Innovation in trustworthy video-based solutions for Active and Assisted Living (AAL) The visuAAL team wishes you a Merry Christmas and success in the New Year. Dr. Sophia Hick and Dr. Caterina Maidhof defended their doctoral thesis on video-based AAL at RWTH Aachen University "Examining the Reliability of Video-Based AAL Systems in Critical Health Decisions" by Sophia Hick In early November, Dr. Sophia Hick successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the Institute for Communication Sciences at RWTH Aachen University. Her research, titled "Reliability of medical technology in serious health decisions: findings in the context of ambient-assisted everyday life," examined the reliability of video-based AAL (vAAL) systems. Chaired by Professor Torsten Voigt, the examining committee included Professors Martina Ziefle and Katrin Arning. Dr. Hick's study provided crucial insights into enhancing vAAL systems to better meet patients' needs, thereby improving trust and usability in healthcare technology. Her findings emphasized the impact of situational variability and interpersonal factors on trust assessments, offering practical implications for tailoring vAAL systems to users' requirements. "Privacy and Acceptance Perceptions of Video-Based AAL Technologies" by Caterina Maidhof On 13 December, Dr. Caterina Maidhof brilliantly defended her thesis entitled ‘Perceptions of privacy and acceptance of video-based AAL technologies’ at the Chair of Communication Sciences at RWTH Aachen University. The defence was chaired by Prof. Dr. Verena Nitsch, with Prof. Dr. Martina Ziefle and Prof. Dr. André Calero Valdez as examiners. Dr. Maidhof investigates the relationship between the perception of privacy and the acceptance of video-based AAL technologies, focusing on how different user needs and contexts determine adoption. The main results reveal that activity-specific privacy needs, user control and the relationship between privacy and utility are key in influencing acceptance. Practical findings include the importance of privacy-by-design principles, customisable settings and user empowerment. These contributions pave the way for the development of user-centred, privacy-friendly healthcare solutions that effectively help ageing populations. AI-Driven Care by Maksymilian M. Kuzmicz : Balancing Interests in Active ans Assisted Living At the Nordic Conference on Law and IT, our researcher Maksymilian M. Kuzmicz presented insights on AI-driven care in Active and Assisted Living (AAL) and the crucial balance of interests involved. The talk explored the diversity of technical solutions and stakeholders in AAL, various approaches to balancing interests in European law, and offered practical conclusions for providers and legislators. This research, part of the visuAAL MSCA Innovative Training Network and GoodBrother COST Action, was conducted at Stockholm University's Juridicum, in affiliation with the WASP-HS program, contributing to the ongoing dialogue on ethical and legal considerations in AI-assisted care for older adults. Irene Ballester's Advances in AI for Dementia Care We are pleased to showcase the recent contributions of our researcher, Irene Ballester, from her participation in prestigious conferences, which reflect research advances in assistive technology for dementia care. Her work on how artificial intelligence can improve the autonomy and privacy of people with dementia in their daily lives also addresses ethical considerations related to users' rights in healthcare technology. Here is a summary of his latest achievements. At the 2024 IEEE FG Workshops, Irene Ballester and Martin Kampel presented their study "Ethical Impact Identification of a Dementia Behaviour Monitoring System." This research explores the ethical considerations of dementia monitoring technologies, examining values like autonomy, dignity, and privacy. As AI advances in healthcare, understanding these ethical principles is crucial for developing responsible solutions that balance innovation with respecting the rights and well-being of individuals with dementia. Read more Researchers Irene Ballester, Markus Gall, Thomas Münzer, and Martin Kampel recently published a follow-up study on ToiletHelp in the Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing. This study evaluates the interaction design of ToiletHelp and demonstrates its positive impact on older adults, including enhanced feelings of security and independence. The results not only validate ToiletHelp's success, but also its potential to improve care for the elderly and contribute to expanding the design of human-computer interaction. Read more At the 2024 IEEE FG Conference, researchers Vida Adeli, Soroush Mehraban, Irene Ballester, Yasamin Zarghami, Andrea Sabo, Andrea Iaboni and Babak Taati presented their study ‘Benchmarking Skeleton-Based Motion Encoder Models for Clinical Applications: Estimating Parkinson's Disease Severity in Walking Sequences’. This research introduces a framework for assessing Parkinson's disease severity through gait analysis using human motion encoders. It is the first evaluation of skeleton-based movement encoders in healthcare for clinical use in the monitoring of Parkinson's disease. Read more Irene Ballester, Ondřej Peterka and Martin Kampel have recently presented at ICPR2024 SPiKE, a new method for 3D human pose estimation. Unlike traditional approaches, SPiKE uses point cloud sequences and a Transformer architecture, and achieves 89.19% mAP in the ITOP benchmark test with significantly reduced inference times.This innovation, just released, promises to transform augmented reality, robotics and motion analysis applications, paving the way for more accurate and efficient human interaction technologies. Click here to Read more and acces to code and models at GitHub SHARP by Wiktor Mucha The paper "SHARP: Segmentation of Hands and Arms by Range Using Pseudo-depth for Enhanced Egocentric 3D Hand Pose Estimation and Action Recognition", authored by Wiktor Mucha, Michael Wray, and Martin Kampel, has been published in the book "Pattern Recognition. ICPR International Workshops and Challenges", part of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Click to Read full text or Access to code. In the future Our next event II Gerontechnology Conference We are already preparing the II Gerontechnology Conference 2025, which will take place on June 12 and 13, at the University of Alicante. The goal is to establish a dynamic forum to create synergies among the various disciplines involved and foster multidisciplinary cooperation to drive the development of innovative solutions for active and assisted living of older adults. Keep up to date JUNE 12-13 visuAAL is an Innovative Training Network that brings together 5 beneficiaries and 14 partner organizations from Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The aim of visuAAL is to bridge the knowledge gap between users’ requirements and the appropriate and secure use of video-based AAL technologies to deliver effective and supportive care to older adults managing their health and wellbeing This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 861091. view this email in your browser Copyright © 2024 Universidad de Alicante, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Universidad de Alicante S/n Carr. de San Vicente del Raspeig San Vicente del Raspeig, VC 03690 Spain Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. LinkedIn FOLLOW ON X VISIT OUR PAGE