About the Living Lab: Thess-AHALL Active and Healthy Ageing Living Labs

Infrastructure

Psychologists, pedagogues, engineers, computer scientists, doctors, experts in communication studies and experts in sport science.

Stakeholders Population

Services

Researchers granted Transnational Access to AUTH Living Environments Simulation have access to the following services:

→ Networking and capacity building: Capacity building; Expert opinion, and advisory services; Innovation network orchestration; Panel management; Stakeholder (and partner) analysis and mapping. Planning to offer: Grant writing and funding application support service; Legal, regulation and safety standard support; Marketing and sales support; Public procurement support services.

→ Project planning and management: Intake and matching; Expert opinion, and advisory services. Planning to offer: Temporary research funding.

→ Market and competitor intelligence services: Access to data; Competitor and market analysis and benchmarking; Expert opinion, and advisory services; Stakeholder (and partner) analysis and mapping. Planning to offer: Foresighting (trends, weak signals and wild cards); Legal, regulation and safety standard support.

→ Co-creation: Co-creation session; Expert opinion, and advisory services; Stakeholder (and partner) analysis and mapping. Planning to offer: Foresighting (trends, weak signals and wild cards), Legal, regulation and safety standard support, Public procurement support services.

→ Testing and validation: Clinical trials; Concept and proof-of-concept tests – concept feasibility study; Expert opinion, and advisory services; Idea selection and testing; Impact assessment and validation test; Large-scale real-life testing and piloting; Prototyping test; Simulation test; Small-scale real-life testing and experimentation; Usability testing. Planning to offer: Legal, regulation and safety standard support.

→ Advisory services: Planning to offer: Public procurement support services; Expert opinion, and advisory services; Legal, regulation and safety standard support.

→ Marketing and sales support: Planning to offer: Expert opinion, and advisory services; Public procurement support services.

Visit our Living Lab Harmonisation Wiki Page for detailed descriptions of the Research & Development services that Living Labs offer.

Equipment

The following technologies and devices are available at AUTH Living Environments Simulation:

→ Activity tracking/monitoring

• Body Battery (Tanita MC-780)
• Body Positιon (Kinect 2, Kinect 3, Mentorage)
• Body posture (Kinect 2, Kinect 3, Mentorage)
• Calories burned (Fitbit charge 4,5)
• Gait (Kinect 2, Kinect 3, Mentorage, Fitbit charge 4,5)
• Human balance (Kinect 2, Kinect 3, Mentorage, HUR BT4)
• Inverse kinematics data (NeurosuitUp Jacket)
• Orientation (Adafruit 9-DOF Absolute Orientation IMU Fusion Breakout – BNO055 x8)
• Physical activity (Withings Pulse HR, Fitbit Charge 4,5)
• Physical performance (Withings Pulse HR, Fitbit Charge 4,5)
• Physiological and behavioural biomarkers (Empatica E4 wristband)
• Sleep (Fitbit Charge 4,5, Wavelet Wristband)
• Steps (Fitbit Charge 4,5, Wavelet Wristband)
• Stress Level (Fitbit Charge 4,5, Garmin Vivosmart 4, Wavelet Wristband)
• VO2 (Garmin Vivosmart 4)
• Blood oxygen (Wavelet Wristband)
• Blood sugar level (iHealth Gluco)

→ Assisting technology

• Natural Language Understanding (Mozilla Foundation Service (Deep Speech))
• Video stream (Fisheye Lens, Kinect 3, Mentorage)
• Voice commands (Mozilla Foundation Service (Deep Speech)
• Walking Speed (Kinect 2, Kinect 3, Mentorage)

→Biometrics

• Heart rate (Withings Pulse HR, Fitbit Charge 4,5, Sigma PC3 watch, Garmin Vivosmart 4, Wavelet Wristband)

→ Biosignals

• Electrophysiological timeseries (NEUROFAX EEG-1200 Nihon Kohden with 128 channels)
• EEG (NEUROFAX EEG-1200 Nihon Kohden with 128 channels)

→ Environment/context

• Indoor movements (LOCS System)

→ Physiological monitoring

• Weight BMI (iHealth scale)
• Virtual reality (Oculus VR headset)

→ Virtual reality/interactive technology

• Gesture detection (smile) (Mentorage, cameras)

→ Custom made Devices

• ThessHF app: n app desogned to help patients with heart failure self report and monitor their status. It integrates blood pressure, Weight, dyspnoia, blood glucose, swellings, bpm, SpO2, patient’s mood and reaction to certain assistive tips
• CAPTAIN: a new hardware device that provides wellbeing coaching for older using projections, voice interaction and AI tools for monitoring the user inside the home
• LLM care: is an integrate solution for cognitive and physical training of older adults using ICT tools

Visit our Living Lab Harmonisation Wiki Page for more details regarding Living Lab technologies and devices.

