Towards an Integrated Development Environment for Context-Aware User Interfaces

The emergence of mobile computing devices brings along the fact that users interact with computers in various environments. The user interface of a mobile system can be affected by environmental context. Several approaches succeed in providing architectures and frameworks to support the building and reuse of software components considering context information. Taking into account context information in designing the interaction of a system, however, has not yet been extensively investigated. In this paper we will discuss an Integrated Development Environment, DynaMo-AID, we are developing to support the design, prototyping, evaluation and deployment of context-aware interactive systems

CASSIS: a Modeling Language for Customizable User Interface Designs

Abstract. Current user interface modeling languages usually focus on modeling a single user interface and have a fixed set of user interface components; adding another user interface component requires an extension of the language. In this paper we present CASSIS, a concise language that supports creation of user interface components using models instead of language extensions. It also allows the specification of design-time and runtime user interface variations. The support for variations has been used to generate constraints for custom user interface components, to specify design patterns and design decisions. CASSIS has been used in several projects including a multi-disciplinary applied research project

Improved Haptic Linear Lines for Better Movement Accuracy in Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Force feedback has proven to be beneficial in the domain of robot-assisted rehabilitation. According to the patients' personal needs, the generated forces may either be used to assist, support, or oppose their movements. In our current research project, we focus onto the upper limb training for MS (multiple sclerosis) and CVA (cerebrovascular accident) patients, in which a basic building block to implement many rehabilitation exercises was found. This building block is a haptic linear path: a second-order continuous path, defined by a list of points in space. Earlier, different attempts have been investigated to realize haptic linear paths. In order to have a good training quality, it is important that the haptic simulation is continuous up to the second derivative while the patient is enforced to follow the path tightly, even when low or no guiding forces are provided. In this paper, we describe our best solution to these haptic linear paths, discuss the weaknesses found in practice, and propose and validate an improvement

Design Aspects for Rehabilitation Games for MS Patients

ABSTRACT Computer-supported rehabilitation can benefit many groups of patients. However, when designing such a therapy, it is important to take the characteristics of the patient population and the wishes of the therapists involved into account. This paper therefore focuses on the requirements of rehabilitation games for Multiple Sclerosis patients. As we have created a system for rehabilitating Multiple Sclerosis, based on a virtual environment with force feedback, we will discuss how these requirements can be met using the rehabilitation system as an example

Social-aware event handling within the FallRisk project

Objectives: With the uprise of the Internet of Things, wearables and smartphones are moving to the foreground. Ambient Assisted Living solutions are, for example, created to facilitate ageing in place. One example of such systems are fall detection systems. Currently, there exists a wide variety of fall detection systems using different methodologies and technologies. However, these systems often do not take into account the fall handling process, which starts after a fall is identified or this process only consists of sending a notification. The FallRisk system delivers an accurate analysis of incidents occurring in the home of the older adults using several sensors and smart devices. Moreover, the input from these devices can be used to create a social aware event handling process, which leads to assisting the older adult as soon as possible and in the best possible way. Methods: The Fall Risk system consists of several components, located in different places. When an incident is identified by the FallRisk system, the event handling process will be followed to assess the fall incident and select the most appropriate caregiver, based on the input of the smartphones of the caregivers. In this process, availability and location are automatically taken into account. Results: The event handling process was evaluated during a decision tree workshop to verify if the current day practices reflect the requirements of all the stakeholders. Other knowledge, which is uncovered during this workshop can be taken into account to further improve the process. Conclusions: The FallRisk offers a way to detect fall incidents in an accurate way and uses context information to assign the incident to the most appropriate caregiver. This way, the consequences of the fall are minimized and help is at location as fast as possible. It could be concluded that the current guidelines on fall handling reflect the needs of the stakeholders. However, current technology evolutions, such as the uptake of wearables and smartphones, enables the improvement of these guidelines, such as the automatic ordering of the caregivers based on their location and availability

The CoroPrevention-SDM Approach : A Technology-supported Shared Decision Making Approach for a Comprehensive Secondary Prevention Program for Cardiac Patients

After a cardiac event, secondary prevention is recommended to foster recovery and reduce the risk of recurrent events. European guidelines and EAPC position statements on prevention of cardiovascular diseases recommend a holistic approach that actively engages patients by using shared decision making (SDM). It has been demonstrated that telerehabilitation can be a feasible and effective add-on or alternative compared to conventional in-hospital secondary prevention. However, till date, there is no eHealth solution that offers a holistic approach for secondary prevention that includes SDM. In this paper, we present the CoroPrevention-SDM approach, a technology-supported shared decision making approach for a comprehensive secondary prevention program for cardiac patients. The CoroPrevention Tool Suite consists of three applications that support patients and caregivers in following this approach: 1) a caregiver dashboard that includes decision support systems and supports SDM, 2) a patient mobile application that supports patients in making behaviour changes in their daily life, and 3) an extended ePRO application that collects patient reported outcomes and patient preferences. In a formative usability study, we assessed patients’ and caregivers’ opinion about our approach. The study indicated that both are willing to use our proposed approach to collaboratively set behavioural goals during SDM encounters.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Do clinicians prescribe exercise similarly in patients with different cardiovascular diseases? Findings from the EAPC EXPERT working group survey

Background: Although disease-specific exercise guidelines for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are widely available, it remains uncertain whether these different exercise guidelines are integrated properly for patients with different CVDs. The aim of this study was to assess the inter-clinician variance in exercise prescription for patients with various CVDs and to compare these prescriptions with recommendations from the EXercise Prescription in Everyday practice and Rehabilitative Training (EXPERT) tool, a digital decision support system for integrated state-of-the-art exercise prescription in CVD. Design: The study was a prospective observational survey. Methods: Fifty-three CV rehabilitation clinicians from nine European countries were asked to prescribe exercise intensity (based on percentage of peak heart rate (HRpeak)), frequency, session duration, programme duration and exercise type (endurance or strength training) for the same five patients. Exercise prescriptions were compared between clinicians, and relationships with clinician characteristics were studied. In addition, these exercise prescriptions were compared with recommendations from the EXPERT tool. Results: A large inter-clinician variance was found for prescribed exercise intensity (median (interquartile range (IQR)): 83 (13) % of HRpeak), frequency (median (IQR): 4 (2) days/week), session duration (median (IQR): 45 (18) min/session), programme duration (median (IQR): 12 (18) weeks), total exercise volume (median (IQR): 1215 (1961) peak-effort training hours) and prescription of strength training exercises (prescribed in 78% of all cases). Moreover, clinicians’ exercise prescriptions were significantly different from those of the EXPERT tool (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study reveals significant inter-clinician variance in exercise prescription for patients with different CVDs and disagreement with an integrated state-of-the-art system for exercise prescription, justifying the need for standardization efforts regarding integrated exercise prescription in CV rehabilitation