The use of extended reality and machine learning to improve healthcare and promote greenhealth

Com a Quarta Revolução Industrial, a propagação da Internet das Coisas, o avanço nas áreas de Inteligência Artificial e de Machine Learning até à migração para a Computação em Nuvem, o termo "Ambientes Inteligentes" cada vez mais deixa de ser uma idealização para se tornar realidade. Da mesma forma as tecnologias de Realidade Extendida também elas têm aumentado a sua presença no mundo tecnológico após um "período de hibernação", desde a popularização do conceito de Metaverse assim como a entrada das grandes empresas informáticas como a Apple e a Google num mercado onde a Realidade Virtual, Realidade Aumentada e Realidade Mista eram dominadas por empresas com menos experiência no desenvolvimento de sistemas (e.g. Meta), reconhecimento a nível mundial (e.g. HTC Vive), ou suporte financeiro e confiança do mercado. Esta tese tem como foco o estudo do potencial uso das tecnologias de Realidade Estendida de forma a promover Saúde Verde assim como seu uso em Hospitais Inteligentes, uma das variantes de Ambientes Inteligentes, incorporando Machine Learning e Computer Vision, como ferramenta de suporte e de melhoria de cuidados de saúde, tanto do ponto de vista do profissional de saúde como do paciente, através duma revisão literarária e análise da atualidade. Resultando na elaboração de um modelo conceptual com a sugestão de tecnologias a poderem ser usadas para alcançar esse cenário selecionadas pelo seu potencial, sendo posteriormente descrito o desenvolvimento de protótipos de partes do modelo conceptual para Óculos de Realidade Extendida como validação de conceito.With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the spread of the Internet of Things, the advance in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning until the migration to Cloud Computing, the term "Intelligent Environments" increasingly ceases to be an idealization to become reality. Likewise, Extended Reality technologies have also increased their presence in the technological world after a "hibernation period", since the popularization of the Metaverse concept, as well as the entry of large computer companies such as Apple and Google into a market where Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality were dominated by companies with less experience in system development (e.g. Meta), worldwide recognition (e.g. HTC Vive) or financial support and trust in the market. This thesis focuses on the study of the potential use of Extended Reality technologies in order to promote GreenHealth as well as their use in Smart Hospitals, one of the variants of Smart Environments, incorporating Machine Learning and Computer Vision, as a tool to support and improve healthcare, both from the point of view of the health professional and the patient, through a literature review and analysis of the current situation. Resulting in the elaboration of a conceptual model with the suggestion of technologies that can be used to achieve this scenario selected for their potential, and then the development of prototypes of parts of the conceptual model for Extended Reality Headsets as concept validation

Sustainable Technology and Elderly Life

The coming years will see an exponential increase in the proportion of elderly people in our society. This accelerated growth brings with it major challenges in relation to the sustainability of the system. There are different aspects where these changes will have a special incidence: health systems and their monitoring; the development of a framework in which the elderly can develop their daily lives satisfactorily; and in the design of intelligent cities adapted to the future sociodemographic profile. The discussion of the challenges faced, together with the current technological evolution, can show possible ways of meeting the challenges. There are different aspects where these changes will have a special incidence: health systems and their monitoring; the development of a framework in which the elderly can develop their daily lives satisfactorily; and in the design of intelligent cities adapted to the future sociodemographic profile. This special issue discusses various ways in which sustainable technologies can be applied to improve the lives of the elderly. Six articles on the subject are featured in this volume. From a systematic review of the literature to the development of gamification and health improvement projects. The articles present suggestive proposals for the improvement of the lives of the elderly. The volume is a resource of interest for the scientific community, since it shows different research gaps in the current state of the art. But it is also a document that can help social policy makers and people working in this domain to planning successful projects

