Special Section on Smart Wearable Devices for Human Health and Protection (original) (raw)
Related papers
Designing for the pandemic: individual and collective safety devices
Strategic Design Research Journal
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has generated a demand for health-related safety equipment. The development of these emergency products raises several questions, in particular the possible lack of concern for health, satisfaction, and safety of users in addition to the immediate safety against the COVID-19. Considering these issues, the objectives of this work are to categorize, identify trends, and propose strategic approaches to the development and alteration of individual and collective safety solutions for facing the pandemic. For that, we conducted a review and categorization of industrial design products developed during the pandemic using the database Behance. We found 171 developed products. Of these, we classified 99 as individual safety solutions, with the majority being masks and face shields, 59 as being collective safety solutions like disinfection booths, physical transparent separators, and sanitary dispensers. And 13 were solutions geared to hospital use such as hospita...
Managing Catastrophic Events by Wearable Mobile Systems
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Proetex is a European Integrated Project dedicated to micro-and nano-technology-based wearable equipment for emergency operators. During the first year of work, a careful analysis of several emergency scenarios has been carried out and has resulted in the design of a complete "smart" uniform for fire-fighters and emergency rescuers. These garments aim at monitoring both physiological parameters, position and posture of the operators and the presence of external potential sources of danger and to send these data to a remote coordinating unit. In the following, the main issues of the design flow will be described and discussed.
in Design for the health emergency
Convergences - Journal of Research and Arts Education
The Pandemic has forced change, raising questions about design models, business models, incentives and community education. The urgency of containment measures has redefined the role of health and highlighted the role of Design, which is involved in emergency situations, in designing the universe of protective devices, intervening with Human Centered Design approaches, proposing shared strategies that translate the knowledge and experience of the most advanced research into products. The case study collects the results obtained from the elaboration of the research project financed by the Campania Region, “Smart&Safe. Design for new personal protective equipment” submitted to the call for the acquisition of research and development services for the fight against Covid-19. The research constitutes a substantial study of the problems related to health emergencies and proposes an update in the redesign of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), now in a plural Intelligent Individual Protec...
Interacting with Computers
This paper provides an empirical understanding of concerns that the application of a sensorenhanced medical alert system, or personal emergency response (PER) system, raises from the perspective of care receivers (users) and care providers. Data were gathered in the context of a field trial of a PER system supporting both user-initiated alerts and automatic fall detection alerts. The system was tested at two residential care facilities for 3 weeks. Drawing on data primarily from post-trial group and pair interviews, we describe and compare care receivers' and providers' views on the following emerging concerns: (i) form factor and ergonomics, (ii) system feedback and user control and (iii) sensor precision and trust. Based on feedback from stakeholder groups, we discuss potential value biases, or discriminating factors, embedded in the evaluated PER system. We also discuss the implications of our findings for a value-driven design agenda for future PER systems. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • Assistive technology comes with embedded values that have implications for the care situation, independently of the user's or the designer's, original intent. • The findings from the study indicate that users (care receivers) and professional care providers have different concerns related to the use of sensor-enhanced PER systems and different perspectives on how these types of systems can add value. • The different perspectives held by users and their professional care providers are not necessarily incompatible. There may be room for design to negotiate diverse perspectives and value priorities. • Designing for users' safety is not only about designing for immediate emergency situations (e.g. accidental falls). It is also about designing systems and devices that seamlessly integrate into mundane physical and social activities of users' everyday lives.
Designing Affordable Technologies to Integrate Citizens in Early Warning Activities
UCAmI 2018, 2018
Early warning consists of monitoring precursors of a potential hazard to understand if it is evolving to a real risk and then be able to orchestrate an early response before the event happens in order to reduce its impact and damages. It mainly consists on collecting updated and reliable data that can help emergency operators to understand how a situation is evolving and project its consequences, that is, to support situation awareness on a potential risk. This process could be improved by integrating volunteers and citizens into the data collection process given that they are intelligent sensors equipped with mobile devices that can be used almost everywhere to collect and share information. In this paper we introduce a system relying upon ubiquitous computing to integrate citizens in checking the evolution of potential hazards. An asynchronous focus group technique to assess the system with EM professionals is also described in the paper.
