VIMES : A Wearable Memory Assistance System for Automatic Information Retrieval

The advancement of artificial intelligence and wearable computing triggers the radical innovation of cognitive applications. In this work, we propose VIMES, an augmented reality-based memory assistance system that helps recall declarative memory, such as whom the user meets and what they chat. Through a collaborative method with 20 participants, we design VIMES, a system that runs on smartglasses, takes the first-person audio and video as input, and extracts personal profiles and event information to display on the embedded display or a smartphone. We perform an extensive evaluation with 50 participants to show the effectiveness of VIMES for memory recall. VIMES outperforms (90% memory accuracy) other traditional methods such as self-recall (34%) while offering the best memory experience (Vividness, Coherence, and Visual Perspective all score over 4/5). The user study results show that most participants find VIMES useful (3.75/5) and easy to use (3.46/5).Peer reviewe

Human Computer Interaction and Emerging Technologies

The INTERACT Conferences are an important platform for researchers and practitioners in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) to showcase their work. They are organised biennially by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee on Human–Computer Interaction (IFIP TC13), an international committee of 30 member national societies and nine Working Groups. INTERACT is truly international in its spirit and has attracted researchers from several countries and cultures. With an emphasis on inclusiveness, it works to lower the barriers that prevent people in developing countries from participating in conferences. As a multidisciplinary field, HCI requires interaction and discussion among diverse people with different interests and backgrounds. The 17th IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT 2019) took place during 2-6 September 2019 in Paphos, Cyprus. The conference was held at the Coral Beach Hotel Resort, and was co-sponsored by the Cyprus University of Technology and Tallinn University, in cooperation with ACM and ACM SIGCHI. This volume contains the Adjunct Proceedings to the 17th INTERACT Conference, comprising a series of selected papers from workshops, the Student Design Consortium and the Doctoral Consortium. The volume follows the INTERACT conference tradition of submitting adjunct papers after the main publication deadline, to be published by a University Press with a connection to the conference itself. In this case, both the Adjunct Proceedings Chair of the conference, Dr Usashi Chatterjee, and the lead Editor of this volume, Dr Fernando Loizides, work at Cardiff University which is the home of Cardiff University Press

Uma abordagem de monitoramento dos sinais motores da doença de Parkinson baseada em jogos eletrônicos.

Os Sistemas de Monitoramento da Saúde (SMS) possibilitam aos médicos obterem informações sobre o estado de saúde de seus pacientes. Além disso, as identificações dos sintomas das doenças podem auxiliar no diagnóstico precoce e prevenir a ocorrência de situações críticas. Para acompanhar e avaliar a saúde motora de um paciente, é necessário realizar uma avaliação motora por meio de movimentos específicos. Isto dificulta a concepção de um SMS de dados motores não-invasivo e engajados na rotina diária dos pacientes. A abordagem apresentada nesta tese, utiliza os jogos eletrônicos como fator motivacional para o fornecimento dos dados motores. Durante o jogo, o usuário é induzido a executar movimentos relevantes, de modo que um sensor de movimento possa adquiri-los e quantificá-los. Este ambiente lúdico, de jogo eletrônico, abstrai o usuário do contexto de tratamento da saúde e incentiva a execução dos movimentos de uma maneira mais natural do que a imposta por um exame clínico. Para avaliar esta abordagem, foi desenvolvido um jogo com a arquitetura proposta para identificar sintomas motores relacionadas com a Doença de Parkinson. Num estudo de caso controle, foram avaliados os movimentos angulares dos braços para quantificar as habilidades motoras desses grupos. Os dados coletados foram processados e aplicados a uma Máquina de Vetor de Suporte(SVM) para classificar a ocorrência do sintoma da bradicinesia do Parkinson. Obteve-se uma classificação com uma acurácia de 86,67% e falsos positivos de6,67%. Além disso, em um experimento para avaliação da aceitação dos usuários, 90% ficaram motivados com o jogo desenvolvido e afirmaram que integrariam o SMS em sua rotina diária. Estes resultados demonstram que a abordagem de monitoramento baseado em jogos, apresentada nesta tese, tem potencial para ser um SMS para monitoramentos dos sintomas motores.Health Monitoring Systems (HMS) allow doctors to gain a better picture of their patient’s health status. An early identification of symptoms can support the disease’s diagnostic and prevent critical situations. In order to monitor a patient’s motor abilities, it is necessary to record and evaluate specific movements. This makes it difficult to design a HMS that non-obtrusively integrates into the patient’s daily routine. The approach presented in this thesis makes use of the motivational power of electronic games. While playing the game, the user is incited to make the relevant movements, so that an optical sensor can detect and measure them. The playful situation distracts the user from thinking about health issues and therefore encourages more natural movements with improved validity for a health examination. To evaluate this approach, a game has been developed and employed to detect Parkinson related motor symptoms. In a study with patients diagnosed as affected by the Parkinson Disease and a healthy control group, the angular movements of the arms were used to measure motor abilities. The data was then processed and applied to a Support Vector Machine (SVM) to predict, based on the detected movements, whether a subject shows Parkinson related symptoms or should be classified as healthy. The system classified the subjects with an accuracy of 86.67% and arate of 6.67% false positives. Furthermore, the use racceptance of the game-based approach was studied and showed that 90% of the users felt motivated to play the game as part of their daily routine. These results demonstrate that the game-based approach presented in this thesis has the potential to become a base for HMS that monitor motor symptoms.Cape

