Projeto de um elemento protésico segundo uma abordagem centrada no utilizador

Tese de Doutoramento em Design apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Doutor

A platform toy for children with special educational needs

In childhood, play is critical to the successful development of children, and it can be regarded as the most important activity in their daily life, allowing interaction and discovery of the world around them. Consequently, it is important to ensure that this birthright is protected and accessible to every child, including those with special needs. Professionals, such as therapists, are often in a position where they can take advantage of the inclusion of toys in their therapies with children. Although, toys are not alike, and they must be carefully thought to be able to fulfil the child’s needs. This paper presents a proposal and the first validation of an inclusive toy, entitled “HugMe”, developed and designed with special attention for children who have cognitive and motor impairments and continue to be appealing to all children.Peer Reviewe

Advanced design of a mechatronic system for human blood typing

The possibility of human error in the blood typing analysis in emergency situations is due to the need for rapid implementation of procedures in a stressful situation and subjectivity of the analysis inherent to the health technician. Currently, the process of the blood group analysis, in these situations, occurs manually through the plate test procedure. It consists of blood collection and mixing with specific reagents, in order to determine the blood agglutination. The results are checked macroscopically. In this paper, the main objective is to present the conceptual design of a mechatronic system for human blood typing in emergency situations. The study and development of this system is performed by taking into account important aspects such as compactness, portability, reduce weight and cost. Blood typing is achieved through image processing algorithms, without human intervention. All the mentioned features are essential in developing a device that can be implemented in the market and successfully sold, avoiding human errors with the consequent increment of human safety.(undefined

Inclusive design in the context of clothing development for seniors

O envelhecimento da população é um fenómeno social caracterizado pelo aumento do número de idosos face à população total. Para a Organização Mundial de Saúde um idoso é o indivíduo entre 61 e 75 anos de idade. Diversos aspetos ao nível psicomotor diminuem com o acréscimo da idade, havendo características do corpo que se vão modifcar ao longo do tempo. Desta forma estabeleceu-se o foco deste estudo no vestuário para idosos com limitações decorrentes de patologias degenerativas das articulações. A presente investigação procura, assim, desenvolver um produto que promova a inclusão, o aumento de conforto, o aumento do bem-estar e autoestima dos idosos sem estigmatizá-los. O objetivo deste estudo é desenvolver hipóteses de vestuário superior ergonómico para a população idosa considerando as necessidades físicas e estéticas desta e elaborar um guião de procedimentos para a construção de vestuário inclusivo para os idosos. A metodologia utilizada assenta numa investigação de carácter holístico, utilizando o caso de estudo como ponto de partida e usando diferentes instrumentos para chegar aos resultados finais, como a observação direta, grupo focal e testes de usabilidade exploratório e de validação, que permitiu obter uma perspetiva da rotina de vestir/despir. Após o desenvolvimento do protótipo e sua validação foi possível aprofundar alguns requisitos formais. Com análise dos resultados obtidos conclui-se que o protótipo cumpriu os objetivos definidos, utilizando a lã como material sustentável e biodegradável assim como permitiu uma maior facilidade na vestibilidade e acessibilidade de pessoas com dificuldades ao nível da motricidade fina.Abstract : Population aging is a social phenomenon characterized by the increase in the number of elderly people compared to the total population. For the World Health Organization, an elderly person is an individual between 61 and 75 years of age. Several aspects at the psychomotor level decrease with age, and body characteristics will change over time. Thus, the focus of this study was established on clothing for the elderly with limitations, resulting from degenerative pathologies of the joints. The present investigation therefore seeks to develop a product that promotes inclusion, increased comfort, increased wellbeing and self-esteem for the elderly without stigmatizing them. The objective of this study is to develop hypotheses of ergonomic superior clothing for the elderly population considering the physical and aesthetic needs of this population and to elaborate a guide of procedures for the construction of inclusive clothing for the elderly. The methodology used is based on holistic research, using the case study as a starting point and using different instruments to reach the fnal results, such as direct observation, focus group and exploratory and validation usability tests, which allowed to obtain a perspective the dressing/undressing routine. After the development of the prototype and its validation, it was possible to deepen some formal requirements. With the analysis of the results obtained, it is concluded that the prototype fulflled the defned objectives, using wool as a sustainable and biodegradable material, as well as allowing greater ease in the wearability and accessibility of people with difculties in terms of fine motor skillsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bath-Ambience-A mechatronic system for assisting the caregivers of bedridden people

The health of older people is receiving special attention and dedication nowadays, with the aim of increasing their general wellbeing and quality of life. Studies into different aspects of the care of the elderly have found that emphasis should be given to solving problems related to bathing in different situations and environments. In particular, it is important to develop new assistive technologies to streamline and ease the burden of a caregiver's daily tasks. Generally-speaking, in the case of bedridden patients, bathing is typically carried out manually by a caregiver, using towels, sponges, and a water basin. Nevertheless, this apparently simple task needs some precautions in order to avoid the risk of microbial infections, falls and other injuries. With that in mind, this paper presents the design of a portable washing system, called Bath-Ambience, which enables bedridden patients to be bathed efficiently without having to be moved from their position. This portable system can be installed in different situations, both in a domestic setting, and in specialized institutions, and allows the caregiver to perform the bathing tasks without compromising health and safety, thereby making it possible to offer a comfortable and hygienic procedure to patients, improving their quality of life. This paper presents the design of the portable Bath-Ambience washing system, which provides efficient assistance for bathing bedridden patients without moving them to another place. This system is mainly dedicated for integration a smart home application in to allow bathing everywhere.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Technology and special educational needs: let's play “Doing Good Deeds!”

