long-term care, for monitoring chronic patients, providing characterisation and customisation of medical devices according to the patients’ chronic conditions and implementing an expert system, which generates personalised monitoring and treatment plans, to support physicians at the moment of enrolment. The pandemic experience could then be a lesson learnt promoting the adoption of smart telemedicine platforms for the care of chronic patients
Empowering home health monitoring of Covid-19 patients with smartwatch position and fitness tracking
No full textThe current Covid-19 pandemic has limited direct contacts among people, since the virus is usually widespread by the drops of saliva. Then, this world outbreak has brought the need to track patients' positions, especially to verify the respect of quarantine regulations for infected people and for their strict contacts. Moreover, the conditions of elderly and high risk patients should be continuously monitored, minimising, at the same time, the exposure of general practitioners. Among the several solutions available on the market, telemedicine seems to be an optimal support for remote monitoring, limiting the contacts between doctors and patients, and fast reaction to worsening of clinical conditions. Telemedicine platforms can also integrate Global Navigation Satellite System technology embedded in wrist devices, to add new functionalities, useful even when the pandemic is over. In this paper, we present the smartwatch integration in the already consolidated E@syCare telemedicine platform, with the aim of tracking patients' positions and monitoring outdoor and indoor fitness sessions. The smartwatch, equipped with WearOS, should have GPS receiver, heart rate sensor and accelerometer and the developed application installed. It randomly collects positions, for patients subjected to quarantine regulations, generating an alarm in case of violation. From the GUI, the user can start fitness sessions, independently or according to the care plan. Positions and fitness sessions are downloaded by the handheld device, and become available for further analysis by the doctors. Nowadays, the platform has been already delivered to 60 patients with the support of European Space Agency (ESA)
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
Enhancing a Telemedicine Platform with Global Navigation Satellite System Technology and Clustering Algorithms for Supporting Epidemiological Analysis
No full textTelemedicine platforms have been largely used to manage multiple problems during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, they have given the possibility of remotely monitoring infected and high-risk patients, reducing hospitalisations. Telemonitoring systems with Global Navigation Satellite System technology allow to geo-localise all patients' measurements and enable the tracking of positions. These data can be used for contact tracing or to support doctors in epidemiological analysis. This paper presents the integration of satellite technologies in an existing telemedicine system (E@syCare), during the current outbreak. In particular, the platform has been enhanced with GPS, to geo-tag all vital parameters collected by the tablet gateway and the smartwatch. Geographical data are processed, after a request through the improved web-based medical interface based on some filters (e.g., vital parameters and their thresholds, considered period of time, and maximum cluster radius), with two sequential clustering algorithms. Agglomerative Clustering is used to find the optimal number of clusters given a maximum radius, and K-Means to effectively generate the predefined number of clusters. Resulting clusters are shown on an interactive epidemiological map in the webbased medical interface. This additional feature gives the possibility to healthcare authorities to correlate the spread of a disease or a virus with specific geographical areas or environmental conditions, to monitor fitness/movement habits of patients (also when the pandemic is over), and to track contact among patients
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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