Self-adaptive prototype for seat adaption

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Adaptive and personalized body networking

Body networking calls for novel methods and tools for a tight and implicit man machine confluence. One way to achieve this is to make technical systems sensitive and reactive to user personal situation. This paper describes service-oriented software architecture, designed to respond to the user via a biocybernetic loop that transforms changes in user behaviour into services that may be incorporated into a highly personalised user-centric system. These services are used to drive real-time system adaptation tailored to a specific individual in a particular usage context

The REFLECT project and the implementation of a seat adaptation system in an automotive environment

REFLECT project aimed at developing new concepts and means for pervasive-adaptive systems. The "reflective approach" puts together different know-hows in affective and physiological computing, software engineering, physics and pragmatic expertise into a unique endeavour to design and develop user-centric systems that control the specific environment and react relative to users' emotional, cognitive and physical situation. REFLECT's core philosophy is to mimic the natural process of adaptation by implementing a biocybernetic loop that senses, diagnoses and analyses the user situation in a concrete settings and reacts accordingly. To show how these concepts have been put into practice, the document describes in detail how the seat adaptation system of the "Comfort Loop" has been developed in an automotive environment. After giving a brief overview of the project as a whole, the paper deals with the definition of sitting comfort and discomfort, then it presents the idea of the seat adaptation system, whose implementation in a real environment is extensively reported together with the description and discussion of the experimental phase. In the last section comments from the final review process are reported, and new lines of research deploying REFLECT findings are outlined

A wearable, modular, and low-cost instrument for objective measurements of limb movements and balance control abilities

We present an instrument capable of providing objective measurements of limb movements for the assessment of motor and balance control abilities, which is wearable, modular, and low cost

Foot-worn electronic devices for fitness and sport studies

Aim: This paper gives an overview of foot-worn electronic devices (FWED) for fitness and sport studies, and, in particular, it describes two FWEDs developed at DIII (University of Pavia). Methods: Searching in Google Scholar with keywords ‘‘wearable electronic sport’’ yields a number of results which increased significantly in the last 5 years. Focusing on FWEDs, a relevant number of examples can be found, whether conceived for research purposes, or designed for sportsmen that like to monitor their performances. Film pressure sensors connected to simple data acquisition hardware have been proposed to study plantar pressure in order to improve sports achievements. Inertial sensors are widely exploited in commercial systems: miCoach (Adidas), Nike + (- Nike), Foot Pod (Garmin) and MTwTM (Xsense) cover a wide range of applications based on signals recorded on the shoe. At the Microcomputers and Biomedical Devices Lab. of DIII two FWEDs have been developed: the Wireless Sensors System for Sport Studies (WS) and the Sensorized Insole (SI). The WS is composed by a 2-axes accelerometer, a Bluetooth module and a microcontroller powered by 3 AAA batteries. Small (85 9 60 9 20 mm) and light (200 g), it is fastened to the subject’s ankle by a strap band and provides external connections for 2 force sensors inserted in the shoe. The SI is a technological improvement of WS. Developed in collaboration with Lotto Sport Italia (Italy), it is a 3.7 mm thick insole integrating humidity and temperature sensors, a 3-axes accelerometer, 4 pressure sensors, a microcontroller, a ZigBee module and a LI-ion polymer battery. The weight of a size 43 SI is 47 g. Results: WS was used in a research funded by the league ruling amateur soccer in Italy where we gathered ankles’ vibrations during standardized tasks performed by a soccer team on natural and artificial pitches. Results showed how the fillings used in the artificial pitches modify the interaction between the athlete and the playing surface. WS was also used to test a series of athletic track prototypes (Mondo, Italy). One type of track allowed the athletes to decrease the foot–ground contact time and was selected as the official track of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. SI recently passed its testing phase and will be used for a series of experiments, planned at CRIAMS, with the aim of evaluating the comfort level of sport footwear. Conclusion: FWEDs are widely used by research centres and by final users for sport studies. Two FWEDs made by the authors are presented: WS was used for studying the athlete—sport surface interaction, highlighting the effects of materials and structure of the track/turf on foot biomechanics. SI is a promising device for ergonomic studies on sport footwear

Capacitive Sensors Matrix for Interface Pressure Measurement in Clinical, Ergonomic and Automotive Environments

This paper describes the procedure of design and development of a novel prototype matrix conceived to automatically and unobtrusively measure and monitor the interface pressure distribution and the centre of pressure of seated people in various fields, such as automotive, ergonomics and clinical environments. The work regards an innovative technology, that associates equal or better characteristics compared to commercial devices, with lower costs of construction (even for the prototype), better flexibility and robustness. The system is able to perform a continuous monitoring both in laboratory contexts and in more disruptive conditions, such as hospital beds

