Utilising wearable and environmental sensors to identify the context of gait performance in the home

In this paper we describe our work on the development of a multi-sensory deployment within the homes of elderly people prone to falling. The aim of our work is to provide both preventative guidance with regards to environmental hazards, as well as to create rich information context around gait performance, near-falls or falls that do happen so the cause can be diagnosed more thoroughly. We use a gait analysis platform developed at the TRIL Centre, coupled with a SenseCam wearable camera, to identify the activities and the location in the home during walking activities. In addition to this, and to add even more context, we use home energy- monitoring to enhance our understanding of activities and activity patterns in the home. This method could support older people in identifying a key problem and allow the participant to modify their behaviour or environment to limit or prevent future occurrences

Level of Service and the Transit Neighbourhood - observations from Dublin City and Suburbs

Few studies have looked at the impact Level-of-Service (LOS) might have on the distances people walk to public transport. The relationship, if any, has implications for transit-oriented-development and the viability of different transit modes serving suburban areas. This paper examines pedestrian catchment areas and LOS at across a light rail, a metro rail and two bus corridors in Dublin. Over 700 public transport users were surveyed at 17 stops and their trip origin identified. Catchment areas for bus services with high levels of service were found to be comparable and often greater than those for LRT or metro rail. 65% of all bus trip-origins are more than 500m from stops. A standard distance analysis suggests natural catchment limits of over 1400m for high quality bus, significantly greater than light rail and metro rail of similar service levels. The shape of transit catchment areas are also distinctive and appear to be most influenced by: network density, stopping patterns, urban gravity and quality of service. While further analysis is recommended, public transport users in the Greater Dublin Area appear more influenced by level-of-service than by modal type when deciding how far they are prepared to walk to public transport.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

The Impact Of Geographic Location On The Utility Derived From Real-Time Public Transport Information

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken in Dublin, to ascertain passenger preferences for public transport information. The study examines the need for public transport information across three stages of a public transport trip. The stages examined are as follows; stage one: pre-trip planning from home to work, stage two: at-stop/station information, and stage three: pre-trip planning from work to home. At each of these stages, the respondents were asked to choose between several methods of receiving information, via the internet, mobile phone, call centre or at stop real-time information displays. The study utilised a stated preference approach to ascertain what type of information respondents required at each stage and their willingness to pay for this information. This paper presents the findings of the study undertaken and reports several factors which affect respondent’s willingness to pay for public transport information. This paper examines several factors relating to the impact of the geographical location of a respondent in relation to the utility they derive from real-time public transport information. The first factor examined measures the impact that the proximity of an individual to a high quality public transport option has upon utility derived from real-time information. The second factor examines how the residential location of the respondent impacts upon the utility derived from real-time information. Both of these geographical factors were examined using the results of a stated choice experiment conducted in Dublin, Ireland. The first section of this paper presents the survey methodology applied in this study. The following sections present the demographic characteristics of the sample collected and the results of the multinomial logit modelling conducted on the stated choice results. The paper concludes with a discussion and conclusions section.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Pervasive Sound Sensing: A Weakly Supervised Training Approach

Modern smartphones present an ideal device for pervasive sensing of human behaviour. Microphones have the potential to reveal key information about a persons behaviour.However, they have been utilized to a significantly lesser extent than other smartphone sensors in the context of human behaviour sensing. We postulate that, in order for microphones to be useful in behaviour sensing applications, the analysis tecniques must be flexible and allow easy modification of the types of sounds to be sensed. A simplification of the training data collection process could allow a more flexible sound classification framework. We hypothesize that detailed training, a prerequisite for the majority of sound sensing techniques, is not necessary and that a significantly less detailed and time consuming data collection process can be carried out, allow-ng even a non expert to conduct the collection, labeling, and training process. To test this hypothesis, we implement a diverse density-based multiple instance learning framework, to identify a target sound, and a bag trimming algorithm, which, using the target sound, automatically segments weakly labeled soundclips to construct an accurate training set. Experiments reveal that our hypothesis is a valid one and results show that classifiers, trained using the automatically segmented training sets,were able to accurately classify unseen sound samples with accuracies comparable to supervised classifiers, achieving an average F-measure of 0.969 and 0.87 for two weakly supervised datasets

The Impact Of Geographic Location On The Utility Derived From Real-Time Public Transport Information