IoT based model of healthcare for physiotherapy

Trabalho apresentado em 13th International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST 2019), dezembro 2019, Sydney, Austrália.Small and reliable devices that are used not only in clinics or hospital but also in home, give information on movements, activities or other relevant data on person health and functioning. The data acquired by these devices would increase the accessibility to healthcare services and quality of care, in a safe environment. There are scarce data related to integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into information system for physiotherapy or motor rehabilitation. In this work it is presented a framework for IoT based information system for physiotherapy. The presented model for physiotherapy includes: the capacity of IoT based information system to receive inputs from different modalities; support for modularity and common communication technologies for IoT; gateway capabilities and/or edge computing; data storage and analysis in Server, Cloud Server or Microservices. Research is needed for better understanding what is the optimal model and architecture for IoT platforms targeting people with different types of disabilities, as well as an optimal universal design that may increase the quality of care for people with disability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

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

Data processing of physiological sensor data and alarm determination utilising activity recognition

Current physiological sensors are passive and transmit sensed data to Monitoring centre (MC) through wireless body area network (WBAN) without processing data intelligently. We propose a solution to discern data requestors for prioritising and inferring data to reduce transactions and conserve battery power, which is important requirements of mobile health (mHealth). However, there is a problem for alarm determination without knowing the activity of the user. For example, 170 beats per minute of heart rate can be normal during exercising, however an alarm should be raised if this figure has been sensed during sleep. To solve this problem, we suggest utilising the existing activity recognition (AR) applications. Most of health related wearable devices include accelerometers along with physiological sensors. This paper presents a novel approach and solution to utilise physiological data with AR so that they can provide not only improved and efficient services such as alarm determination but also provide richer health information which may provide content for new markets as well as additional application services such as converged mobile health with aged care services. This has been verified by experimented tests using vital signs such as heart pulse rate, respiration rate and body temperature with a demonstrated outcome of AR accelerometer sensors integrated with an Android app

PhysioAR: smart sensing and augmented reality for physical rehabilitation

The continuous evolution of technology allows for a better analysis of the human being. In certain medical areas such as physiotherapy is required a correct analysis of the patient's evolution. The development of Information and Communication Technologies and recent innovations in the Internet of Things opens new possibilities in the medical field as systems of remote monitoring of patients with new sensors that allow the correct analysis of the health data of patients. In physiotherapy one of the most common problems in the application of treatments is the patient demotivation, something that today can be reduced with the introduction of Augmented Reality that provides a new experience to the patient. For this purpose, a system was developed that combines intelligent sensors with Augmented Reality application that will help monitor patient performance. This system is capable of monitoring lower limb movements acceleration, knee joint angle, patient equilibrium, muscular activity and cardiac activity using electromyography and electrocardiography with a wearable set of tools for easy utilization.A evolução continua da tecnologia permite cada vez mais uma melhor análise do ser humano. Em certas áreas médicas, como a fisioterapia, é necessária uma correta análise da evolução do paciente. O desenvolvimento das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, e as inovações no domínio de Internet das Coisas novas possibilidades no ramo da medicina, como sistemas de monitorização remota de pacientes com novos sensores que permitem a correta análise dos dados de saúde dos pacientes. Na fisioterapia um dos problemas mais comuns na aplicação dos tratamentos é a desmotivação do paciente, algo que hoje pode ser reduzido com introdução da aplicação da Realidade Aumentada que proporciona uma nova experiência ao paciente. Para isso nesta dissertação foi desenvolvido um sistema que combina sensores inteligentes com Realidade Aumentada que vai ajudar o paciente monitorizando o seu desempenho. Este sistema é capaz de monitorizar o ângulo do joelho, captar acelaração de movimentos dos membros inferiores, equilíbrio do paciente, atividade muscular e atividade cárdica usando electromiografia e electrocardiografia num conjunto wearable de fácil utilização

The role of information systems in achieving the sustainable development goals : an overview of established and emerging technologies for development

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing IntelligenceThe Sustainable Development Goals initiative is one of the most significant Global Development programs created by the United Nations for the future. It is both the result and the continuation of a successful anti-poverty movement called Millennium Development Goals, implemented in the year 2000. At a time of transition marked by the post-2015 agenda for Development, new questions and problems have arisen and new challenges have been set in order to keep track of Sustainable Development. Information Systems and technology are among the key elements behind these Global Agenda Programmes, since they are rightly seen as enablers of Sustainable Development. The aim of this study was to understand what the role of technology might be in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals according to literature and field experts, providing a framework that can be used for discussion in a 2015 post-agenda context