AI Modeling Approaches for Detecting, Characterizing, and Predicting Brief Daily Behaviors such as Toothbrushing using Wrist Trackers.

Continuous advancements in wrist-worn sensors have opened up exciting possibilities for real-time monitoring of individuals\u27 daily behaviors, with the aim of promoting healthier, more organized, and efficient lives. Understanding the duration of specific daily behaviors has become of interest to individuals seeking to optimize their lifestyles. However, there is still a research gap when it comes to monitoring short-duration behaviors that have a significant impact on health using wrist-worn inertial sensors in natural environments. These behaviors often involve repetitive micro-events that last only a few seconds or even microseconds, making their detection and analysis challenging. Furthermore, these micro-events are often surrounded by non-repetitive boundary events, further complicating the identification process. Effective detection and timely intervention during these short-duration behaviors are crucial for designing personalized interventions that can positively impact individuals\u27 lifestyles. To address these challenges, this dissertation introduces three models: mORAL, mTeeth, and Brushing Prompt. These models leverage wrist-worn inertial sensors to accurately infer short-duration behaviors, identify repetitive micro-behaviors, and provide timely interventions related to oral hygiene. The dissertation\u27s contributions extend beyond the development of these models. Firstly, precise and detailed labels for each brief and micro-repetitive behavior are acquired to train and validate the models effectively. This involved meticulous marking of the exact start and end times of each event, including any intervening pauses, at a second-level granularity. A comprehensive scientific research study was conducted to collect such data from participants in their free-living natural environments. Secondly, a solution is proposed to address the issue of sensor placement variability. Given the different positions of the sensor within a wristband and variations in wristband placement on the wrist, the model needs to determine the relative configuration of the inertial sensor accurately. Accurately determining the relative positioning of the inertial sensor with respect to the wrist is crucial for the model to determine the orientation of the hand. Additionally, time synchronization errors between sensor data and associated video, despite both being collected on the same smartphone, are addressed through the development of an algorithm that tightly synchronizes the two data sources without relying on an explicit anchor event. Furthermore, an event-based approach is introduced to identify candidate segments of data for applying machine learning models, outperforming the traditional fixed window-based approach. These candidate segments enable reliable detection of brief daily behaviors in a computationally efficient manner suitable for real-time. The dissertation also presents a computationally lightweight method for identifying anchor events using wrist-worn inertial sensors. Anchor events play a vital role in assigning unambiguous labels in a fixed-length window-based approach to data segmentation and effectively demarcating transitions between micro-repetitive events. Significant features are extracted, and explainable machine learning models are developed to ensure reliable detection of brief daily and micro-repetitive behaviors. Lastly, the dissertation addresses the crucial factor of the opportune moment for intervention during brief daily behaviors using wrist-worn inertial sensors. By leveraging these sensors, users can receive timely and personalized interventions to enhance their performance and improve their lifestyles. Overall, this dissertation makes substantial contributions to the field of real-time monitoring of short-duration behaviors. It tackles various technical challenges, provides innovative solutions, and demonstrates the potential for wrist-worn sensors to facilitate effective interventions and promote healthier behaviors. By advancing our understanding of these behaviors and optimizing intervention strategies, this research has the potential to significantly impact individuals\u27 well-being and contribute to the development of personalized health solutions

Technologies that motivates healthy toothbrushing: practices through social translucence

Fifty percent of the European Union’s population suffers from an oral disease. Studies have repeatedly shown that while acquiring healthy toothbrushing practices early on in one’s life is of significance, children and adults often fail to adhere to those. In this thesis we attempt to design and prototype interactive technologies that motivate healthy tooth brushing habits on individuals. Rather than focusing on the technologies’ persuasive power over individuals, we tap on the social mechanisms employed by families. In this sense, we think of these technologies as social translucent rather than persuasive, whose goal is to raise awareness within the family on each other’s habits and that aim at leveraging families’ existing social mechanisms for behavior change, rather than replacing them. More specifically, we aim to gain insights with respect to the following questions: a) What are the drivers and barriers towards adhering to healthy tooth brushing behaviors? b) Can we effectively measure toothbrushing behaviors? c) How can technologies leverage family communication practices in motivating proper toothbrushing behaviors? First, we present two studies about children and adults’ tooth brushing behaviors and how these are influenced by social interactions within the family. Secondly, we present the design and prototyping of two systems that sense toothbrushing practices and provide feedback, using the Social Translucence Framework as a design lens. We conclude with an overview of lessons learnt from the prototyping of these systems supported by an analysis of the strengths and pitfalls of the developed technologies

A theoretical and practical approach to a persuasive agent model for change behaviour in oral care and hygiene

