Computational geometry

Psychophysiological research integrating heart rate variability (HRV) has increased during the last two decades, particularly given the fact that HRV is able to index cardiac vagal tone. Vagal tone, which represents the activity of the parasympathetic system, is acknowledged to be linked with many phenomena relevant for psychophysiological research, including self-regulation at the cognitive, emotional, social, and health levels. The ease of HRV collection and measurement coupled with the fact it is relatively affordable, non-invasive and pain free makes it widely accessible to many researchers. This ease of access should not obscure the difficulty of interpretation of HRV findings that can be easily misconstrued, however this can be controlled to some extent through correct methodological processes. Standards of measurement were developed two decades ago by a Task Force within HRV research, and recent reviews updated several aspects of the Task Force paper. However, many methodological aspects related to HRV in psychophysiological research have to be considered if one aims to be able to draw sound conclusions, which makes it difficult to interpret findings and to compare results across laboratories. Those methodological issues have mainly been discussed in separate outlets, making difficult to get a grasp on them, and thus this paper aims to address this issue. It will help to provide psychophysiological researchers with recommendations and practical advice concerning experimental designs, data analysis, and data reporting. This will ensure that researchers starting a project with HRV and cardiac vagal tone are well informed regarding methodological considerations in order for their findings to contribute to knowledge advancement in their field.

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Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Vagal Tone in Psychophysiological Research - Recommendations for Experiment Planning, Data Analysis, and Data Reporting.

The number of devices on the Internet exceeded the number of people on the Internet in 2008, and is estimated to reach 50 billion in 2020. A wide-ranging Internet of Things (IOT) ecosystem is emerging to support the process of connecting real-world objects like buildings, roads, household appliances, and human bodies to the Internet via sensors and microprocessor chips that record and transmit data such as sound waves, temperature, movement, and other variables. The explosion in Internet-connected sensors means that new classes of technical capability and application are being created. More granular 24/7 quantified monitoring is leading to a deeper understanding of the internal and external worlds encountered by humans. New data literacy behaviors such as correlation assessment, anomaly detection, and high-frequency data processing are developing as humans adapt to the different kinds of data flows enabled by the IOT. The IOT ecosystem has four critical functional steps: data creation, information generation, meaning-making, and action-taking. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current and rapidly emerging ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IOT).

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Sensor Mania! The Internet of Things, Wearable Computing, Objective Metrics, and the Quantified Self 2.0

The increasing incidence of melanoma has recently promoted the development of computer-aided diagnosis systems for the classification of dermoscopic images. Unfortunately, the performance of such systems cannot be compared since they are evaluated in different sets of images by their authors and there are no public databases available to perform a fair evaluation of multiple systems. In this paper, a dermoscopic image database, called PH2, is presented. The PH2 database includes the manual segmentation, the clinical diagnosis, and the identification of several dermoscopic structures, performed by expert dermatologists, in a set of 200 dermoscopic images. The PH2 database will be made freely available for research and benchmarking purposes.

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PH 2 - A dermoscopic image database for research and benchmarking

Wearable health monitoring systems have gained considerable interest in recent years owing to their tremendous promise for personal portable health watching and remote medical practices. The sensors with excellent flexibility and stretchability are crucial components that can provide health monitoring systems with the capability of continuously tracking physiological signals of human body without conspicuous uncomfortableness and invasiveness. The signals acquired by these sensors, such as body motion, heart rate, breath, skin temperature and metabolism parameter, are closely associated with personal health conditions. This review attempts to summarize the recent progress in flexible and stretchable sensors, concerning the detected health indicators, sensing mechanisms, functional materials, fabrication strategies, basic and desired features. The potential challenges and future perspectives of wearable health monitoring system are also briefly discussed.

Flexible, Stretchable Sensors for Wearable Health Monitoring: Sensing Mechanisms, Materials, Fabrication Strategies and Features

Sometimes, one needs to control different emotional situations which can lead the person suffering them to dangerous situations, in both the medium and short term. There are studies which indicate that stress increases the risk of cardiac problems. In this study we have designed and built a stress sensor based on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), and controlled by ZigBee. In order to check the device's performance, we have used 16 adults (eight women and eight men) who completed different tests requiring a certain degree of effort, such as mathematical operations or breathing deeply. On completion, we appreciated that GSR is able to detect the different states of each user with a success rate of 76.56%. In the future, we plan to create an algorithm which is able to differentiate between each state.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/5/6075/pdf

A Stress Sensor Based on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Controlled by ZigBee

Within the group of individuals with ASD there are a number of people who interact well with the new technologies, which makes them the main beneficiaries of this project. The project described in this paper consists of designing and implementing a multimedia application within the framework of Serious Games. The main aim is to create a system composed of a set of Serious Games oriented to first aid education: what to do in certain situations, basic knowledge about healthcare, medical specialties… all employing the use of new technologies such as the Android operating system implemented on mobile phones or tablets. Not only technological results have been analyzed, but the opinions of users and specialists taking part in the application's validation and initial testing have also been taken into account.

Serious Game based on first aid education for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using android mobile devices

This review sets out the lines of development and research currently being conducted into Serious Games which pursue some form of benefit in the field of personal health. Although video games are traditionally associated with software developments, developing them in the social and health-care field involves studying the associated hardware and paying attention to aspects related to interaction with the game. Serious Games for Health cover matters related to education and the treatment of illnesses, awareness enhancement and psychological treatment, as well as training doctors in surgical techniques, for example. This chapter includes a review of relevant Serious Game developments over the last ten years and examines new trends.

Can game-based therapies be trusted? Is game-based education effective? A systematic review of the Serious Games for health and education

This paper presents a game for kids with autism. The system provides a solution to the learning and enhancement of habitual language in kids and teenagers with an autism spectrum using a simple and easy game focused on their personal needs and characteristics. This game is composed by two separated applications: the management application and physical game. The results are represented as a bar chart with the % score of the correct pronunciation of each word. These results can be exported and stored so as to keep a temporal register of final user's progression.

Computer game to learn and enhance speech problems for children with autism

Exercise the brain and perform physical activities slow cognitive impairment and help optimize brain functions, especially memory and thinking. This tool focuses on therapeutic aspects of both cognitive and physical stimulation of the elderly, that is, it improves the memory by performing mental activities and physical exercise at the same time. To achieve this, a Kinect based Windows application has been developed intended specifically to improve the language area of the brain function. While performing mental activities the user must resolve them by doing various physical motions. KiMentia uses skeletal tracking to capture the body movements, enabling users to control and interact with the computer without any intermediary controller. Furthermore, all the data generated during the session is stored in order to log every rehabilitation activity. Preliminary tests have shown an increase in the users' motivation while using the tool forgetting that it focuses on the cognitive stimulation. In a future research, the results from a long period study will be reported describing the cognitive performance of the patients.

Amaia Méndez Zorrilla

Papers

A Stress Sensor Based on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Controlled by ZigBee

Serious Game based on first aid education for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using android mobile devices

Can game-based therapies be trusted? Is game-based education effective? A systematic review of the Serious Games for health and education

Computer game to learn and enhance speech problems for children with autism

KiMentia: Kinect based tool to help cognitive stimulation for individuals with dementia