Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HOLOBALANCE (HOLOgrams for personalised virtual coaching and motivation in an ageing population with BALANCE disorders)

Teaser

Human balance is multifactorial and relies on complex integration of visual, somatosensory, vestibular information and musculoskeletal function. Balance disorders due to age related progressive loss of functioning of sensory information and the inability to control body...

Summary

Human balance is multifactorial and relies on complex integration of visual, somatosensory, vestibular information and musculoskeletal function. Balance disorders due to age related progressive loss of functioning of sensory information and the inability to control body movements is considered a global epidemic according to the World Health Organization. Balance and gait physiotherapy has been shown to improve postural stability, increase balance confidence and quality of life according to NICE guidelines. Currently there is a total lack of personalized coaching solutions for people with balance disorders to participate in balance and gait physiotherapy and activity promotion.
The overall objective of HOLOBALANCE is to develop and validate a new personalized hologram coach platform for virtual coaching, motivation and empowerment of the ageing population with balance disorders. The coaching part will be realised by holograms and augmented reality games, along with easy to use sensors that can be customized to implement and coach the user with specific, individualized exercises, offering new forms of accessible user interaction. HOLOBALANCE will engage the experts related to the management of people suffering from balance disorders, including physiotherapists, Ear Nose Throat experts (ENTs), neurologists, psychologists, gerontologists, towards developing a multi-stakeholder user centered coaching ecosystem. Suggestions for specific exercises and tasks and an activity plan will be provided by the experts in a daily basis, which will be then refined and updated through autonomous learning algorithms. Three different types of coaching will be provided by the HOLOBALANCE platform: (i) balance physiotherapy (BP), (ii) cognitive training (CT) combined with auditory tasks (iii) multilevel motivation and physical activity (PA) promotion. The accuracy in performance of the exercises will be measured objectively in real time, through a set of motion capture and wearable sensors. Experts will monitor the status through a visual analytics expert panel.
HOLOBALANCE has the following eight (7) objectives:
• To perform comprehensive analysis of the evidence basis for concurrent balance, cognitive training and physical activity promotion interventions and formulate a library of guidelines
• To design and develop new forms of accessible user interaction, based on holograms and augmented reality games, with customized avatars and environments, using human computer interaction techniques, able to simulate the exercises of the library.
• To develop secure cloud services, harnessing generic enablers from FI-WARE catalogue and a sensor network to monitor data from easy to use wearable and motion sensors, enabling the inference of emotional and behavioural data and recording parameters of the execution of exercises, the daily physical activity plan and user satisfaction
• To analyze retrospective BP, CT and PA data of the pilot partners, to develop and train autonomous learning algorithms for personalizing the virtual coaching and providing appropriate personalized exercises according to the user’s profile, symptoms, emotional and behavioural data, satisfaction and preferences.
• To formulate the multilevel motivational concept of HOLOBALANCE platform, by integrating the customized holograms, augmented reality cognitive games, emotional and behavioural modeling with other forms of psychological motivation.
• To deliver the virtual coaching platform and to conduct a proof of concept study at 4 pilot sites recruiting in total 80 participants.
• To utilize the outcomes of virtual coaching platform, along with currently available BP, CT and PA guidelines and costs in different healthcare systems and perform a socio-economic analysis of the HOLOBALANCE platform.
HOLOBALANCE project officially started as of 1st of December 2017. The consortium consists of 13 partners from 7 countries.

Work performed

In WP2:
• Definition of a user centric approach.
• Design and development of mockups.
• Gathering and eliciting user requirements.
• Definition of evaluation methods focusing on user experience.
• Definition of privacy and security by design.
• Finalisation of the specifications of the hardware devices and the sensors for the platform.
• Definition of the architecture and drafting of the functional and non-functional specifications.
• Testing of FIWARE GEs (Orion, Keyrock, Knowage, NGSI, Cosmos).
• Definition of communication contracts between software components.


In WP3:
• 2 approaches for the balance physiotherapy hologram: holobox based on projectors and mixed reality head mounted device with smartphone.
• Design and development of a mixed reality environment for doing exercises.
• The prototype of the Auditory Training Tool has been developed.
• Design and development of the wearable sensors environment.
• Physical activity planning app for monitoring users’ activity outside home.
• Dashboard interfaces on top of the cloud infrastructure.
• Hologram-based physiotherapist has been developed.
• Edge-cloud communication is also established.

In WP4:
• The cloud backend, the Web API and the repository are all operational.
• FIWARE integration for security in the cloud and for the storage and communication with hologram and cloud backend and the edge.
• Two, approved from Ethics, studies for emotional computing:
Study A will compare young and old adults (Smets et al).
Study B will investigate the effects of challenging balance and gait tasks that are routinely used in balance rehabilitation.
• Definition of specifications and methodological approach(dynamic Bayesian models) and initial validation with real patient data for Behavioral modeling and progessive learning (reinforcement learning)
• Multilevel personalized motivation methods (COM-B model of behaviour).

In WP6:
• A comprehensive analysis of existing guidelines for Balance Physiotherapy (BP), Cognitive Training (CT) and Physical Activity (PA).
• Finalization of the flowcharts of home rehabilitation regime and their validation with the findings of the guidelines’ analysis.
• Analysis of retrospective datasets and exploration of factors affecting the success of vestibular rehabilitation
• Design of the proof of concept pilot study that was submitted for ethical approvals.

In WP7:
• Dissemination through presence is conferences and adopting the open access and open innovation principles
• Communication based on an evolving plan and a targeted strategy for each end user.
• Dedicated, working group to address exploitation and sustainability plan
• Delivery of initial Exploitation and Sustainability plan.

Final results

Holobalance aims to provide vestibular rehabilitation through an innovative, home-based intervention with the main results being:
• Evidence base for user-centered design and intuitive ways of human-computer interaction based on holograms, augmented reality games and real time feedback from wearable technology
• Evaluation of the acceptance and the usefulness of the intervention
• Evidence for the effectiveness of personalized recommendations for preserving physical, cognitive and social well-being for as long as possible
• Exploration of users’ behaviors and associations with stimuli and motivation
• Exploration of cost-effectiveness due to enhanced self-management and lifestyle changes

Website & more info

More info: https://holobalance.eu/.