World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world population is affected of back pain during his life. Current practices to analyze back problems are expensive, subjective, and invasive. In this work, we propose a novel tool for posture and range of movement estimation based on the analysis of 3D information from depth maps. Given a set of keypoints defined by the user, RGB and depth da...

When the human fingertip is pressed against a surface or bent, the hemodynamic state of the fingertip is altered due to mechanical interactions between the fingernail and bone. Normal force, shear force, and finger extension/flexion all result in different patterns of blood volume beneath the fingernail. This phenomenon has been exploited in order to detect finger forces and finger posture by c...

A Robotic Computer, which moves its monitor "head" and "neck" but has no explicit face, is being designed to interact with users in a natural way for applications such as learning, rapport-building, interactive teaching, and posture improvement. In all these applications, the robot will need to move in subtle ways that express its state, and that promote appropriate movements in the user, but t...

This paper introduces a formalized definition of an external space representation and proposes a virtual navigation paradigm as a mean for space integration from tactile snapshots. Rules for the design of indoor experimental environments to be used in virtual navigation are presented; they take into account posture modifications of the subject and the cognitive load of the elementary tasks inhe...

To increase health education we applied blended learning concept by combining physical activity and elearning technology. Investigation aims to create, apply and assess learning tasks. 201 high school students (15-22 years, 17,6±1.4) were divided in control (CG) and practical (PG) group. PG was exposed to several problems solving using physical activity and technology to accomplish the goals. T...

We present here a comprehensive definition of therapeutic exergames from which a methodology to create safe exergames for real therapy pathways is derived. Three main steps are identified. (I) A clear identification of all the exercise requirements, not only in terms of goals of the therapy, but also in terms of additional constraints. Characteristic parameters for determining the challenge lev...

Osteotomies around the knee address lower limb deformities that affect the leg posture and especially the knee joint. Knee arthritis is a very common age-related joint disease that can be treated with osteotomy, as an alternative to knee replacement by implants. The preoperative planning process is demanding and significantly determines the surgical out-come. The choice of the osteotomy type an...

This paper presents a novel robot grasping planning approach that extracts grasp strategies (grasp type, and thumb placement and direction) from human demonstration and integrates them into the grasp planning procedure to generate a feasible grasp concerning the target object geometry and manipulation task. Our study results show that the grasp strategies of grasp type and thumb placement not o...

We studied the effects of the lower leg bi-articular muscle in vertebrates in jumping. We used the proposed Jumping Jack model in computer simulation to analyze the impact of bi-articular muscle on postural jumping stability, energy transition caused by postural change, and the relationship between the ground reaction force and the center of gravity. We made a trial model and measured the jumpi...