“Doing Good Deeds!” is a game directed to children with special needs, in pre and elementary school age that aims to promote the development of social skills in diferente contexts. Structurally, this game has available a set of Avatars that players can choose to represent them. To adapt the game to each child, an administration module was developed, corresponding to the back office of the game, which allows the educator to create or change contexts, difficulty levels and sequences. This module includes also the visualization of the user performance, in particular the duration of each game, the number of attempts with and without success, allowing the educator to analyze the progress of each player.The authors would like to express their acknowledgments to COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013 for the support. The authors are also grateful to the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) through the financial support, Pest-OE/CED/UI1661/2014 projects, FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Program – COMPETE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Solutions to better life

With the increasing number of aged people, especially in developed countries, Wellbeing solutions have became an important subject to be explored and developed. Currently, as specialized Institutions in geriatric care cannot cope with the increasing requests for support of quality of life, patients have to remain at their homes having as caregiver the other member of the couple or a member of close family. A solution for supporting the caregiver, during assisting the bedridden person with some basic tasks as eating, taking a bath and/or hygiene care is of utmost importance. This paper presents an overview for supporting the caregiver on providing the basic needs for bedridden persons. From safety needs to repositioning and hygiene care of bedridden persons are taken into account, by developing specific mechatronic devices for supporting and helping caregivers on those tasks. The proposed mechatronic systems must, ideally, reduce the number of caregivers and the amount of spent and needed effort

Thertact-System: A Virtual Reality Exoskeleton Gait Training Simulator Controlled by Brain-Computer Interface

This paper presents a developer’s overview of the Thertact system that combines virtual reality, brain-computer-interface and thermal-tactile stimulation in a gait training simulator for a reha- bilitation protocol focused in promoting neurological recovery in spinal cord injured patients. We describe each part of the system, with special focus on aspects that have impact on the resulting overall sense of embodiment. The system comprises innovative aspects, such as the simulation of exoskeleton gait movement and thermal-tactile haptic feedback, and have shown promising results on a first case study with one patient in real hospital setting

Equilíbrio colusivo no mercado brasileiro de gás liquefeito de petróleo (GLP)

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Departamento de Economia, 2006.Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma análise do mercado brasileiro de distribuição de gás liquefeito de petróleo (GLP). É dado especial destaque para alguns dos fatores de natureza regulatória que levaram à atual configuração oligopolística deste mercado. Também buscou-se, à luz da teoria econômica, analisar o comportamento estratégico das firmas e suas conseqüências no que se refere a condutas que objetivem aumentar seus lucros e diminuir a probabilidade da entrada de novos competidores. Utilizando o instrumental teórico da Nova Economia Industrial, tentou-se determinar se existem indícios de que as empresas brasileiras distribuidoras de GLP se comportaram de maneira colusiva de acordo com o modelo proposto por Lambson (1987). Os resultados da análise mostram que existem indícios de que exista comportamento colusivo dentre os participantes desse mercado no período analisado. ______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe objective of this dissertation is to present an analysis of the brazilian market of distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Special attention is given to the current oligopolistic configuration of this market and its consequences on the behavior of the firms as a form of increasing its profits and diminishing the probability of entrance of new competitors. Using theoretical instruments of the New Industrial Economy, we are interested in searching for evidence of collusive behavior in this market in accordance with the model proposed by Lambson (1987). The results show that indeed there is evidence of collusive behavior during the analyzed period

Regional potter interpretations: Case Study of synergic outcomes in master’s in Design and Product Development

Designers are key players in the process of cultural heritage interpretation and appropriation applied to other forms of production and expression in contemporary societies. In the academic training in masters of product design, knowledge creation through research as well public demonstrations of how this theoretical body is applied is quite relevant. These demonstrations allow the design to step up towards society and to show its capacity to add value and support decay activities, framing them into contemporary society and held it relevance in regional identity and economics. This article reports the outcomes of a synergic approach between master (MA) students, a museological institution and regional pottery artisans, in the development of terracotta tableware artefacts. In the designerly ways of knowing [1] a common concern is how design research and design education are contributing to the development of design as a discipline and how to reduce the gap between society and academy. Exploring a methodologic and co-creative approach of proposals, we help the students to develop a strategic and apply investigation to add value to regional and national pottery heritage and its contemporary use. By guiding them through defining what is (real context) and consequent deconstruction (abstract) of it, followed by exploration and construction of new scenarios of what could be. This approach is followed by the gap between analysis and synthesis, acting as bridge from the problem (knowing) to the solution (doing). With a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach, the students are trained to develop social and technical skills that place them into a working field and cooperation with several actors and stakeholders that increase research and learning skills through practical activities. On the other hand, the reconversion process of content and communication of practical research outcomes outside the academic field, supports the proximity between design and society (artisans, economic, cultural and governance actors), consolidates partnerships and collaborative processes