Project Well Done!

We have completed our Exam - All passed, Thanks for Reading this Blog

Sincerely
WellFares

All is done except one thing!

We have presented our project to the masses, And now we just need to do our individual exams - let´s hope for the best!

Progress

To-Do-List:

• Posters - DONE 
• Find / code more exercises - DONE
• Write report - DONE
• Kinect mouse - DONE
• Hoverbutton - DONE
• Complete statistics page - DONE
• Sort by week - DONE
• Simplify exercises in C# - DONE
• Description page on Kinect - DONE
• Managing  the number os exercises in "Start Exercises" - DONE
• Data send with exercises - DONE
• Separate exercises from main class - DONE
• Blunt the edges on webservices - DONE
• Make delete function for given exercises - DONE
• Nice GUI - DONE
• Skip to next exercise using button - DONE
• Physical prototype - DONE

Status update: no, it's not facebook

We are fighting to finish our product, and we are making some progress.
Our physical prototype is either going to be made out of wood or modelled in some kind of 3d printer. We are to discuss our final choice regarding material later today.

The final report is progressing fine and René is making a huge effort in this matter. Mathias has done a lot to our webpage part and Simon is doing some fine work making use of the kinect as a mouse. I am working with a statistics page and I am looking at enhancing the sorting capabillities of this page.

minor update

It´s been a while since we have last updated out blog.
We have been busy working on different parts of the software. Right now the rest of the group is putting the last touches on the assignment for today. This week our webservice have slowly but steadily started to look better. On the kinect side we spent alot of time working on getting a connection between C# and a user interface we had made in Flash. Even though minor, we experienced that solving our problems only caused more problems.

This meant that yesterday we decided that the connection was never gonna be great and that in the end this solution would be mediocre at best. Therefore we put most of this weeks work in the trash can and started building the entire userinterface in C#.  We got a tip from another group working with the kinect. They built their solution in C# and now so have we. The biggest concern on this part is if we have to make the interaction with the kinect on every frame right now, meaning that we have to make a unique skeleton tracking system for every frame as they need different input. All in all this seems like the right way to go but we really have our work cut out for us.
Despite our hardships we still believe that this  will be a better product in the end than what we could have achieved with the C# to flash socket connection.

Its alive, its aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiveeee

We got the Kinect working on tracking the correct movement on a given exercise, and even got it to count 15 correct movements and then move on to the next exercise.

The server side of things is still fighting back, but we are hopefull that we can get it to work before the deadline on friday.

Fingers crossed =)

update on kinect

well this is going to be my first post here...
we have worked the last couple of days on getting the kinect to do alot of diffrent things.
we even found alot of fancy books and websites with code samples to use for quick configuration of some elements like making a "button" while this seemed great it all came to a halt when the code samples would not compile we tried for almost 2 whole days to figure out some workaround or other samples that would work. in the end we found that the problem was that we were useing the kinect v1.0 SDK while all the code samples and the books were written for the kinect beta v2.0 so now that the newest kinect build have been removed and we found the good old beta it seems like we're actually moving forward once more.

Decisions and programming

We have had some feedback on our project and there were only some minor issues that we have to fix.
We agreed that each of us are to find 10 questions that points out critical issues in our design. We will hopefully recieve a Kinect sensor tomorrow and that is when the fun begins.

Mood and design pictures: Wants

Mood and design pictures: Dont's

How we picture KARES in the real world.

Last Week

Last week we went to Horsens and interviewed another physical therapist. It went really well, and we had a very long conversation. The conversation really helped us focus on the subject and some really beneficial information came up. We aquired the knowledge that Horsens Hospital has a website with general exercises to do during rehab, all categorised according to what injury or operation you have been through.

Thusly we have decreased our scope of exercises to focus on one or two particular injuries. This allows us to hopefully do a more precise and correct software without the aid of a physical therapist as an extern consultant. The decrease in scope is just to show a proof of concept and would ideally be expanded to include at least the whole library that Horsens Hospital have provided.

The Goal of the day

We have nearly completed our asignment for today - we just need to check some grammar. After we have turned our paper in we are most probably going to do some sketching of the physical design of KARES.

We have a name

Kinect Aided Rehabilitation Exercise System --> K A R E S

Its the future.

Pics form the latest brainstorm

Idea creation

We went to the gym to try out some exercises. We found that motivation, balance and the knowledge of doing the exercise right was the key elements in doing it right. We have brainstormed yet again, some of the key points was trying to motivate for example through an online community, and a quick glance on the viability to cater towards companies for buying our product for their employees.

Tomorrow we will visit another physical therapist and commit an interview.

Motivation is key!

We had a meeting with a physical therapist today, and it was a real eye-opener.

She answered all our questions and really helped us get a clearer picture of what its like to get treated by a physical therapist.
We thought we could make a device that would be able to help fx all patients with back injuries, but as it turns out, the injuries are as different as the patients themselves.
If you design a back brace with sensors to record posture, then that brace might only be usable on 1 patients out of a hundred. On the other hand if you focus on motivation when it comes to rehabilitation, then suddenly, you reach every patient, and as we discovered in our interview, motivation is alpha and omega, when it comes to the work done by physical therapists.

Now comes the easy part, coming up with the million dollar idea!

The daily progress report

We are authoring the first hand-in currently by creating graphs and creative representation of data.
Later we are to hand in the assignment, it should be no problem managing to complete this task.