Use Cases based on Researchers Expertise

Researchers from the following domains have been identified as the most appropriate for Transnational Access to AUTH Living Environment simulation:

→ Policy Makers: Studying the impact of new service models or new collaboration models in healthcare, designing or improving policies, gathering requirements for improving health and wellbeing of citizens, co-creation of research methodologies for policy making.

→ Experts in communication studies: Defining written, oral, visual and digital communication within a certain workplace. Evaluating (multi professional) healthcare team collaboration, communication and debriefing in various healthcare situations in simulated environments (especially in Simulation lab).

→ Computer/Technology Scientists: Developing systems/tools/ technologies, testing and evaluating an ICT tool, prototype and real-life testing, computer vision & AI, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality, Cybersecurity

→ (Clinical, social, developmental, neuro-) Psychologists: Studying the behaviour and the mental wellbeing of participants, conducting psychometrics evaluation and real-life setting experimentation/observation/real life testing

→ Social workers/researchers: Conducting an investigation in accordance with the scientific methods and tools, studying the impact of new care models and/or care innovations on society, developing models for a caring and inclusive society

→ Researchers with clinical expertise: (Doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, specialists, physiotherapists etc.), conducting research of healthcare services and practices, research on symptomatology or epidemiology of a disease, analysis of clinical effects of research performed in the study, e.g; via real life testing

→ Experts in UX research and assessment: Developing the process for user experience design (UXD, UED, or XD) supporting user behavior through usability, usefulness, and desirability provided in the interaction with a product or service, addressing all aspects as perceived by users with a focus on the quality of the user experience. Studying and experimenting the best practices for UI/UX and evaluating user’s experience in different situations and while using different tools

→ Experts in sport science: Experimenting novel training methods, and their effectiveness in various dimensions such as safety, engagement, and physical capabilities. Studying the impact of physical movements in various functions and wellbeing features

→ Experts in rehabilitation (physical, cognitive): Physiology, physiotherapy, occupational health research, rehabilitation and prevention. Cognitive diseases assistive technology, neuromuscular rehabilitation assistive technology

→ Pedagogues/educators: Evaluating different pedagogical approaches and their impact learning performance (especially in Simulation lab)

→ Citizen Scientists / users as co-researchers: User empowerment, training, design, analysis and implementation of strategies and methodologies for user engagement and for raising awareness and generating citizen participation

→ Biomedical researchers: Studying biochemical and physiological functions, investigating how the human body works with the aim of finding new ways to improve health. Biomedical engineering knowledge (Home hospitalization, Transitional Care, Multifunctional interaction), as well as digital biomarkers analysis (e.g. for cognitive state)

→ Experts in accessibility Design: Validating accessible Architectonics and escape route models with VR experiment and real-life simulations

→ Neuroscientists: Focusing on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions (cognitive neuroscience, EEG-based BMI research, protocol / paradigm testing, study framework evaluation)

→ Experts in organizational studies: Co-creation, experimentation, organizational research, experts by experience / pier support included. Evaluation how multistakeholder collaboration and co-creation is done and how effective it is. Evaluates experimentations and experimentation culture. How users are involved into these processes

→ Data Scientists: Collecting, analysing and interpreting digital data, such as data analytics in healthcare and digital patient recordings (how patient information recording process is managed and utilized during the intervention by using digital tools in simulated situations).

Operations

→Previous Projects:

• CAPTAIN: CAPTAIN used an agile co-creation methodology and engaged older adults throughout the design and development phases for the creation of a digital coach that supports people at their home environment. CAPTAIN device was piloted in real homes of older adults and was perceived as easy to use and useful tool.
• SISCODE: Within the SISCODE context, Thess-AHALL has aimed to tackle the risk of social exclusion in relation to ageism and enhance the active citizenship of older adults, deploying an innovative participatory and experiential life-long learning programme for early-stage researchers over 65 years old, the so-called “Partners of Experience”.

→Running/Ongoing Projects:

• LifeChamps: LifeChamps is a 3-year Research and Innovation Action (RIA) (2019-2022), funded under the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission. Its main focus is on delivering a smart, personalised and secure platform that will monitor health outcomes and address cancers’ comorbidities of older cancer survivors by preventing long-term side effects and improving Quality of Life(QoL). The LifeChamps project aiming at supporting and delivering the highest -after treatment- care, prevention, and advice mechanisms to older cancer patients, their caregivers and clinicians, using emerging developments in the fields of Big Data, Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence.
• Erasmus+ projects: It concerns a group of projects (AD-Autonomy, AD-Arts, ERMAT, mHealth AD, CP-AGEING, ADHD Care, DS Ageing) that have as a main goal the co-creation and co-validation of educational material for vulnerable populations and their informal and formal caregivers. The concerned populations range from people with dementia, Down Syndrome, persons with cerebral palsy, people with mobility issues etc. and are involved in all the projects activities from the design of the material until the final use and testing.