Access For All

REMOTE is a pan-European research project concerned with the needs of elderly and physically impaired people. The focus is especially on those living in geographical or social isolation whose independent life is at risk with chronic conditions or lifestyle risk factors. The project will provide support for an independent life at home with the aid of ambient intelligence (“AmI”, a technological approach, which means to enhance a person’s environment with sensors, radio modules, and computer processors in order to make everyday life easier) and tele-healthcare. The elderly’s personal environment will be improved with various kinds of monitoring and automation abilities or tracing activity and health condition, and detecting risks and critical situations.
For this purpose the project will use the scale-up of existing research prototypes and new systems for collecting human- and context-related data. These include sensors attached to a person’s body which measure e.g. body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, human posture, etc. Furthermore sensors and actuators can be installed in houses or cars for providing context information, e.g., air temperature, luminance, humidity, human location and motion, etc. Health care professionals have to be able to identify and react immediately to health risks to their patients, irrespective of time and lace. As a growing number of elderly in urban as well as in rural areas live on their own, monitoring activity and medical data at anytime and from anywhere can close the growing gap between urban and rural areas and thus ensure safety and a better quality of care.
REMOTE attains this goal by introducing an innovative, ontology-driven, open reference architecture and platform that will enable interoperability, seamless connectivity and sharing of content among the different services. The project’s overall concept includes:

• A user-centred design philosophy and the consistent involvement of its potential end-users.
• Processes for reaching consensus among all interested parties (stakeholders).
• Strong commitment to ethical and legal issues (e.g. equal rights, and privacy protection).
• Measurement of usability, impact and acceptance of the project’s developments by elderly.
• Close collaboration with research and development institutions and companies in the field of tele-healthcare and ambient intelligence.
• Significant contribution to the recent developments in tele-healthcare and ambient intelligence.

If interested in the project, please fill in the User Forum Nomination form.
For more information: the project’s leaflet and website.

Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability – Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham – 26th and 27th October 2010

Call for papers

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners working with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. We have a particular focus on the use of gaming hardware and software to implement accessible solutions, interaction design using new input/output devices and the increasing impact of ubiquitous computing on our everyday well being.

The conference provides an excellent opportunity to showcase practice and to mainstream research ideas and outcomes. It will introduce a wider audience to key findings and products from research and will illustrate how practice feeds back into and informs research. The conference will create a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities and particularly welcomes user led presentations and work shops.

The programme will include presentations of papers, workshops, and an exhibition space for demonstrations and posters. This event is held in partnership with GameCity and delegates are welcome to GameCity events including the opening drinks reception.

Scope:

Compulsory and post-compulsory education is included within ‘education’. Disability includes physical, sensory and cognitive impairment. The impact of interactive technologies and games on Health and well-being is also a focus of this conference. An emphasis will be placed on practical applications and guides to where currently available training resources and tools can be found and used. A selection of papers will be published electronically in full, so presentations will be limited to 20 minutes for the key findings, including time for questions from the floor. It is hoped (as in previous years) that the best papers will be published in a special issue of a relevant academic journal.

Topics that will be covered by the conference (but not limited to) include:

Education

• Social and collaborative aspects of interactive technology (e.g., Massively Multiplayer Online Games and Virtual worlds)
• Raising aspirations and achievement through interactive technologies and games-based learning
• Interactive learning tools and environments resources, e.g. Flash, podcasts, simulations, mobile games, Web 2.0 tool etc.
• Implementation and ethical issues associated with games-based learning
• Learning theory, universal design and assessment in interactive technology-based learning
• Best Practices in the use of Interactive and Innovative Technologies for learning
• Collaboration between Science and Art for more effective learning
• Issues related to vulnerable groups
• The engagement potential of serious games for people at risk of social exclusion

Health

• Games based learning approaches to patient education
• Using contemporary games controllers to create new opportunities in health and rehabilitation applications (e.g., applications for Wii Fit, Wii Mote)
• Games based learning and virtual and enhanced environments for clinical assessment (e.g. after stroke)
• Games based learning and virtual environments for treatment (e.g. of phobias, ADHA, post-traumatic stress disorders, Amblyopia, etc.)
• ‘Modding’ for health
• Patient created content in serious games
• Psychological impact of game playing
• Interaction and well-being

Disability

• Approaches to making virtual environments, computer and video games accessible by all
• Assistive technologies for people with disabilities and elderly people
• Practical applications of virtual environments and serious games for the education of people with disabilities and elderly people (in e.g. work preparation, travel training)
• Including people with disabilities in the design of serious games, assistive technologies and virtual environments.
• Location based services for navigation and reconnection of people with disabilities
• Art and music rehabilitation in 3D multisensory environments
• Design for All

Submissions

Those wishing to present papers or hold a work shop should send abstracts, to a maximum of 500 words. For those hoping to exhibit or produce a poster, a 300-word abstract is required. The deadline for submissions is Friday 14th May, 2010 to be sent to: karen.krelle@ntu.ac.uk

Final copies of accepted papers are required by Wednesday 17th September 2010.

There is a conference fee of £75/day, £125 for full two day registration (concessions £35/day, £70 total).

Conference website http://www.ntu.ac.uk/cels/outreach/events/61435.html.

Important dates

Draft submission: 14th May 2010

Notice of paper acceptance: 16th July 2010

Final paper submission: 17th September 2010

Final Conference registration: 1st October 2010

Conference: 26th/27th October 2010

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) organises the preparatory meeting for the Joint Programming Initiative “Demographic Change / Health and Ageing – Living independently and actively in old age” to be held in Berlin, Germany, 28th/29th of January 2010.
The conference will bring together national representatives and stakeholders of the Member States of the European Union and experts in the field of ageing and demographic change.
Facing the challenges of an ageing population, many valuable initiatives and programmes at national and European level have already been established during the past years. In order to increase the mutual benefit arising from these actions, the BMBF has proposed to the EU-Member States to further develop these activities within the framework of the EU-Joint Programming Initiative, launched by the Research Ministers in the frame of the Competitiveness Council in December 2008. This upcoming meeting is to set up a joint process to interrelate the existing national programmes and instruments and to address the upcoming demands for Europe. It is the aim of this process to launch the Joint Programming Initiative “Demographic Change / Health and Ageing – Living independently and actively in old age”.
The participants will engage in discussions on Health & Care, Welfare & Social Systems, Education, Learning, Work & Innovativeness, Urban-Rural Development, Housing and Mobility.
Those interested can register online at www.jp-demographic.eu/conference/registration by 15th of January 2010.

The 5th Usability Symposium of the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) will take place in Linz November, 9-10 (Monday-Tuesday) 2009. The keynote speech will be delivered by Yvonne Rogers, from the Pervasive Interaction Lab, Computing Department, Open University (UK) “The Changing Face of Human-Computer Interaction in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing”, and will address “New Trends in Human–Computer Interaction”.
A special session is also organised regarding Smart Home, Health and Ambient Assisted Living. The Symposium program is now available online.