Speaker Recognition Based Home Automation Using Matlab

Due to decline in both physical and mental abilities, some elderly are not allowed to leave the bed without assistance. Some time they are unable to make the desirable bodily movements and repositioning. In this paper the home automation is obtained using MATLAB based speaker recognition. The feature extraction of speech signal is done by using MFCC and for selection of features of speech signal vector quantization is used. By using above two steps the speaker is recognized and then this is given to the microcontroller by using serial communication .Then the particular home appliance get operated

Sensing and Signal Processing in Smart Healthcare

In the last decade, we have witnessed the rapid development of electronic technologies that are transforming our daily lives. Such technologies are often integrated with various sensors that facilitate the collection of human motion and physiological data and are equipped with wireless communication modules such as Bluetooth, radio frequency identification, and near-field communication. In smart healthcare applications, designing ergonomic and intuitive human–computer interfaces is crucial because a system that is not easy to use will create a huge obstacle to adoption and may significantly reduce the efficacy of the solution. Signal and data processing is another important consideration in smart healthcare applications because it must ensure high accuracy with a high level of confidence in order for the applications to be useful for clinicians in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. This Special Issue is a collection of 10 articles selected from a total of 26 contributions. These contributions span the areas of signal processing and smart healthcare systems mostly contributed by authors from Europe, including Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Netherlands. Authors from China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Ecuador are also included

Effects of dance therapy on balance, gait and neuro-psychological performances in patients with Parkinson's disease and postural instability

Postural Instability (PI) is a core feature of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and a major cause of falls and disabilities. Impairment of executive functions has been called as an aggravating factor on motor performances. Dance therapy has been shown effective for improving gait and has been suggested as an alternative rehabilitative method. To evaluate gait performance, spatial-temporal (S-T) gait parameters and cognitive performances in a cohort of patients with PD and PI modifications in balance after a cycle of dance therapy

State of the art of audio- and video based solutions for AAL

Working Group 3. Audio- and Video-based AAL ApplicationsIt is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living (AAL) technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one’s activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate). Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as they can have a large range of sensing, do not require physical presence at a particular location and are physically intangible. Moreover, relevant information about individuals’ activities and health status can derive from processing audio signals (e.g., speech recordings). Nevertheless, as the other side of the coin, cameras and microphones are often perceived as the most intrusive technologies from the viewpoint of the privacy of the monitored individuals. This is due to the richness of the information these technologies convey and the intimate setting where they may be deployed. Solutions able to ensure privacy preservation by context and by design, as well as to ensure high legal and ethical standards are in high demand. After the review of the current state of play and the discussion in GoodBrother, we may claim that the first solutions in this direction are starting to appear in the literature. A multidisciplinary 4 debate among experts and stakeholders is paving the way towards AAL ensuring ergonomics, usability, acceptance and privacy preservation. The DIANA, PAAL, and VisuAAL projects are examples of this fresh approach. This report provides the reader with a review of the most recent advances in audio- and video-based monitoring technologies for AAL. It has been drafted as a collective effort of WG3 to supply an introduction to AAL, its evolution over time and its main functional and technological underpinnings. In this respect, the report contributes to the field with the outline of a new generation of ethical-aware AAL technologies and a proposal for a novel comprehensive taxonomy of AAL systems and applications. Moreover, the report allows non-technical readers to gather an overview of the main components of an AAL system and how these function and interact with the end-users. The report illustrates the state of the art of the most successful AAL applications and functions based on audio and video data, namely (i) lifelogging and self-monitoring, (ii) remote monitoring of vital signs, (iii) emotional state recognition, (iv) food intake monitoring, activity and behaviour recognition, (v) activity and personal assistance, (vi) gesture recognition, (vii) fall detection and prevention, (viii) mobility assessment and frailty recognition, and (ix) cognitive and motor rehabilitation. For these application scenarios, the report illustrates the state of play in terms of scientific advances, available products and research project. The open challenges are also highlighted. The report ends with an overview of the challenges, the hindrances and the opportunities posed by the uptake in real world settings of AAL technologies. In this respect, the report illustrates the current procedural and technological approaches to cope with acceptability, usability and trust in the AAL technology, by surveying strategies and approaches to co-design, to privacy preservation in video and audio data, to transparency and explainability in data processing, and to data transmission and communication. User acceptance and ethical considerations are also debated. Finally, the potentials coming from the silver economy are overviewed.publishedVersio