There is an increased use of the persuasive agent in behaviour change interventions due to the agent‘s features of sociable, reactive, autonomy, and proactive. However, many interventions have been unsuccessful, particularly in the domain of oral care. The psychological reactance has been identified as one of the major reasons for these unsuccessful behaviour change interventions. This study proposes a formal persuasive agent model that leads to psychological reactance reduction in order to achieve an improved behaviour change intervention in oral care and hygiene. Agent-based simulation methodology is adopted for the development of the proposed model. Evaluation of the model was conducted in two phases that include verification and validation. The verification process involves simulation trace and stability analysis. On the other hand, the validation was carried out using user-centred approach by developing an agent-based application based on belief-desire-intention architecture. This study contributes an agent model which is made up of interrelated cognitive and behavioural factors. Furthermore, the simulation traces provide some insights on the interactions among the identified factors in order to comprehend their roles in behaviour change intervention. The simulation result showed that as time increases, the psychological reactance decreases towards zero. Similarly, the model validation result showed that the percentage of respondents‘ who experienced psychological reactance towards behaviour change in oral care and hygiene was reduced from 100 percent to 3 percent. The contribution made in this thesis would enable agent application and behaviour change intervention designers to make scientific reasoning and predictions. Likewise, it provides a guideline for software designers on the development of agent-based applications that may not have psychological reactance

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Lineages and Advancements in Material Culture Studies

This volume comprises a curated conversation between members of the Material Culture Section of University College London Anthropology. In laying out the state of play in the field, it challenges how the anthropology of material culture is being done and argues for new directions of enquiry and new methods of investigation. The contributors consider the ramifications of specific research methods and explore new methodological frameworks to address areas of human experience that require a new analytical approach. The case studies draw from a range of contexts, including digital objects, infrastructure, data, extraterrestriality, ethnographic curation, and medical materiality. They include timely reappraisals of now-classical analytical models that have shaped the way we understand the object, the discipline, knowledge formation, and the artefact

Lineages and Advancements in Material Culture Studies

This volume comprises a curated conversation between members of the Material Culture Section of University College London Anthropology. In laying out the state of play in the field, it challenges how the anthropology of material culture is being done and argues for new directions of enquiry and new methods of investigation. The contributors consider the ramifications of specific research methods and explore new methodological frameworks to address areas of human experience that require a new analytical approach. The case studies draw from a range of contexts, including digital objects, infrastructure, data, extraterrestriality, ethnographic curation, and medical materiality. They include timely reappraisals of now-classical analytical models that have shaped the way we understand the object, the discipline, knowledge formation, and the artefact

User serviceable parts: Practice, technology, sociality and method in live electronic musicking

In live electronic musical research there is a need to confront the interrelationships between the social and the technological in order to understand our music as practice. These interrelationships form a complex and dynamic ecosystem that not only forms the context to, but is constitutive of practice. I interrogate from a variety of perspectives the musical practice that has formed over the course of this research in order to reveal the dispositions towards technology, the social situatedness and the musical approach that underlies my work. By taking a disposition towards musical practice-led research that is non-hierarchical, performative, ecological, phenomenological and pragmatic, I place into wider context compositional and technological decisions, in terms of their relationships to improvising, skill, design, performance and research. This work contributes both new theories of live electronic musical practice and new suggestions for practice-led methods aimed at investigating the interplay of social and material factors in musicking, and at interrogating the disciplinary status of our field vis-a-vis musical and technical disciplines

誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの設計・開発

物体に触れた際の体験を再現する触覚インタラクションの設計・開発はバーチャルリアリティの体験の質を向上する手段として注目されている．一方で，視聴覚と比較して触覚研究の歴史は浅く，質の高い触覚インタラクションの設計・開発は発展途上であるといえる．触覚インタラクションの設計・開発のアプローチに現象を忠実に再現する写実的なアプローチがある．しかし，写実的な触覚インタラクションは現象の再現性は高いものの，現実に起こりうる体験しか表現できない．また，視聴覚と比較して触覚から得られる情報は不明瞭であり，感覚統合において劣位に扱われてしまう．以上から，現象の再現性が必ずしも必要なく，幅広い表現や体験の明瞭さが重要であるエンタテインメント等での触覚インタラクションの応用を考えた際，写実的なアプローチとは別のアプローチが必要であるといえる．これに対し，著者は漫画やアニメーションで用いられる誇張表現の概念を触覚インタラクションの設計・開発に適用することを考えた．漫画やアニメーションでは現実を基に大げさに描くという誇張表現を用いて，視聴者に非現実的ではあるがもっともらしいという印象（本論文では実感性と定義）を与える．本論文は誇張表現の概念を触覚インタラクションの設計・開発に適用することで，再現性は高くないが実感性に優れた触覚インタラクションを設計・開発することを目的とする．これにより，触覚インタラクションの表現の幅の拡張，および分かりやすく実感性のあるも体験の実現を期待する．また，設計・開発した触覚インタラクションを総括することで誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの実感性を向上させるための要件を明らかにする．本論文では，まず誇張表現の論理構造を見いだし，3つの論理モデルを設定する．次に，3つのモデルを基に8つの触覚インタラクションの設計・開発に関する研究について述べる．各研究では，個別の研究背景および目的について述べ，触覚インタラクションを実装し，目的に則した評価によって個々の有効性を検証する．そして，設計・開発した触覚インタラクションおよびモデルを総括し，実感性を向上させるための要件を明らかにする．本論文は全6章から構成され，内容の要旨は以下のとおりである．第1章では，まず触覚インタラクションが注目されるようになった背景について述べ，写実的アプローチの限界について指摘する．次に，漫画やアニメーションに見られる誇張表現について述べ，本論文の目的として「誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの設計・開発」および「誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの実感性を向上するための要件を明らかにすること」を設定する．そして，誇張表現の論理的な分類を行い，触覚インタラクションの設計・開発の指針とするための3つのモデル（代替モデル，変調モデル，重畳モデル）を見いだす．代替モデルでは，感覚Aを別の感覚Bに置換して提示する．変調モデルでは，感覚Aに操作kを加えて変調し提示する．重畳モデルでは，感覚Aに別の感覚Bを提示して重畳する．第2章では，本論文で扱う触覚について定義する．触覚に関する基礎的な生理学的，心理学的知見に関して述べ，次章以降で述べる触覚インタラクションの設計・開発において必要な知見を共有する．第3章では，代替モデルに基づいた2つの触覚インタラクションの設計・開発について述べる．1つ目は肘部の屈伸運動に伴ってロータリスイッチを回した時に生じる周期的な触覚フィードバック（カチカチ感）を提示するカチカチ感提示装置の設計・開発である．本装置によって視覚的運動知覚が困難な状況において触覚的運動知覚を拡張することでユーザの身体姿勢の制御の向上を試みる．2つ目は視覚から材質感を提示する手法VisualVibrationの設計・開発である．本手法では，現実では聴覚・触覚で感じられる高周波数振動を視覚で感じられるように変調して疑似触覚提示を行う．本手法のケーススタディとして物体を叩いた時に生じる振動を取り上げ，視覚的な振動提示による材質感提示を試みる．第4章では，変調モデルに基づいた3つの触覚インタラクションの設計・開発について述べる．1つ目は叩き動作に対して振動提示することでタッチスクリーンが異なる材質になったかのような体験を提供するHaCHIStick&HACHIStackの設計・開発である．本システムは時間応答性に優れており，叩いた瞬間に振動提示が可能である．そのため，ユーザにとっては叩いた対象の材質が変わったように感じられる．2つ目は歯磨き音を変調して提示することで歯磨きの快感および達成感を増強する拡張歯ブラシの設計・開発である．羊皮紙錯覚（手を擦った際に生じる音の高周波成分を強調すると手のひらが乾いた紙のように感じられる）を利用して汚れている，美化されているといった歯の状態を疑似的に再現し，歯磨きの体験を拡張する．3つ目は徳利を傾けた際に内容液の流出によるトクトクという振動（トクトク感）提示の設計・開発である．実際に徳利から液体が流出する際に生じる振動を計測，モデリングし，実際に液体を注ぐことなくトクトク感を再現する．実験的に構築した振動モデルをもとに，粘性感および残量感を再現する．第5章では，重畳モデルに基づいた3つの触覚インタラクションの設計・開発について述べる．1つ目は前章で述べたトクトク感を実際のペットボトルで液体を注ぐ動作に重畳するトクトク感重畳の設計・開発である．トクトク感重畳による注がれる液体の量の錯誤効果を示し，飲食体験の触覚的演出の可能性を示す．2つ目は関節部の屈伸運動に伴って振動を提示することで関節が異なる材質になったかのような体験を提供するJointonationの設計・開発である．本システムによって，サイエンスフィクションに登場するゴム人間やロボットに視聴覚に加え触覚的にも変身したかのような体験を提供する．3つ目はタッチスクリーン上でのユーザの動作に対して引力提示を行う装置VacuumTouchの設計・開発である．本装置は引力提示によってタッチスクリーン上に摩擦感を重畳する．これにより例えばタッチスクリーン上に擬似的な引っかかりをつくりだし，ユーザの操作の補助を行う．第6章では，3つの誇張表現の論理モデルおよび8つの触覚インタラクションに関する研究を総括する．各々の研究を再評価し，課題を整理することで誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの実感性向上のための要件を明らかにする．そして，本論文の成果を基に誇張表現に基づいた触覚インタラクションの設計・開発に関する研究の今後の展望について論じる．電気通信大学201

Pain Management

Pain Management - Current Issues and Opinions is written by international experts who cover a number of topics about current pain management problems, and gives the reader a glimpse into the future of pain treatment. Several chapters report original research, while others summarize clinical information with specific treatment options. The international mix of authors reflects the "casting of a broad net" to recruit authors on the cutting edge of their area of interest. Pain Management - Current Issues and Opinions is a must read for the up-to-date pain clinician