Gerontechnology
ISSUE The Gerontechnology literature reveals a variety of high-tech approaches designed to help older adults function in their daily lives with a greater degree of independence than they might otherwise, given their physical health and cognitive status. Many older adults experience a heightened sense of security secondary to this use of technology. Speakers will address the validity of this perception in the context of emergencies and disasters. Emergencies and disasters are increasing worldwide , secondary to factors including climate change, human pressures on the environment, infrastructure failure and armed conflict. Mounting evidence suggests that older people suffer disproportionately in emergencies and disasters as a consequence of largely remediable factors. CONTENT Emergency Management (EM) includes a wide range of activities that aim to create a state of preparedness to deal with emergencies should they occur, enable response as needed, facilitate recovery in the short to midterm, and mitigate risk for emergencies and disasters over the long term. The presentations will explore what needs to be done to actualize the potential for gerontechnology to make a substantive, unique and potentially lifesaving contribution to the call for sound and effective practices, protocols and resources in all phases of EM. STRUCTURE Robert Roush will provide an overview of the key issues at the intersection of Geriatric Emergency Preparedness and Response (GEPR) and gerontechnology, including the potential utilization of personal emergency response services (PERS) to abate risk for seniors in emergency situations. Sandi Hirst will present an analysis of key issues that uniquely impact the most vulnerable segment of the seniors' population: frail older adults who reside in congregate living situations, whose outcomes in emergencies and disasters are almost fully dependent on the integrity of their technological and human resource support systems. Laurie Mazurik will describe the application of existing communication technologies to meet the unique information and support needs of older adults in the response phase of an emergency or disaster, including findings from simulation research. Gloria Gutman will review the evidence base on use of technology as a support for seniors in recent natural disasters in Canada and internationally, drawing on case studies commissioned by the Public Health Agency of Canada and partners. Following the presentations there will be an open discussion led by Maggie Gibson, focused on applying the expertise and insights of the audience to this pressing but under-recognized issue. CONCLUSION It is time to look beyond the day-today applications of gerontechnology and explore how technological solutions that increase safety and capacity for older adults on a routine basis can be utilized to combat their disproportionate vulnerability and increase their resilience in large-scale emergencies and disasters.
An Investigation into the Rise of Wearable Technologies in the Healthcare Sector
Lecture notes in computer science, 2024
Wearable technologies and self-tracking healthcare apps are becoming increasingly popular among people all over the world. Moreover, with the rapid increase in tech-nological advancements, studies on the ease of use and intent to adopt wearable de-vices have gained prominence in the aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic. More specifically, fitness wearables have grown in popularity as health consciousness among the younger and older populations has grown, allowing them to track and monitor their heart rate, calories, sleep, and steps taken throughout the day. These wearable technologies are considered to have a wide range of applications ranging from the workplace to recreational activities. Several studies have shown how the emergence of wearable technology will benefit society, but fewer studies have inte-grated the practical implementations of wearable technologies and wearable devices which is utilised for personalised healthcare applications. As a result, the current study employs a bibliometric approach using Scopus databases to refine articles re-lated to health tracking applications, remote patient monitoring, chronic disease management, and infectious disease prevention. In doing so, the findings of the study are portrayed in conjunction with VOSviewer, which showcases the key clusters and studies that are related to wearable technologies and their applications as physiolog-ical and biometric sensors. More specifically, the findings show that most studies emphasise on how wearable technologies are concentrated as physiological sensors to track important information about an individual's health, as well as how wearable technologies are widely adopted among older populations and can track critical dis-eases, enabling effective remote patient monitoring in healthcare fields. Finally, the paper concludes by acknowledging the risks and privacy concerns of using wearable technologies within the healthcare sector.