Gait Analysis Using Computer Vision Based on Cloud Platform and Mobile Device

Frailty and senility are syndromes that affect elderly people. The ageing process involves a decay of cognitive and motor functions which often produce an impact on the quality of life of elderly people. Some studies have linked this deterioration of cognitive and motor function to gait patterns. Thus, gait analysis can be a powerful tool to assess frailty and senility syndromes. In this paper, we propose a vision-based gait analysis approach performed on a smartphone with cloud computing assistance. Gait sequences recorded by a smartphone camera are processed by the smartphone itself to obtain spatiotemporal features. These features are uploaded onto the cloud in order to analyse and compare them to a stored database to render a diagnostic. The feature extraction method presented can work with both frontal and sagittal gait sequences although the sagittal view provides a better classification since an accuracy of 95% can be obtained.This research is part of the FRASE MINECO project (TIN2013-47152-C3-2-R) funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain

A short curriculum of the robotics and technology of computer lab

Our research Lab is directed by Prof. Anton Civit. It is an interdisciplinary group of 23 researchers that carry out their teaching and researching labor at the Escuela Politécnica Superior (Higher Polytechnic School) and the Escuela de Ingeniería Informática (Computer Engineering School). The main research fields are: a) Industrial and mobile Robotics, b) Neuro-inspired processing using electronic spikes, c) Embedded and real-time systems, d) Parallel and massive processing computer architecture, d) Information Technologies for rehabilitation, handicapped and elder people, e) Web accessibility and usability In this paper, the Lab history is presented and its main publications and research projects over the last few years are summarized.Nuestro grupo de investigación está liderado por el profesor Civit. Somos un grupo multidisciplinar de 23 investigadores que realizan su labor docente e investigadora en la Escuela Politécnica Superior y en Escuela de Ingeniería Informática. Las principales líneas de investigaciones son: a) Robótica industrial y móvil. b) Procesamiento neuro-inspirado basado en pulsos electrónicos. c) Sistemas empotrados y de tiempo real. d) Arquitecturas paralelas y de procesamiento masivo. e) Tecnología de la información aplicada a la discapacidad, rehabilitación y a las personas mayores. f) Usabilidad y accesibilidad Web. En este artículo se reseña la historia del grupo y se resumen las principales publicaciones y proyectos que ha conseguido en los últimos años

Fall Prediction and Prevention Systems: Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions.

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In addition, these systems lack efficient user interfaces and feedback for preventing future falls. Recent advances in internet of things (IoT) and mobile technologies offer ample opportunities for integrating contextual information about patient behavior and environment along with physiological health data for predicting falls. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in fall detection and prediction systems. It also describes the challenges, limitations, and future directions in the design and implementation of effective fall prediction and prevention systems

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

ESTIMATION AND PREDICTION OF THE HUMAN GAIT DYNAMICS FOR THE CONTROL OF AN ANKLE-FOOT PROSTHESIS

With the growing population of amputees, powered prostheses can be a solution to improve the quality of life for many people. Powered ankle-foot prostheses can be made to behave similar to the lost limb via controllers that emulate the mechanical impedance of the human ankle. Therefore, the understanding of human ankle dynamics is of major significance. First, this work reports the modulation of the mechanical impedance via two mechanisms: the co-contraction of the calf muscles and a change of mean ankle torque and angle. Then, the mechanical impedance of the ankle was determined, for the first time, as a multivariable and time-varying system. These findings reveal the importance of recognizing the state of the user during the gait when the user interacts with the environment. In addition to studying the ankle impedance, a wearable device was designed and evaluated to further the studies on robotic perception for ankle-foot prostheses. This device is capable of characterizing the ground environment and estimating the gait state using visual-inertial sensors. Finally, this study contributes to the field of ankle-foot prostheses by identifying the mechanical behavior of the human ankle and developing a platform to test perception algorithms for the control of robotic prostheses

Gait Recognition as a Service for Unobtrusive User Identification in Smart Spaces

Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) has raised as an important research area that combines the environmental sensing and machine learning capabilities to flourish the concept of smart spaces, in which intelligent and customized services can be provided to users in a smart manner. In smart spaces, one fundamental service that needs to be provided is accurate and unobtrusive user identification. In this work, to address this challenge, we propose a Gait Recognition as a Service (GRaaS) model, which is an instantiation of the traditional Sensing as a Service (S2aaS) model, and is specially deigned for user identification using gait in smart spaces. To illustrate the idea, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based gait recognition service is designed and implemented following the GRaaS concept. Novel tag selection algorithms and attention-based Long Short-term Memory (At-LSTM) models are designed to realize the device layer and edge layer, achieving a robust recognition with 96.3% accuracy. Extensive evaluations are provided, which show that the proposed service has accurate and robust performance and has great potential to support future smart space applications

Continuous and transparent multimodal authentication: reviewing the state of the art

Individuals, businesses and governments undertake an ever-growing range of activities online and via various Internet-enabled digital devices. Unfortunately, these activities, services, information and devices are the targets of cybercrimes. Verifying the user legitimacy to use/access a digital device or service has become of the utmost importance. Authentication is the frontline countermeasure of ensuring only the authorized user is granted access; however, it has historically suffered from a range of issues related to the security and usability of the approaches. They are also still mostly functioning at the point of entry and those performing sort of re-authentication executing it in an intrusive manner. Thus, it is apparent that a more innovative, convenient and secure user authentication solution is vital. This paper reviews the authentication methods along with the current use of authentication technologies, aiming at developing a current state-of-the-art and identifying the open problems to be tackled and available solutions to be adopted. It also investigates whether these authentication technologies have the capability to fill the gap between high security and user satisfaction. This is followed by a literature review of the existing research on continuous and transparent multimodal authentication. It concludes that providing users with adequate protection and convenience requires innovative robust authentication mechanisms to be utilized in a universal level. Ultimately, a potential federated biometric authentication solution is presented; however it needs to be developed and extensively evaluated, thus operating in a transparent, continuous and user-friendly manner

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2013 Florence

Important Information Technology topics are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, protection of data, access to the content. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (2D, 3D) regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace – Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The main parts of the Conference Proceedings regard: Strategic Issues, EC Projects and Related Networks & Initiatives, International Forum on “Culture & Technology”, 2D – 3D Technologies & Applications, Virtual Galleries – Museums and Related Initiatives, Access to the Culture Information. Three Workshops are related to: International Cooperation, Innovation and Enterprise, Creative Industries and Cultural Tourism