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- Usability of a telehealth solution based on TV interaction for the elderly: the VITASENIOR-MT case studyPublication . Pires, Gabriel; Lopes, Ana; Correia, Pedro; Almeida, Luis; Oliveira, Luís; Panda, Renato; Jorge, Dario; Mendes, Diogo; Dias, Pedro; Gomes, Nelson; Pereira, TelmoRemote monitoring of biometric data in the elderly population is an important asset for improving the quality of life and level of independence of elderly people living alone. However, the design and implementation of health technological solutions often disregard the elderly physiological and psychological abilities, leading to low adoption of these technologies. We evaluate the usability of a remote patient monitoring solution, VITASENIOR-MT, which is based on the interaction with a television set. Twenty senior participants (over 64 years) and a control group of 20 participants underwent systematic tests with the health platform and assessed its usability through several questionnaires. Elderly participants scored high on the usability of the platform, very close to the evaluation of the control group. Sensory, motor and cognitive limitations were the issues that most contributed to the difference in usability assessment between the elderly group and the control group. The solution showed high usability and acceptance regardless of age, digital literacy, education and impairments (sensory, motor and cognitive), which shows its effective viability for use and implementation as a consumer product in the senior market.
- Assistive Robotic Hand Orthosis (ARHO) controlled with EMG: evaluation of a preliminary prototype*Publication . Farinha, Diogo; Dias, Joao; Neves, Pedro; Pereira, Katia; Ferreira, Carlos; Pires, GabrielHand impairment severely limits basic activities of daily living (ADL). The use of motorized hand orthoses may provide enough functional assistance to perform basic tasks, such as grasping objects. Several prototypes have been proposed in the last decade, but there are still no solutions with the desired features regarding the weight, wearability and functionality. This paper describes the overall implementation of a prototype of an assistive robotic hand orthosis (ARHO) for object grasping, that can be triggered manually or by the detection of muscular activity in the forearm using surface electromyography (sEMG). The system is being specifically designed for a case study of a person with hemiplegia resulting from a peri-insular hemispherectomy. The proposed orthosis is a very preliminary but functional prototype, still far from the desired features mentioned above, but serves to show all the modules composing a low-cost implementation, and above all, to understand all the constraints and difficulties in designing such a system.
- Head-movement interface for wheelchair driving based on inertial sensorsPublication . Gomes, Daniel; Fernandes, Filipe; Castro, Eduardo; Pires, GabrielPowered wheelchairs provide the only means of mobility for many people with severe motor disabilities. For those with both lower and upper limbs impairment, available interfaces may be either impossible or very difficult to use, as well as not very efficient. In this paper we propose an egocentric interface based on inertial sensors placed on the user's head. This interface is based on head movements that provide continuous direction and speed commands to steer the wheelchair, and allows an initial null-position of the head according to the natural posture of the user. However, the development of an inertial interface for driving a wheelchair presents two main challenges, namely, (1) the simultaneous movements of the head and the wheelchair, each one with its own coordinate system, and (2) the free unrestricted movement of the head. Therefore, the two coordinate systems need to be combined and several safety features are required to only ensure admissible commands. In this paper we describe the overall implementation and preliminary experiments that show the effectiveness of the proposed solution.
- Recognition of human activity based on sparse data collected from smartphone sensorsPublication . Figueiredo, João; Gordalina, Gonçalo; Frazão Correia, Pedro; Pires, Gabriel; Lopes de Oliveira, Luís Miguel; Martinho, Ricardo; Rijo, Rui; Assunção, Pedro; Seco, Alexandra; Fonseca-Pinto, RuiThis paper proposes a method of human activity monitoring based on the regular use of sparse acceleration data and GPS positioning collected during smartphone daily utilization. The application addresses, in particular, the elderly population with regular activity patterns associated with daily routines. The approach is based on the clustering of acceleration and GPS data to characterize the user's pattern activity and localization for a given period. The current activity pattern is compared to the one obtained by the learned data patterns, generating alarms of abnormal activity and unusual location. The obtained results allow to consider that the usage of the proposed method in real environments can be beneficial for activity monitoring without using complex sensor networks.
