Category: Theses

Older adults experiences with ExerGames: case study for two theses

IMG_20170621_152206

We have received excellent feedback from users regarding ExerGames. These games are being available for users from a day-care centre in Porto, partner institutional in the scope of COLABORAR. Activities with the application were included in the weekly activities planning of the centre.

A doctoral degree student and a master degree student have been accompanying the process of introducing a new activity for seniors based on Information and Communication Solutions. Non-participant observations were carried out troughout several weeks, as well as questionnaires for initial and final assessment. The information collected will enable the doctoral student to develop a dissertation about the aspects involved in customer experiences of Ambient Assisted Living Technologies and the master student the role of Information and Communication Solutions in active ageing.

Thank you to participants who took this challenge from COLABORAR!

Master theses’ presentation 2017

20170703_101032

The master students who  choose to develop their theses at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS this year, have just presented their work.

Fraunhofer organized a workshop in which each student made a presentation about the work carried out within the theme of the master thesis. Then, students discussed the work with researchers. Later, Fraunhofer welcomed students in a demonstration session. The prototypes are ready and students proudly showed the solutions they developed during the semestre, along with a flyer for each project.

COLABORAR congratulates all students and is happy to see them succeed in constructing solutions for a better future.

Playing Exergames: the perspective from the users

IMG_20170531_153247

These past weeks we went to the centre in order to collect information about the use of the ExerGames. Participants in the tests answered to questionnaires about their experience with the games, their opinions and preferences.

Along with the observations carried out, these information is very valuable from the point of view of a researcher, as it will enable us to understand the aspects older adults like the most about ExerGames: the user interface, doing exercise, a good hobby, amongst others. Researchers want to know if users think the system is easy to use and if they are aware of the benefits of doing exercise for fall prevention.

A master thesis is being developed to study these aspects and evaluate the impact of information and communication technologies on older adults´well-being, contributing, therefore, to seniors’ autonomy.

IMG_20170531_153016

Interactive games are being used by older adults at a day care center

IMG_20170510_153114

Older adults of a day care center in Porto are using Fraunhofer AICOS’ interactive games for physical exercise.

The software is available for seniors at Centro Social de Soutelo so that they can try out the games and have fun doing exercises specifically developed for their age and needs regarding physical exercises. These exercises promote  muscular strength, balance, mobility and flexibility in a playful way. Besides these benefits, seniors are getting to know the application of new technologies in real life; in this case, they can see their movements being tracked by the sensors in the smartphone and the indication of their performance in the game. Therefore, they can gain the sense of being integrated in nowadays digital society. At the same time, attention is required to play the game, which is positive for older adults.

With the aim of understanding the role of technology on the active aging and well being of older adults, through the promotion of autonomy and security, a study is being carried out. Volunteers are participating in the study and giving important insights on their perceptions and opinions regarding their experience of using ExerGames. Simultaneously, we are studying de factors that contribute to the motivation of seniors  to participate in activities with interactive games.

These studies are very useful to researchers and we like seeing older adults have fun while playing the ExerGames.

 

 

The video of the Workshop of Master Students 2016

You can watch below the Fraunhofer’s video of the Workshop of Master Students 2016, in which are displayed the best moments of this event. The workshop was organized so that master students could present their work. In this video, you can also discover what last year’s master students have to say about the experience of developing their theses at Fraunhofer AICOS.

Workshop MSc Students 2016

IMG_7982

Following tradition, students presented their theses developed at Fraunhofer Portugal.

Each year, Fraunhofer AICOS receives final year students – mostly from Engineering programmes – and offers them the opportunity of being integrated in a research team. Thus, they are allowed to develop their work, within a theme of their choice, with the guidance of experienced scientists. Moreover, considering that Fraunhofer AICOS makes research with practical utility with close relationship to industry, chances are that their work will contribute for improvements on the quality of life of many people, especially older adults, disabled people and caregivers (formal and informal).

The themes of the theses were diverse, focusing on: Fall and Activity Monitoring, Chronic Diseases and Well-being Management, Assistive Environments and Information and Communication Technologies for Development.

We congratulate them all for the good work they did!

IMG_8003

Thesis presented at an international conference

pHealth2016

Last year we let you know about the Master Thesis KneeGraphy – Classification of knee arthropathy with accelerometer-based vibroarthrography.  Now, we are delighted to share with you that Dinis Moreira, the student who developed this thesis, presented his work in a prestigious international conference.