Realization of a piezoresistive felt sensor for pressure measurements on lower limb prosthesis

Felts with piezoresistive properties are made by mixing conductive fibres with wool or synthetic fibres. They are sensible to strain which modifies their thickness. The modification of felt’s thickness, in fact, changes the conductive fibres interaction and therefore the resistance. Figure 1 shows the sensor used for pressure measures in lower limb amputees: it’s a U-shaped piece of conductive felt, whose arms are covered with conductive paint in order to create electrodes; contacts are made with snap fasteners and clips. This transducer can be connected to a portable device (fig. 2), controlled by a Digital Signal Processor, able to acquire signals from sensor conditioning circuits and to store data into a flash memory. An off-line processing reads data from the memory, elaborates them and plots relative time diagrams by a program purposely developed in LabVIEW environment. With this system we acquired weight distribution information on a crutched patient (a transfemural amputee) during the rehabilitation at Centro Protesi INAIL in Vigoroso di Budrio (Bologna, Italy). The sensor was positioned between ischium and prosthesis . The subject was asked to make some movements for about 80 seconds

Design and development of a novel capacitive sensor matrix for measuring pressure distribution

This work illustrates the design and realization of a mattress made of capacitive sensors that measures the pressure distribution and the center of pressure of a person, while driving a car for long periods of time. The scope of this device is to obtain a system able to detect important parameters without being perceived by the subject. The continuous and automatic measurement of the individual's movements contributes in the assessment of the psyco-physical condition of the driver, mainly regarding the level of discomfort, which influences the degree of fatigue and, as a consequence, the concentration of the subject

Driver drowsiness identification by means of passive techniques for eye detection and tracking

The aim of this paper is to describe a system whose final goal is to detect if a driver is drowsy, in order to prevent potentially danger situations. The system is based on the processing of the driver's face image, acquired by a webcam installed on the dashboard of the car. After a brief introduction explaining the connection of the present work to the European project REFLECT, the relashonship between drowsiness condition and fatal car crashes is dicussed. Then, an overview of the most used techiques for face and eye detection is given, and the developed algorithm is described in detail. Finally, preliminary results of inlaboratory and in-car tests are presented and commented

Riding comfort evaluation and stress for road handbike vehicle

Handbikes (HB) are a new type of bicycle for disabled people. This vehicle has three wheels and the pedaling movement is made by the arms instead of the legs. The first pure sports equipment was developed in 1999 in the USA and its particular performance motivates wheelchair drivers to look at cycling. Nowadays, the HB is not only a new sport with many competitions all over the world, but also a great opportunity for all disabled people to do sport and movement and still ride a bicycle. In the year 2000 an Handbike technical commission was founded which coordinates all the races, events and tours. Road Cycling was introduced as a Paralympic sport at the Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 Paralympics. Paralympic Cycling was originally developed as a sport for blind athletes, who first competed using tandem bicycles. Technological advancements have since opened up the sport to a wider range of athletes; as a result, it is now the third largest sport on the Paralympic programme. H1–H4 are the categories where athletes use a handcycle. The lower the athlete’s class number, the greater the impact of their impairment on their ability to compete. In the Paralympic Games taken place in London in the 2012 the Italian disabled athlete Zanardi won the gold medal on the course at Brands Hatch. Until now, there are very few works in literature about this new kind of bicycle and their athletes. Generally HB races are performed on street circuit and the drivers are affected by high level of stress. This paper deals with the preliminary research of a special project on the design and realization of innovative cycling road devices focused both on the HB either on the disabled athlete. The main target of the paper is to investigate and find out the dynamic behavior of the HB and the force and vibration feedbacks received by the driver along a race track with different uneven road profiles. On purpose special electronic instrumentation device allows to detect acceleration and angular velocity signals of the vehicle and comfort level of the driver through sensors fixed on the seat. Signals coming from two measurement inertial units (one positioned on the frame and the other one attached to the seat of the HB) and from a matrix of force sensing resistors positioned on the seat are collected by means of an acquisition device. Data are stored on a memory card which can be extracted at the end of the trial for an offline processing. Finally, the experimental analysis of the main kinematical and dynamical parameters allows to characterize the behavior of the HB in relationship with different kind of tarmac, concrete or generic street surface in order to study new solutions for comfortable and performance vehicle