A conceptual approach to enhance the well-being of elderly people

The number of elderly people living alone is increasing. Consequently, a lot of research works have been addressing this issue in order to propose solutions that can enhance the quality of life of elderly people. Most of them have been concerned in dealing with objective issues such as forgetfulness or detecting falls. In this paper, we propose a conceptual approach of a system that intends to enhance the daily sense of user’s well-being. For that, our proposal consists in a system that works as a social network and a smartwatch application that works unobtrusively and collects the user’s physiological data. In addition, we debate how important features such as to detect user’s affective states and to potentiate user’s memory could be implemented. Our study shows that there are still some important limitations which affect the success of applications built in the context of elderly care and which are mostly related with accuracy and usability of this kind of system. However, we believe that with our approach we will be able to address some of those limitations and define a system that can enhance the well-being of elderly people and improve their cognitive capabilities.The work presented in this paper has been developed under the EUREKA - ITEA3 Project PHE (PHE-16040), and by National Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) under the projects UID/EEA/00760/2019 and UID/CEC/00319/2019 and by NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-033275 (AIRDOC - “Aplicação móvel Inteligente para suporte individualizado e monitorização da função e sons Respiratórios de Doentes Obstrutivos Crónicos ”) by NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte)

Using wearables and user behavior on smartphones to help cope stress

Increasing stress levels in today's society is a subject about which we all have heard about. With stress affecting our behavior, thoughts, feelings and ultimately our health, we can use technological advances of today to help detect and cope its effects. In this context, wearables analysing person's state, in interaction with smartphones can help optimizing their welfare, and an approach of this will be the aim of this Bachelor's degree final thesis.Stress per se is not a negative fact, actually it is a survival mechanism in response to danger; we need it. Stress can show our ability to handle pressure without breaking, it provides us challenges and tests our adaptability to face them. However, prolonged and high stress levels might cause serious illnesses. In modern life, negative stress has become an extremely common problem. In this Bachelor thesis we propose the design of a stress detection and monitoring app, Shama, which uses data collected from the smartphone to infer the user?s daily stress state. If the user wears a wristband, Shama also extracts Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features to enhance the stress detection. The app proposal is partially validated by building a stress classification model with a Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) classifier, which provides an accuracy of almost 73%. We also present the user interface of Shama, with all its functionalities for stress coping and management, as well as for encouraging the user to incorporate daily healthy habits to reduce unnecessary and unhealthy stress levels.El estrés, de por sí, no es algo totalmente negativo, sino más bien un mecanismo de supervivencia que nos permite reaccionar delante del peligro. Así que de hecho, lo necesitamos. Además, puede ser constructivo y mostrarnos lo capaces que somos de soportar cierta presión, retándonos y poniendo a prueba nuestra flexibilidad frente a desafíos. Sin embargo, altos niveles de estrés o períodos prolongados bajo sus efectos, pueden tener consecuencias muy perjudiciales para nuestra salud, tanto la mental como la física. Y, desafortunadamente, hoy en día el estrés en un problema excesivamente extendido. En este trabajo de fin de grado proponemos el diseño teórico de Shama, una aplicación móvil capaz de detectar diariamente el estrés del usuario mediante información extraída a través de su móvil o de su pulsera inteligente, en caso que se disponga de una. Esta propuesta teórica es parcialmente validada construyendo un modelo de machine learning mediante Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) capaz de alcanzar una precisión de aproximadamente el 73% enfrente a un problema de clasificación binaria. Asimismo, Shama también proporciona monitorización al usuario para ayudarlo a lidiar con el estrés cuando se encuentra bajo sus efectos, y le motiva a incorporar hábitos diarios para mejorar su bienestar general.L'estrès, en si mateix, no és absolutament negatiu, sinó que és un mecanisme de resposta davant del perill i, de fet, el necessitem. També demostra la nostra capacitat de suportar certa pressió, ens aporta reptes i posa a prova la nostra flexibilitat a l'hora d'enfrontar-los. Tanmateix, alts nivells d'estrès en períodes prolongats poden tenir conseqüències altament prejudicials per a la nostra salut, tant mental com física. I, malauradament, avui dia l'estrès és un problema excessivament comú. En aquest treball de fi de grau proposem el disseny teòric de Shama, una aplicació mòbil capaç de detectar l'estrès diari de l'usuari mitjançant informació extreta del seu mòbil, així com d'una polsera intel·ligent en cas que l'usuari en disposi. Aquesta proposta d'app és parcialment validada amb la construcció d'un model de machine learning mitjançant Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO), que té una precisió del 73% en un problema de classificació binària. Shama també monitora l'usuari per ajudar-lo a lidiar amb l'estrès un cop detectat i li proporciona eines per incorporar en el seu dia a dia hàbits per millorar el seu benestar general