The topic was presented at pHealth2016, the “13th International Conference on Wearable, Micro & Nano Technologies for Personalized Health”, in Greece, from the 29th to the 31st of May. The accelerometer-based system for knee data acquisition and data feature extraction enables the detection and assessment of knee Osteoarthritis, which is a condition that affects many seniors. The differentiation between a pathological and a non-pathological knee is made using some sensors, which is an innovation in the diagnosis of Osteoarthritis, as it is a non-invasive method.

The system was tested by some senior volunteers who are part of the user network COLABORAR. The project continued under development at Fraunhofer AICOS and then several patients of a hospital in Porto were assessed with the system. The results from the validation tests show good efficiency in the differentiation of knees with Osteoarthritis and non-affected knees. We cannot but share the wonderful news, as we believe the people who collaborate in the tests will be happy to hear about the success of the project. We thank you again for your help!

Well done Dinis and congratulations!

Photo: Fraunhofer Portugal.

Workshop for Master students

IMG_7270

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS welcomed a group of Master Degree students who will develop their theses in our research centre.

Each year, Fraunhofer offers this opportunity, by integrating students in its R&D projects. A welcome workshop was prepared for them, in which the main procedures related to Human Resources compliance and Equipment management were explained. Then, Fraunhofer’s main R&D projects were presented, followed by important tips for the development of the theses; important resources and tools were also shared. This will help students organize their work and, on the other hand,  learning how to use specific tools for project management will certainly be very useful in the near future, whether they stay at Fraunhofer or carry out their professional activities elsewhere.

And the workshop ended wonderfully with the presentation of COLABORAR. Students got to know that we can put them in touch with senior users. This will allow students to understand requirements and to later test their applications. They also learned that they can always call the Human-Computer Interaction team for guidance and validation of test protocols. We are glad that COLABORAR will support them in this phase of great significance. We are certain that they will enjoy working in the development of software for seniors and have their help in the process of human-centred design.

COLABORAR wishes them good work and hopes they enjoy this time with us and the network!

IMG_7227

Watch the video below.

World Diabetes Day

November 14th is World Diabetes Day. The day was created by the International Diabetes Federation to help increase Diabetes awareness. Diabetes is a disease that affects people worldwide and its complications are blindness, heart attack, kidney failure and limb amputation. Blindness and amputation are consequences of Diabetic Rethinopathy and Diabetic Neuropathy, respectively. Researchers from  Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS are developing new solutions to improve the early detection of these Diabetes complications. COLABORAR wants to mark the date by highlighting those projects:

  • EyeFundusScope – “Mobile-based risk assessment of Diabetic Retinopathy by image processing” comprises an ophthalmoscopic adapter attached to a smartphone with an application that processes the images of the eye fundus captured by the optical adapter. The app allows the detection of micro-aneurysms, which are the first visible signs of Diabetic Rethinopathy, on an non-expert monitoring context, enabling an early pre-diagnosis;
EyeFundusScope
  • NeuropathyDetect – “Detection of Peripheral Neuropathy in Diabetes patients” consists of using plantar pressure sensors and smartphone built-in accelerometers to collect gait data that is then analyzed by a mobile application. It enables to identify early signs of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in diabetic patients who therefore must adopt protective measures to prevent feet injuries and be followed-up by their medical doctor, in order to improve their treatment.
IMG_1736

You can see a news piece by SIC Notícias on these two Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS’s projects below (in Portuguese).

Workshop of new Master Theses

IMG_3084

Each year, Fraunhofer Portugal welcomes new students of Master courses in its research projects. This year, many students were challenged to design, develop and implement mobile technological solutions in the areas of health and well-being of older adults and also in the field of social and economic development. Fraunhofer AICOS provided the opportunity for students to enrich their projects with  a user-centered design process and to test the prototypes of the solutions with different target groups: children, young adults, seniors and immigrants.

This year COLABORAR supported 10 Master Theses: ICT4Dgui, Exerbalance, EMGesture, mActivityClassify, mscWESEJ, LiteracyTracker, NeuropathyDetect, KneeGraphy, EzNav and SmartRecovery.

We have already presented you each of the Master Theses and now, we proudly announce their conclusion and share a common sense of job well done. All students were also interviewed about their work at Fraunhofer, so soon enough you will be able to check those interviews as well!

COLABORAR wishes a great success to all students who developed their theses at Fraunhofer Portugal and heartily thanks all the people involved in the tests, making them possible: seniors, children, young adults, immigrants, parents, teachers, collaborators and the people in charge at the institutions.