Development And Evaluation Of Serious Games As Assistive Technology Through Affordable Access Multi-devices

O objetivo de um processo de reabilitação é restaurar uma pessoa para um estado de ótimo funcionamento. Uma ampla variedade de processos de reabilitação consiste em exercícios de repetição de tarefas. Assim, Jogos Sérios podem ser utilizados como tecnologia para ajudar neste processo, motivando os pacientes a executar os exercícios durante as sessões de reabilitação, usando uma variedade de artefatos, como por exemplo, metas ou pontos a serem alcançados durante as sessões. Contudo, os jogos utilizados nesses processos podem ser jogos comerciais, projetados com função principal o entretenimento, ou jogos criados especificamente para reabilitação. Esses últimos têm algumas vantagens sobre os primeiros, pois são projetados especificamente para esse propósito, envolvendo conhecimento específico na área de reabilitação no desenvolvimento dos jogos. Entretanto, existe uma discussão sobre a eficácia clínica e a aceitação por parte de usuários e profissionais de saúde envolvidos nessa nova abordagem, e como integrá-la dentro da reabilitação convencional. De acordo com o Relatório Mundial sobre Deficiência produzido pela Organização Mundial de Saúde, pessoas com deficiência e suas famílias são mais propensas a sofrer desvantagens econômicas, educacionais e sociais do que as pessoas sem deficiência, o que também é realidade para a maioria da população brasileira. Assim, é importante que as novas abordagens desenvolvidas sejam acessíveis para todos, independentemente do seu nível social. O uso de dispositivos de baixo custo no desenvolvimento e produção de tal tecnologia reduz seu custo final, tornando-a mais acessível. Assim, este trabalho aborda o tema Jogos Serios aliados a dispositivos de baixo custo para melhorar sua acessibilidade, além de sua avaliação por parte de usuários, paciente e profissionais de saúde envolvidos em reabilitação. Para tal, jogos sérios foram criados em duas modalidades: uma delas voltada para ser usado por profissionais de saúde diretamente e pacientes que estão passando por reabilitação, e uma outra voltada para pesquisas em laboratório, ambas envolvendo o uso de dispositivos de baixo custo, sendo que todos são avaliados por questionários específicos para esse propósito

Presence 2005: the eighth annual international workshop on presence, 21-23 September, 2005 University College London (Conference proceedings)

OVERVIEW (taken from the CALL FOR PAPERS) Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at PRESENCE 2005 at University College London in London, England, September 21-23, 2005. The eighth in a series of highly successful international workshops, PRESENCE 2005 will provide an open discussion forum to share ideas regarding concepts and theories, measurement techniques, technology, and applications related to presence, the psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience, including the sense of 'being there' experienced by users of advanced media such as virtual reality. The concept of presence in virtual environments has been around for at least 15 years, and the earlier idea of telepresence at least since Minsky's seminal paper in 1980. Recently there has been a burst of funded research activity in this area for the first time with the European FET Presence Research initiative. What do we really know about presence and its determinants? How can presence be successfully delivered with today's technology? This conference invites papers that are based on empirical results from studies of presence and related issues and/or which contribute to the technology for the delivery of presence. Papers that make substantial advances in theoretical understanding of presence are also welcome. The interest is not solely in virtual environments but in mixed reality environments. Submissions will be reviewed more rigorously than in previous conferences. High quality papers are therefore sought which make substantial contributions to the field. Approximately 20 papers will be selected for two successive special issues for the journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. PRESENCE 2005 takes place in London and is hosted by University College London. The conference is organized by ISPR, the International Society for Presence Research and is supported by the European Commission's FET Presence Research Initiative through the Presencia and IST OMNIPRES projects and by University College London

Conceptual design of a Mars transportation system

In conjunction with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and several major aerospace corporations the University of Minnesota has developed a scenario to place humans on Mars by the year 2016. The project took the form of a year-long design course in the senior design curricula at the University's Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department. Students worked with the instructor, teaching assistants and engineers in industry to develop a vehicle and the associated mission profile to fulfill the requirements of the Mars Transportation System. This report is a summary of the final design and the process though which the final product was developed

Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy. Volume III: From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas

The final volume in this tripartite series on Brain Augmentation is entitled “From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas”. Many of the articles within this volume deal with translational efforts taking the results of experiments on laboratory animals and applying them to humans. In many cases, these interventions are intended to help people with disabilities in such a way so as to either restore or extend brain function. Traditionally, therapies in brain augmentation have included electrical and pharmacological techniques. In contrast, some of the techniques discussed in this volume add specificity by targeting select neural populations. This approach opens the door to where and how to promote the best interventions. Along the way, results have empowered the medical profession by expanding their understanding of brain function. Articles in this volume relate novel clinical solutions for a host of neurological and psychiatric conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), traumatic brain injury, and disorders of consciousness. In disease, symptoms and signs denote a departure from normal function. Brain augmentation has now been used to target both the core symptoms that provide specificity in the diagnosis of a disease, as well as other constitutional symptoms that may greatly handicap the individual. The volume provides a report on the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in ASD with reported improvements of core deficits (i.e., executive functions). TMS in this regard departs from the present-day trend towards symptomatic treatment that leaves unaltered the root cause of the condition. In diseases, such as schizophrenia, brain augmentation approaches hold promise to avoid lengthy pharmacological interventions that are usually riddled with side effects or those with limiting returns as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Brain stimulation can also be used to treat auditory verbal hallucination, visuospatial (hemispatial) neglect, and pain in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The brain acts as a telecommunication transceiver wherein different bandwidth of frequencies (brainwave oscillations) transmit information. Their baseline levels correlate with certain behavioral states. The proper integration of brain oscillations provides for the phenomenon of binding and central coherence. Brain augmentation may foster the normalization of brain oscillations in nervous system disorders. These techniques hold the promise of being applied remotely (under the supervision of medical personnel), thus overcoming the obstacle of travel in order to obtain healthcare. At present, traditional thinking would argue the possibility of synergism among different modalities of brain augmentation as a way of increasing their overall effectiveness and improving therapeutic selectivity. Thinking outside of the box would also provide for the implementation of brain-to-brain interfaces where techniques, proper to artificial intelligence, could allow us to surpass the limits of natural selection or enable communications between several individual brains sharing memories, or even a global brain capable of self-organization. Not all brains are created equal. Brain stimulation studies suggest large individual variability in response that may affect overall recovery/treatment, or modify desired effects of a given intervention. The subject’s age, gender, hormonal levels may affect an individual’s cortical excitability. In addition, this volume discusses the role of social interactions in the operations of augmenting technologies. Finally, augmenting methods could be applied to modulate consciousness, even though its neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Finally, this volume should be taken as a debate on social, moral and ethical issues on neurotechnologies. Brain enhancement may transform the individual into someone or something else. These techniques bypass the usual routes of accommodation to environmental exigencies that exalted our personal fortitude: learning, exercising, and diet. This will allow humans to preselect desired characteristics and realize consequent rewards without having to overcome adversity through more laborious means. The concern is that humans may be playing God, and the possibility of an expanding gap in social equity where brain enhancements may be selectively available to the wealthier individuals. These issues are discussed by a number of articles in this volume. Also discussed are the relationship between the diminishment and enhancement following the application of brain-augmenting technologies, the problem of “mind control” with BMI technologies, free will the duty to use cognitive enhancers in high-responsibility professions, determining the population of people in need of brain enhancement, informed public policy, cognitive biases, and the hype caused by the development of brain- augmenting approaches