Authors:
Élvio Rúbio Gouveia
1
;
Alexandre Bernardino
2
;
Mónica S. Cameirão
1
;
John Muñoz Cardona
1
;
Afonso Gonçalves
1
;
Teresa Paulino
1
;
Honorato Sousa
1
;
João Avelino
2
;
Hugo Simão
2
;
Maria de Fátima Marcelina Baptista
3
;
Maria Filomena Araújo da Costa Cruz Carnide
3
;
David Belo
4
;
Hugo Gamboa
4
;
Assim Smailagic
5
;
Dan Siewiorek
5
;
Min Hun Lee
5
;
Martina Čaić
6
;
Dominik Mahr
6
;
Gaby Odekerken-Schröder
6
and
Sergi Bermúdez i Badia
1
Affiliations:
1
LARSYS, Madeira-ITI, University of Madeira, Portugal
;
2
LARSyS, Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal
;
3
CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
;
4
PLUX - Wireless Biosignals S.A, Portugal
;
5
Carnegie Mellon University, United States
;
6
School of Business and Economics, Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Maastricht University, Netherlands
Abstract:
Aging 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 diagnoses
and enabling novel therapies, thus increasing quality of life.
The primary goal of the “AHA: Augmented Human Assistance” project is to develop
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 exercises
following established protocols. Until now this has been achieved by human
monitoring in rehabilitation and therapy session, where the clinic
ians 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-disciplinary
approach of 4 Portuguese universities, the CMU, and 2 Portuguese industry
partners, that combines innovation and fundamental research in the areas of human-
computer interaction, robotics, serious games and physiological computing
(see partner list in Appendix A). In the project, we capitalize on recent innovations
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) technologies
to self-monitoring and sharing of progress with health-care providers,
enabling clinicians to fine-tune the exercise regimen to suit the participant’s actual
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 produce
more controlled exercise benefits. The games can be played in multi-user
settings, either in cooperative or competitive mode, to promote the social relations
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 augmented
reality techniques that create a more immersive and engaging experience
than conventional displays. Virtual coach techniques are able to monitor the correctness
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’ performances
and allows the authorized therapists to access and configure the exercise
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 approaches.
Together, or in isolation, these solutions provide users, caregivers,
health professionals and institutions, valuable tools for health promotion, disease
monitoring and prevention.
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