- Telehealth monitoring of a hypertensive elderly patient with the new VITASENIOR-MT system: a case studyPublication . Pereira, Telmo; Pires, Gabriel; Jorge, Dário; Mendes, DiogoTelehealth technologies providing remote monitoring of health parameters are a promising approach for the management of arterial hypertension in the elderly. The VITASENIOR-MT platform was developed as a telehealth solution designed to contribute to improve the health condition and quality of life, promoting safe and independent living of the old adult. It is an 'internet-of-things'-based solution relying on the interaction of the old adult with a TV-set to record biometric parameters and to receive warning and recommendations related to health and environmental sensor recordings. We present a pilot study with a male hypertensive patient, aged 81 years old, under anti-hypertensive treatment, with epilepsy, arthritis and paroxistic atrial fibrillation as major comorbidities. The VITASENIOR-MT was installed at the patient's assisted-dwelling house and a remote follow-up was implemented for 2 months, monitoring daily blood pressure and heart rate, as well as weight and indoor environmental parameters.
- VITASENIOR–MT: Architecture of a Telehealth SolutionPublication . Pires, Gabriel; Lopes, Ana; Manso, António; Jorge, Dário; Mendes, Diogo; Almeida, Luis; Lopes de Oliveira, Luís Miguel; Gomes, Nelson; Dias, Pedro; Panda, Renato; Pereira, Telmo; Monteiro, Paulo; Grácio, CarlaVITASENIOR-MT is a telehealth solution under development that aims to monitor and improve the healthcare of elderly people living in the region of Médio Tejo. This solution performs both remote and local monitoring of biometric parameters of the elderly, and also of environmental parameters of their homes. The biometric variables include heart rate and temperature measurements collected automatically, by means of a bracelet, throughout the day. Blood pressure, body weight, and other biometric parameters are measured on a daily basis by the senior’s own initiative, and automatically recorded. The environmental parameters include temperature, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide measurements. A TV set is used as a mean of interaction between the user and the medical devices. The TV set is also used to receive medical warnings and recommendations according to clinical profiles, and to receive environmental alerts. All data and alerts can be accessible to senior’s family and healthcare providers. In alarm situations, an automatic operational procedure will be triggered establishing communication to predefined entities.
- VITASENIOR-MT: a telehealth solution for the elderly focused on the interaction with TVPublication . Pires, Gabriel; Frazão Correia, Pedro; Jorge, Dário; Mendes, Diogo; Gomes, Nelson; Dias, Pedro; Ferreira, Pedro; Lopes, Ana; Manso, António; Almeida, Luis; Lopes de Oliveira, Luís Miguel; Panda, Renato; Monteiro, Paulo; Grácio, Carla; Pereira, TelmoRemote monitoring of health parameters is a promising approach to improve the health condition and quality of life of particular groups of the population, which can also alleviate the current expenditure and demands of healthcare systems. The elderly, usually affected by chronic comorbidities, are a specific group of the population that can strongly benefit from telehealth technologies, allowing them to reach a more independent life, by living longer in their own homes. Usability of telehealth technologies and their acceptance by end-users are essential requirements for the success of telehealth implementation. Older people are resistant to new technologies or have difficulty in using them due to vision, hearing, sensory and cognition impairments. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an IoT-based telehealth solution designed specifically to address the elderly needs. The end-user interacts with a TV-set to record biometric parameters, and to receive warning and recommendations related to health and environmental sensor recordings. The familiarization of older people with the TV is expected to provide a more user-friendly interaction ensuring the effectiveness integration of the end-user in the overall telehealth solution.
- VITASENIOR-MT: A distributed and scalable cloud-based telehealth solutionPublication . Mendes, Diogo; Panda, Renato; Dias, Pedro; Jorge, Dário; António, Ricardo; Lopes De Oliveira, Luís Miguel; Pires, GabrielVITASENIOR-MT is a telehealth platform that allows to remotely monitor biometric and environmental data in a domestic environment, designed specifically to the elderly population. This paper proposes a highly scalable and efficient architecture to transport, process, store and visualize the data collected by devices of an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario. The cloud infrastructure follows a microservices architecture to provide computational scalability, better fault isolation, easy integration and automatic deployment. This solution is complemented with a pre-processing and validation of the collected data at the edge of the Internet by using the Fog Computing concept, allowing a better computing distribution. The presented approach provides personal data security and a simplified way to collect and present the data to the different actors, allowing a dynamic and intuitive management of patients and equipment to caregivers. The presented load tests proved that this solution is more efficient than a monolithic approach, promoting better access and control in the data flowing from heterogeneous equipment.