News update

I just heard in the news that patients are getting less good at remembering going to rehabilitation and that there is a city in which the rehbalitation are cancelled if appointments are forgotten.

Progress report.

• Had a talk about adventures during easter
• Finished a questionnaire
• Send said questionnaire to relevant people
• Posted before mentioned questionnaire on facebook in hopes of reaching people with dissabilities unknown to us
• Had lunch
• Had email correspondence with future interview subjects
• Solved a number of rubix cubes
• Went home

Narrowing it down

We have chosen to focus on Rehabilitation and prevention

Our target group is people aged 13-25 and possible problems can be knee/back injuries

Waiting patiently

Last night I, Mathias, send a message to my cousin who is a physiotherapist, asking if he would meet with us, to talk about what he and if he maybe could help us see our ideas in a new light. Unfortunately he haven't answered yet.


Here is the message:


"Hi Thomas.
I am doing a project about welfare, which can either deal with the prevention /rehabilitation or help to manage chronic conditions.
In this context, I would inquire whether there was a possibility that my group and I might come over and talk to you. We are currently working with an idea that could help people with either back pain or knee injuries, and we'd like to see aphysiotherapist's view on the matter.
Kind regards Mathias"

Real world info gathering

We have just visited Charlottehøj Fysioterapi and inquired for an interview - we are to send them an email and they will then confer with each other whether they have time for an interview




Just saw this - we should consider if we are to implement this!

http://katrinebjerg.au.dk/news/artikel/net4care-platform-version-01-skal-vaere-katalysator-for-dansk-telemedicin/

http://www.net4care.org/

European network of interest

There is a network, a coalition of parties that specialises in eye/voice solutions to help impaired people.
It is called COGAIN(COmmunication by Gaze INteraction).
Following institutes are partners in COGAIN,  DTU in Bisbebjerg Hospital, Risø, Hjælpemiddelinstituttet and IT-universitetet in Copenhagen

http://www.cogain.org/
http://www.cogain.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.cogain.org/wiki/Eye_Trackers

Brainstorming

So we tried to brainstorm today as well.
It did not produce much usable material.
We have narrowed our alternatives to back problems, amputees, sports injuries.
There is still room for more ideas - but we have to focus in the near future (tomorrow or close to).

I have read some articles regarding elderly socialising and dementia, it provided some interesting opinions but I am not sure if we are going to use it.

We have agreed upon that we shall post at least one blog each in the easter holiday - to keep the creative fire burning.

A danish article regarding eye tracking:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CCsQFjAAOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fviden.jp.dk%2Fbinaries%2Fan%2F7986.pdf&ei=gel6T47NGYOE4gSAlPCHBA&usg=AFQjCNEI8SPYzBj4ySvqJCHfq3a_kxjj3g

Time goes by so slowly

Time seems to go by so slowly
As if time itself was manifested in a solid piece of ice
hopefully we will find
the equipment to un-thaw
and thus unleashing the potential
of our creativity and minds

Struck gold..I think

Found a webpage containing, what appears to be, very usefull information about eye tracking software and hardware alike.

http://thirtysixthspan.com/openEyes/

Still not locked on the idea of eyetracking though.

Eye tracking

We have been given a green light for going after an eyetracking device to help paralyzed persons. Despite of this, we are going to do some further brain storming regarding whom to help and with what.

Things to think about if we are to be using the eye tracking:
What about expressing emotions?
Using pictograms  and symbols instead of classic ABC?
How precise does the system have to be in order to be fulfilling to the user?

New logo

We have just finished the design of our logo, see the result at the top for the blog :)

Most excellent sandwich.

I just ate an all-around excellent salmon and sallad sandwich.

Also we are still working on narrowing down the scope of the subject. We can make, pretty much, whatever we want, so how do you brainstorm about everything?

Picture

Knogleskørhed (osteoporosis):

http://www.sundhedsguiden.dk/da/temaer/alle-temaer/knogleskoerhed/knogleskoerhed---forebyggelse-og-sundhedsfremme/forebyg-knoglesk-oslash;rhed-med-motion/

Brainstorm

Brainstorm regarding what we can look for helping/easing:

Paralyzation / Lateral epicondylit(musearm) / Arthritis(gigt) / ADHD / Too old to move or clean up / Osteoporosis(knogleskørhed) / Deaf / Blind / Recovering from injuries / Amputees / Back problems / young disabled / the health personell, how do we help them and give them more time to be with the patient / helping the health personell sharing information regarding patients / helping obese people by excersise or dietary changes / Dementhia / Elderly people socialising

Single mindedness

We have to not just think about the eye tracking thingy, we need to keep our minds open, although at least two of us have almost fallen in love with the idea of helping the paralyzed

Expertises we may draw upon

We may draw on expertise from other persons, people that should be interesting are:
Physical therapist(fysioterapeut)
Occupational therapist(ergoterapeut)
Nurses
Handicapped


Thomas Lüchau

The first post

What to write, what to write?

At this point we have only just begun the great adventure of the IT Product Design Project. 

So far we have agreed upon the name "Wellfares", as our group name.

Some ideas have started to appear regarding a product. These ideas revolve around helping people who have suffered brain damage, and are therefore only able to communicate through blinking and in some cases a finger or two.

Posted by Mathias