E-participatory Approaches in Urban Design

The phenomenon of planning involving citizen’s participation in planning literature has been from the second half of the 20th century. Indeed, different methods and techniques have been used in the process. However, participatory practices are time-consuming and negotiations are tiresome. Accordingly, the integration of developing digital technologies into participatory processes has been seen as a potential to reach large audiences and provide time-space independence. Within the scope of this research, a detailed literature review was done regarding e-participation, and ten (10) examples representing the upper levels at the ladder of participation were examined within the context of the project, participation, and socio-technical criteria. SWOT analyzes were structured by grouping similar applications, and current trends for the use of e-participation in urban design have been revealed. The analysis showed that citizens e participation- participation tend to allow citizen design or location-based interaction, playful interfaces and game elements which can be sources for encouragement.

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Wearable and IoT technologies application for physical rehabilitation

This research consists in the development an IoT Physical Rehabilitation solution based on wearable devices, combining a set of smart gloves and smart headband for use in natural interactions with a set of VR therapeutic serious games developed on the Unity 3D gaming platform. The system permits to perform training sessions for hands and fingers motor rehabilitation. Data acquisition is performed by Arduino Nano Microcontroller computation platform with ADC connected to the analog measurement channels materialized by piezo-resistive force sensors and connected to an IMU module via I2C. Data communication is performed using the Bluetooth wireless communication protocol. The smart headband, designed to be used as a first- person-controller in game scenes, will be responsible for collecting the patient's head rotation value, this parameter will be used as the player's avatar head rotation value, approaching the user and the virtual environment in a semi-immersive way. The acquired data are stored and processed on a remote server, which will help the physiotherapist to evaluate the patients' performance around the different physical activities during a rehabilitation session, using a Mobile Application developed for the configuration of games and visualization of results. The use of serious games allows a patient with motor impairments to perform exercises in a highly interactive and non-intrusive way, based on different scenarios of Virtual Reality, contributing to increase the motivation during the rehabilitation process. The system allows to perform an unlimited number of training sessions, making possible to visualize historical values and compare the results of the different performed sessions, for objective evolution of rehabilitation outcome. Some metrics associated with upper limb exercises were also considered to characterize the patient’s movement during the session.Este trabalho de pesquisa consiste no desenvolvimento de uma solução de Reabilitação Física IoT baseada em dispositivos de vestuário, combinando um conjunto de luvas inteligentes e uma fita-de-cabeça inteligente para utilização em interações naturais com um conjunto de jogos terapêuticos sérios de Realidade Virtual desenvolvidos na plataforma de jogos Unity 3D. O sistema permite realizar sessões de treino para reabilitação motora de mãos e dedos. A aquisição de dados é realizada pela plataforma de computação Arduino utilizando um Microcontrolador Nano com ADC (Conversor Analógico-Digital) conectado aos canais de medição analógicos materializados por sensores de força piezo-resistivos e a um módulo IMU por I2C. A comunicação de dados é realizada usando o protocolo de comunicação sem fio Bluetooth. A fita-de-cabeça inteligente, projetada para ser usada como controlador de primeira pessoa nos cenários de jogo, será responsável por coletar o valor de rotação da cabeça do paciente, esse parâmetro será usado como valor de rotação da cabeça do avatar do jogador, aproximando o utilizador e o ambiente virtual de forma semi-imersiva. Os dados adquiridos são armazenados e processados num servidor remoto, o que ajudará o fisioterapeuta a avaliar o desempenho dos pacientes em diferentes atividades físicas durante uma sessão de reabilitação, utilizando uma Aplicação Móvel desenvolvido para configuração de jogos e visualização de resultados. A utilização de jogos sérios permite que um paciente com deficiências motoras realize exercícios de forma altamente interativa e não intrusiva, com base em diferentes cenários de Realidade Virtual, contribuindo para aumentar a motivação durante o processo de reabilitação. O sistema permite realizar um número ilimitado de sessões de treinamento, possibilitando visualizar valores históricos e comparar os resultados das diferentes sessões realizadas, para a evolução objetiva do resultado da reabilitação. Algumas métricas associadas aos exercícios dos membros superiores também foram consideradas para caracterizar o movimento do paciente durante a sessão

Wearable Computing for Health and Fitness: Exploring the Relationship between Data and Human Behaviour

Health and fitness wearable technology has recently advanced, making it easier for an individual to monitor their behaviours. Previously self generated data interacts with the user to motivate positive behaviour change, but issues arise when relating this to long term mention of wearable devices. Previous studies within this area are discussed. We also consider a new approach where data is used to support instead of motivate, through monitoring and logging to encourage reflection. Based on issues highlighted, we then make recommendations on the direction in which future work could be most beneficial

:Gamification & Serious Game : Symposium 2016, July 4 & 5

Reinforcing the bridge between local academic and applied worlds in the domain of Serious Game & Gamification, e.g. applied universities and startups. Focusing on three application domain, Helath, Social, and Education, the figure next page illustrates the variety of short talks of the symposium. The three categories of talks (among 14 corresponding short papers): five concept-oriented in green, nine demo-oriented in black, and three roundtables

Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved over the past four decades from theoretical concepts into real world computerized applications. DSS architecture contains three key components: knowledge base, computerized model, and user interface. DSS simulate cognitive decision-making functions of humans based on artificial intelligence methodologies (including expert systems, data mining, machine learning, connectionism, logistical reasoning, etc.) in order to perform decision support functions. The applications of DSS cover many domains, ranging from aviation monitoring, transportation safety, clinical diagnosis, weather forecast, business management to internet search strategy. By combining knowledge bases with inference rules, DSS are able to provide suggestions to end users to improve decisions and outcomes. This book is written as a textbook so that it can be used in formal courses examining decision support systems. It may be used by both undergraduate and graduate students from diverse computer-related fields. It will also be of value to established professionals as a text for self-study or for reference