Research on Social Engagement with a Rabbitic User Interface

Companions as interfaces to smart rooms need not only to be easy to interact with, but also to maintain long-term relationships with their users. The FP7-funded project SERA (Social Engagement with Robots and Agents) contributes to knowledge about and modeling of such relationships. One focal activity is an iterative field study to collect real-life long-term interaction data with a robotic interface. The first stage of this study has been completed. This paper reports on the set-up and the first insights

Developing a systems and informatics based approach to lifestyle monitoring within eHealth:part I - technology and data management

Lifestyle monitoring forms a subset of telecare in which data derived from sensors located in the home is used to identify variations in behaviour which are indicative of a change in care needs. Key to this is the performance of the sensors themselves and the way in which the information from multiple sources is integrated within the decision making process. The paper therefore considers the functions of the key sensors currently deployed and places their operation within the context of a proposed multi-level system structure which takes due cognisance of the requisite informatics framework

N<i>e</i>XOS – the design, development and evaluation of a rehabilitation system for the lower limbs

Recent years have seen the development of a number of automated and semi-automated systems to support for physiotherapy and rehabilitation. These deploy a range of technologies from highly complex purpose built systems to approaches based around the use of industrial robots operating either individually or in combination for applications ranging from stroke to mobility enhancement. The NeXOS project set out to investigate an approach to the rehabilitation of the lower limbs in a way which brought together expertise in engineering design and mechatronics with specilists in rehabilitation and physiotherapy. The resulting system has resulted in a prototype of a system which is capable in operating in a number of modes from fully independent to providing direct support to a physiotherapist during manipulation of the limb. Designed around a low cost approach for an implementation ultimately capable of use in a patients home using web-baased strategies for communication with their support team, the prototype NeXOS system has validated the adoption of an integrated approach to its development. The paper considers this design and development process and provides the results from the initial tests with physiotherapists to establish the operational basis for clinical implementation

Microwave radiometric thermometry in layered tissue structures.

Non-invasive thermal imaging and temperature measurement by microwave radiometry is investigated for medical diagnostic applications and monitoring hyperthermia treatment of cancer, in the context of the heterogeneous body structure. The temperature measured by a radiometer is a function of the emission and propagation of microwaves in tissue and the receiving characteristics of the radiometric probe. Propagation of microwaves in lossy media is analysed by a spectral diffraction approach. Extension of this technique via a cascade transmission line model provides an efficient algorithm for predicting the field patterns of aperture antennas contacting multi-layered tissue. Comparisons of computer simulations with field measurements in homogeneous and bi-layered tissue-equivalent media confirm the validity of the algorithm. A coherent radiative transfer analysis is used to relate the field pattern of a radiating antenna to its receiving characteristics when used as a radiometer probe, leading to a method for simulating radiometric data. The design and construction of a 4.6 GHz radiometer is described and good agreement is found between computer simulations and radiometer measurements in tissue equivalent phantoms. Measurements and simulations are used to assess the effect of overlying fat layers upon radiometer response to temperature hot-spots in muscle-type media. It is shown that dielectric layering in tissue greatly influences measured temperatures and should be accounted for in the interpretation of radiometric data. The feasibility of employing microwave radiometry for tomographic mapping of differential temperature distributions induced by hyperthermia is examined. A suitable reconstruction algorithm is proposed; however the limited 'depth of view' in lossy tissue is shown to restrict the volume which can be imaged and thus its use for monitoring deep hyperthermia is doubtful. Alternative applications of this technique in medical diagnostics are proposed