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken in Dublin, to ascertain passenger preferences for public transport information. The study examines the need for public transport information across three stages of a public transport trip. The stages examined are as follows; stage one: pre-trip planning from home to work, stage two: at-stop/station information, and stage three: pre-trip planning from work to home. At each of these stages, the respondents were asked to choose between several methods of receiving information, via the internet, mobile phone, call centre or at stop real-time information displays. The study utilised a stated preference approach to ascertain what type of information respondents required at each stage and their willingness to pay for this information. This paper presents the findings of the study undertaken and reports several factors which affect respondent’s willingness to pay for public transport information. This paper examines several factors relating to the impact of the geographical location of a respondent in relation to the utility they derive from real-time public transport information. The first factor examined measures the impact that the proximity of an individual to a high quality public transport option has upon utility derived from real-time information. The second factor examines how the residential location of the respondent impacts upon the utility derived from real-time information. Both of these geographical factors were examined using the results of a stated choice experiment conducted in Dublin, Ireland. The first section of this paper presents the survey methodology applied in this study. The following sections present the demographic characteristics of the sample collected and the results of the multinomial logit modelling conducted on the stated choice results. The paper concludes with a discussion and conclusions section.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Level of Service and the Transit Neighbourhood: Observations from Dublin City and Surburbs

Few studies have looked at the impact Level-of-Service (LOS) might have on the distances people walk to public transport. The relationship, if any, has implications for transit-oriented-development and the viability of different transit modes serving suburban areas. This paper examines pedestrian catchment areas and LOS across a light rail, a metro rail and two bus corridors in Dublin. Public transport users have been surveyed at 17 stops around the city and their trip origin identified. Catchment areas for bus services with high levels of service were found to be comparable and often greater than those for LRT or metro rail. 65% of all bus trip-origins are more than 500 m from stops. A standard distance analysis suggests natural catchment limits of over 1400 m for high quality bus, significantly greater than light rail and metro rail of similar service levels. The shape of transit catchment areas are also distinctive and appear to be most influenced by: network density, stopping patterns, urban gravity and quality of service. While further analysis is recommended, public transport users in Dublin city and suburbs appear more influenced by level-of-service than by modal type when deciding how far they are prepared to walk to public transport

Surface neuromuscular electrical stimulation for quadriceps strengthening pre and post total knee replacement

Background Total knee replacement has been demonstrated to be one of the most successful procedures in the treatment of osteoarthritis. However quadriceps weakness and reductions in function are commonly reported following surgery. Recently Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) has been used as an adjunct to traditional strengthening programmes. This review considers the effectiveness of NMES as a means of increasing quadriceps strength in patients before and after total knee replacement. Objectives To assess the effectiveness of NMES as a means of improving quadriceps strength before and after total knee replacement. Search methods We searched The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL),MEDLINE (1950 to January week 1 2008), EMBASE (1980 to 2008 week 2), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL)(1982 to 2007/11), AMED (1985 to Jan 2008), Web of Science, and Pedro (Jan 2008) (http://www.pedro.fhs.usyd.edu.au/index.html) for randomised controlled trials and controlled clinical trials. The electronic search was complimented by hand searches and experts in the area and companies supplying NMES equipment were also contacted. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials and controlled clinical trials were accepted that used NMES for the purpose of quadriceps strengthening either pre or post total knee replacement. Data collection and analysis Two review authors decided which studies were suitable for inclusion based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the protocol and the data was extracted using pre-developed data extraction forms. Two review authors (BM and BC) independently assessed the methodological quality of the included trials using a descriptive approach as advocated by the Musculoskeletal group. Only two studies were included in the review. Neither study presented results in a form suitable for meta-analysis. The authors of both studies were contacted to obtain the raw data but they were no longer available. The data from both studies are described in the review. Main results Two studies were identified for inclusion in the review. No significant differences were reported in either study for maximum voluntary isometric torque or endurance between the NMES group and the control group but significantly better quadriceps muscle activation was reported in the exercise and neuromuscular stimulation group compared with the exercise group alone in the second study. This difference was significant at the mid training (six week) time point but not at the twelfth week post training time point. Further analysis of both studies were not possible due to the absence of raw data scores. Both studies carried a high risk of bias. Mean values were not given for strength, endurance, cross sectional area or quality of life. Pain outcomes, patient satisfaction or adverse effects were not reported in either study. The results were presented as percentage improvements from baseline and the number of subjects in each group was unclear. Authors’ conclusions The studies found in this review do not permit any conclusions to be made about the application of neuromuscular stimulation for the purposes of quadriceps strengthening before or after total knee replacement. At this time the evidence for the use of neuromuscular stimulation for the purposes of quadriceps strengthening in this patient group is unclear