Parkinson’s disease patients with heterozygous GBA-mutation: longitudinal phenotyping of motor and non-motor symptoms – more rapid progression compared to Parkinson’s disease patients without GBA-mutation

The following comprises a short summary of this clinical observation study including the objective, the applied methods and results as well as the discussion. A common disease such as Parkinson's disease, which is now understood as a systemic disease and goes far beyond pure motor disturbance, is clearly associated with the rare lysosomal disorder Gaucher’s disease. At first glance, GD has little in common with the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease worldwide. Nevertheless, the genetic origin of this compound is based on mutations in the GBA gene that lead to an increased risk of PD. Profound acknowledgement of prodromal and clinical symptoms of PDGBA as well as of the progression characteristics of this PD subgroup is of essential importance. Otherwise, one will not be able at all to detect subjects with the most relevant risk factor for PD and – as the next step – these subjects at risk for PD might not be included in clinical and experimental trials. This, however, is the only way to hopefully expand and deepen the current understanding of the underlying mechanisms on how GBA mutations exactly contribute to PD pathology. Based on these required investigations, the development of promising therapeutic options, that go far beyond the present symptomatic level, are conceivable and are expected to slow down or even stop PD progression in the future. Therefore, a clinical phenotyping of GBA patients was performed in this study. It revealed that the PDGBA group presented not significantly different from the PDIdiopathic group at the beginning of the 3-year period regarding motor and non-motor performance. However, at time of the examination in 2013, the PDGBA group was affected more severely than the comparison group: motor and cognitive impairment had worsened more rapidly. Moreover, higher doses of dopaminergic drugs were required, and H&Y disease stages reflected a faster progression of PDGBA to one PD-milestone that can be life-changing for PD patients: the endpoint of postural instability. Further, higher mortality rates for PDGBA patients were demonstrated in this study. Epigenetic and environmental factors may seem to play a relevant role in this subgroup of PD, as well as complex gene-gene interactions. Theories, attempting to explain the underlying pathology, range from the causal linkage of common diseases with common genetic variants (CDCV hypothesis) to the currently more probable assumption that common diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, are caused by a variety of singular and separately rare variants (CDRV). At the cellular level, moreover, several approaches are pursued, including the pathological interaction of GCase and α-syn, the impairment of lysosomal clearance, dysfunctional lipid metabolism, disturbances in the area of the proteasome as well as deficits in mitochondrial function. The primary background of this prospective study was to contribute to a better understanding of this neurodegenerative disease by phenotypically characterizing the subtype PDGBA. This is of crucial importance for following steps as to be able to make a diagnosis at a preferably early disease stage and thus, to prevent disease-associated and irreversibly neuronal cell loss by means of future disease-modifying, targeted therapies. Currently, promising therapeutic studies are in progress with the aim of increasing GCase activity or alternatively, minimizing its pathogenic substrate glucosylceramide

Proceedings of the 5th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2004)

The proceedings of the conferenc