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM BETWEEN ASSISTIVE ROBOTS AND THEIR USERS

Assistive robotics will become integral to the everyday lives of a human population that is increasingly mobile, older, urban-centric and networked. The overwhelming demands on healthcare delivery alone will compel the adoption of assistive robotics. How will we communicate with such robots, and how will they communicate with us? This research makes the case for a relatively \u27artificial\u27 mode of nonverbal human-robot communication that is non-disruptive, non-competitive, and non-invasive human-robot communication that we envision will be willingly invited into our private and working lives over time. This research proposes a non-verbal communication (NVC) platform be conveyed by familiar lights and sounds, and elaborated here are experiments with our NVC platform in a rehabilitation hospital. This NVC is embedded into the Assistive Robotic Table (ART), developed within our lab, that supports the well-being of an expanding population of older adults and those with limited mobility. The broader aim of this research is to afford people robot-assistants that exist and interact with them in the recesses, rather than in the foreground, of their intimate and social lives. With support from our larger research team, I designed and evaluated several alternative modes of nonverbal robot communication with the objective of establishing a nonverbal, human-robot communication loop that evolves with users and can be modified by users. The study was conducted with 10-13 clinicians -- doctors and occupational, physical, and speech therapists -- at a local rehabilitation hospital through three iterative design and evaluation phases and a final usability study session. For our test case at a rehabilitation hospital, medical staff iteratively refined our NVC platform, stated a willingness to use our platform, and declared NVC as a desirable research path. In addition, these clinicians provided the requirements for human-robot interaction (HRI) in clinical settings, suggesting great promise for our mode of human-robot communication for this and other applications and environments involving intimate HRI

Physiotherapy and neuro rehabilitation on stroke evidence and needs

Scientific knowledge in the area of rehabilitation and physiotherapy for stroke is booming and leading to more sustainable models of practice. Several interventions show positive effects with strong scientific support. However, some issues remain to be clarified like what are the effects of PT on brain activity and what are the effects of hands on interventions. Also a general coherence of interventions and outcomes and outcomes measures need to improve. With the intent to clarify these questions and to give an overview of Physiotherapy evidence and needs on stroke rehabilitation, this thesis will present the state of the art on a literature review and the four studies developed on the context of this PhD: Physiotherapy Hands-on Interventions and Stroke - Systematic Review; Physiotherapy and Brain Activity on Stroke - Systematic Review; Brain activity during lower limb movement with physiotherapy manual facilitation – an fMRI study; ICF Linking Process for Categorization of Interventions and Outcomes Measures on Stroke Physiotherapy - Delphi panel. As innovative aspects of this thesis, we highlight: the organization within the ICF framework for the outcomes related with movement; the study of brain activity during a complex multijoint movement of lower limb; the study of immediate effects of manual facilitation of movement, as no similar studies was found on our literature search for this thesis. Regardless the limitations encountered, the non-conclusive findings and some non-identified evidence, it seems still valid to conclude that Physiotherapy is no longer a “black box”, instead is a evidence-based profession. Exists clear and evidence based information for clinical settings and scientific community, that hands off physiotherapy is relevant and has efficacy proved on the rehabilitation of stroke patients on the domains of Structure & Functions and Activities & Participation. This efficacy is extended to the brain activity, which validates the idea that PT can influence neuroplasticity process and consequently contribute for a better recovery in a neurobiological perspective with impact on human performance and autonomy.O conhecimento científico na area da intervenção em utentes com sequelas após Acidente Vascular Cerebral (AVC) e especificamente na área da Fisioterapia, tem crescido nos últimos ano, conduzindo a modelos de prática mais sustentados. São várias as intervneções da Fisioterapia com eficácia comprovada. Contudo, alguns aspectos ainda necessitam de clarificação, como seja quais os efeitos da Fisioterapia na actividade cerebral e quais são os efeitos das intervenções baseadas na manualidade do Fisioterapeuta. É ainda necessária, uma maior coerência entre as intervenções, as variáveis em estudo e os instrumentos de avaliação utilizados. Com o objectivo de contribuir para o esclarecimento destas questões e de oferecer uma visao global da evidência da intervenção da Fisioterapia e as necessidades de desenvolvimento na intervenção e utentes com AVC, esta tese apresenta um estado da arte na revisão de literature e os quarto estudos desenvolvidos no contexto deste doutoramento: Efeitos da Fisioterapia manual em utentes com AVC - revisão sistemática; Efeitos da Fisioterapia na actividade cerebral em utentes com AVC - revisão sistemática; Efeitos imediatos da facilitação manual na actividade cerebral - estudo com RMf; Processo de categorização de intervenções e intrumentos específicos da intervenção em utentes com AVC - Painel de Delphi. Como aspectos inovadores, salientamos a organização de acordo com a estrutura da CIF, para as variaveis relacionadas com o movimento; o estudo a actividade cerebral durante um movimento complexo e multi-articular do membro inferior; o estudo dos efeitos imediatos da facilitação manual na actividade cerebral. Independentemente das limitações encontradas, dos achados não conclusivos e alguns achados de não benefício de intervenções, parece-nos ser válido concluir que a Fisioterapia deixou de ser uma “caixa negra” sendo uma profissão científicamente suportada. Existe informação clara e suportada cientificamente, disponível para os locais de prática e para a comunidade científica, de que a Fisioterapia “hands off” é relevante e tem eficácia comprovada no contexto da intervenção em utentes com AVC, nos domínios da Estrutura e Função e da Actividade e Participação. Esta eficácia estende-se à actividade cerebral, validando a ideia de que a Fisioterapia pode influenciar a neuroplasticidade e consequentemente contribuir para uma recuperação neurobiológica mais adequada, com impacto no desempenho humano e autonomia