Biometria Comportamental em Dispositivos Móveis

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaCom o avanço da tecnologia, os dispositivos móveis de ecrã tátil tornaram-se uma das principais interfaces de interação entre humanos e tecnologia. A sua utilização abrange todos os estratos da sociedade, o que faz com que os ecrãs táteis sejam um instrumento relevante para estudar os mecanismos que influenciam a nossa forma de interagir com dispositivos móveis. Esta interação associada à utilização massiva destes dispositivos, permite a recolha de uma grande variedade de dados de interação dos utilizadores. Esta dissertação apresenta uma abordagem para formalizar padrões de interação baseados em dados biométricos comportamentais, que são recolhidos através dos ecrãs táteis, e permitem estudar diferentes fatores humanos. São apresentados dois casos de estudo em que esta abordagem foi aplicada, demonstrando a sua elevada versatilidade. O primeiro caso de estudo está relacionado com a estimulação da memória e como a idade e género influenciam a forma de interagir com dispositivos móveis. Este estudo é relevante na medida em que pode permitir o desenvolvimento de aplicações móveis que se adaptam aos utilizadores e às suas características. O segundo caso de estudo está relacionado com a autenticação contínua, sendo propostas duas abordagens diferentes para criar um sistema de autenticação que valida a identidade do utilizador. Este sistema irá permitir aumentar a segurança e a eficácia da autenticação, através da garantia de que as aplicações do smartphone só são acedidas por quem tem autorização para tal.With the advancement of technology, the touch screens of mobile devices have become one of the main interfaces for human-technology interaction. Its use covers all strata of society, making touch screens an important tool for studying the mechanisms that influence the way we interact with mobile devices. This interaction, associated with the massive use of these devices, allows the collection of a wide variety of biometric data. This dissertation presents a strategy to formalize patterns of interaction based on biometric data, which are collected through touch screens. Two case studies in which this approach is used are presented, demonstrating its high versatility. The first case study is related to memory stimulation and how age and gender influence the way we interact with mobile devices. This study is relevant as the development of mobile applications that adapt to users and their characteristics is becoming increasingly important. The second case study is related to continuous authentication, and two different approaches are proposed to create an authentication system that validates the identity of the user. This will increase the security and effectiveness of authentication by ensuring that mobile phone applications are only accessed by those authorized to do so

Influencing appraisals of emotional valence with spatial touchscreen interactions: An embodied approach to Positive Technology

Could bodily interactions with touchscreen interfaces influence users´s affective experiences? The present dissertation investigates, from an embodied perspective, the potential of touchscreen interfaces as "positive technologies". Positive Technology is an emergent research area within the fields of Cyberpsychology and Human-Computer Interaction interested in examining and promote the quality of user´s affective experiences. However, despite touchscreens enable the manipulation of digital contents directly with the hands, very little is known about how such physical interaction may influence user´s affectivity. This question was approached from theory and research on embodied cognition, which postulate that perception and action influence cognitive and emotional functioning. Specifically, it was considered the integration of (a) research on embodied interaction with touchscreen interfaces suggesting that manipulating visual contents (e.g., images) with directional interaction gestures (e.g., swiping) may stimulate their meaningful cognitive representation; and (b) experimental findings in psychology indicating that the processing of emotional valence is strongly associated with bodily dimensions of space and related directional arm movements (i.e., horizontal, vertical, and sagittal). Against this background, right-handed subjects swiped positive and negative emotional pictures on a horizontal (Study 1), vertical (Study 2), and sagittal (Study 3) space of a touchscreen monitor. Concretely, it was examined if and how such interactions would influence subjects´affectivity as reflected in their valence appraisals towards the pictures. The crucial finding was that all studies revealed affective matchings between the pictures´ valence category and the spatial touchscreen interactions, whereby these matchings mostly led to positive appraisals. Conversely, mismatchings generally led to negative appraisals. Positive Technology fields might benefit from these findings, which boundaries will be discussed in light of embodiment theory and action planning paradigms