Defining Requirements and Related Methods for Designing Sensorized Garments

Designing smart garments has strong interdisciplinary implications, specifically related to user and technical requirements, but also because of the very different applications they have: medicine, sport and fitness, lifestyle monitoring, workplace and job conditions analysis, etc. This paper aims to discuss some user, textile, and technical issues to be faced in sensorized clothes development. In relation to the user, the main requirements are anthropometric, gender-related, and aesthetical. In terms of these requirements, the user’s age, the target application, and fashion trends cannot be ignored, because they determine the compliance with the wearable system. Regarding textile requirements, functional factors—also influencing user comfort—are elasticity and washability, while more technical properties are the stability of the chemical agents’ effects for preserving the sensors’ efficacy and reliability, and assuring the proper duration of the product for the complete life cycle. From the technical side, the physiological issues are the most important: skin conductance, tolerance, irritation, and the effect of sweat and perspiration are key factors for reliable sensing. Other technical features such as battery size and duration, and the form factor of the sensor collector, should be considered, as they affect aesthetical requirements, which have proven to be crucial, as well as comfort and wearability

Counterpoint. Are We Sure That All These Data Are Good for Us?

This paper focuses the relationship between data technologies, meaning the set of tools and devices of different nature, and the transformation of reality into data, from their collection to their use. We confine our reflection to the use of data related to the body and the ability to establish its state of health or illness. A critical stance is adopted, reflecting on the impact that data have - and may have - on biological, legal, cultural, and social bodies. It aims to highlight problems and potential side effects, emphasising the need to create ‘connections’ between the individual device and the large technical system; between the personal data and the system of collected data; between the present and the future scenarios towards which it is desirable to orient design. The paper aims to open up questions on the relationship between us and the knowledge of our body, beyond the promises of idyllic worlds presented by data technologies. And what role can Design play in this context

A smart wearable sensor system for counter-fighting overweight in teenagers

PEGASO is a FP7-funded project whose goal is to develop an ICT and mobile-based platform together with an appropriate strategy to tackle the diffusion of obesity and other lifestyle-related illnesses among teenagers. Indeed, the design of an engaging strategy, leveraging a complementary set of technologies, is the approach proposed by the project to promote the adoption of healthy habits such as active lifestyle and balanced nutrition and to effectively counter-fight the emergence of overweight and obesity in the younger population. A technological key element of such a strategy sees the adoption of wearable sensors to monitor teenagersâ\u80\u99 activities, which is at the basis of developing awareness about the current lifestyle. This paper describes the experience carried out in the framework of the PEGASO project in developing and evaluating wearable monitoring systems addressed to adolescents. The paper describes the methodological approach based on the co-designing of such a wearable system and the main results that, in the first phase, involved a total of 407 adolescents across Europe in a series of focus groups conducted in three countries for the requirements definition phase. Moreover, it describes an evaluation process of signal reliability during the usage of the wearable system. The main results described here are: (a) a prototype of the standardized experimental protocol that has been developed and applied to test signal reliability in smart garments; (b) the requirements definition methodology through a co-design activity and approach to address user requirements and preferences and not only technological specifications. Such co-design approach is able to support a higher system acceptance and usability together with a sustained adoption of the solution with respect to the traditional technology push system development strategy

Wearable Monitoring Devices for Assistive Technology: Case Studies in Post-Polio Syndrome

The correct choice and customization of an orthosis are crucial to obtain the best comfort and efficiency. This study explored the feasibility of a multivariate quantitative assessment of the functional efficiency of lower limb orthosis through a novel wearable system. Gait basographic parameters and energetic indexes were analysed during a Six-Minute Walking Test (6-MWT) through a cost-effective, non-invasive polygraph device, with a multichannel wireless transmission, that carried out electro-cardiograph (ECG); impedance-cardiograph (ICG); and lower-limb accelerations detection. Four subjects affected by Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) were recruited. The wearable device and the semi-automatic post-processing software provided a novel set of objective data to assess the overall efficiency of the patient-orthosis system. Despite the small number of examined subjects, the results obtained with this new approach encourage the application of the method thus enlarging the dataset to validate this promising protocol and measuring system in supporting clinical decisions and out of a laboratory environment

Co-designing an Embodied e-Coach With Older Adults: The Tangible Coach Journey

This article describes a tangible interface for an e-coach, co-designed in four countries to meet older adults’ needs and expectations. The aim of this device is to coach the user by giving recommendations, personalized tasks and to build empathy through vocal, visual, and physical interaction. Through our co-design process, we collected insights that helped identifying requirements for the physical design, the interaction design and the privacy and data control. In the first phase, we collected users’ needs and expectations through several workshops. Requirements were then transformed into three design concepts that were rated and commented by our target users. The final design was implemented and tested in three countries. We discussed the results and the open challenges for the design of physical e-coaches for older adults. To encourage further developments in this field, we released the research outputs of this design process in an open-source repository

The NESTORE e-Coach: Designing a Multi-Domain Pathway to Well-Being in Older Age

This article describes the coaching strategies of the NESTORE e-coach, a virtual coach for promoting healthier lifestyles in older age. The novelty of the NESTORE project is the definition of a multi-domain personalized pathway where the e-coach accompanies the user throughout different structured and non-structured coaching activities and recommendations. The article also presents the design process of the coaching strategies, carried out including older adults from four European countries and experts from the different health domains, and the results of the tests carried out with 60 older adults in Italy, Spain and The Netherlands

Designing the Future: An Intelligent System for Zero-Mile Food Production by Upcycling Wastewater

The project deals with the environmental problem of water consumption. The aim of this work is to experiment the recycling of dishwasher wastewater through its reuse in growing edible vegetables or ornamental plants; this can also accomplish the valorization of nutrients present in the wastewater. This new process allows to ensure washing functions coupled with vegetables production and to affect users’ environmental awareness and habits, following a user-centered system design approach to understand the users and involve them actively in the system development. The presented work is also aimed to experiment a multidisciplinary approach in order to face environmental problems

Design Perspectives for the New Normal in the Healthcare System

This paper aims to investigate the current role of design in healthcare and reflect on its mandate in defining products, services, strategies, and policies, proposing perspectives toward a person-centred healthcare. Today, design research in healthcare reflects on scenarios and challenges affecting innovation and change, considering the potentially disruptive effect of technological innovation on personal care and social, economic, ethical, and political aspects. Through a literature review and case studies analysis, the paper focuses on the current criticalities of the healthcare system, exacerbated by the pandemic situation, and presents a first taxonomy of the trajectories for design-led intervention. It reflects on top-down actions proposed by the government, activities of co-design and the cross-fertilisation between design and other disciplines, and bottom-up actions of social innovation, to present near future perspectives for design-led actions in healthcare

MIXED TEACHING APPROACHES IN EMBODIED INTERACTION DESIGN CLASS

The paper describes the teaching and learning experience in a design studio dealing with Tangible and Embodied Interaction, a stance introduced by Paul Dourish to overcome the emergent physical-digital divide, since computers are shrinking and becoming ubiquitous in our everyday life. Technology enables objects to be autonomous in interacting with other objects and with people. Designers should be able to conceive new forms of interaction - mixing visual, physical, haptic, and auditory channels - comprehensible for humans and non-humans, allowing them to interact in different contexts. The course uses a mixed teaching approach, considering methods such as ex-cathedra lectures, workshops, flipped classrooms, project-based learning, practical activities, and peer-to-peer revision and discussion