In recent years, the research in the area of ubiquitous healthcare has intensified. There are many technological advances regarding the development of unobtrusive sensors for cardiac and respiratory activity, but the current scenario is still far away from an everyday life fulfilled with ubiquitous healthcare systems. In this paper, it is described the usage of 24GHz microwave FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) Doppler radar (MDR) as one of the main components of a pervasive biomedical system that is part of an assistive environment for the people with less mobility or people with long term health condition. As parts of the present work, in this paper are mentioned the design and implementation of an assistive environment based on a MDR sensor, an experimental study concerning the microwave Doppler radar characteristics and remote sensing of heart rate and breath rate, based on acquisition and processing of the signals delivered by the used radar.

Serious games based therapy is currently gaining a lot of interest by the healthcare community. Moreover, the use of Virtual Reality technology in rehabilitation has attracted significant interest in the physical therapy area. This paper presents PhysioMate, which is a project with the aim of developing software based on the concept of serious games for physical rehabilitation. The PhysioMate aims to encourage physical exercise in order to combat both physical and cognitive deterioration, functioning as a complement to the work of physical therapists, with and without their live supervision. Initially, the project has been focused on the rehabilitation of patients dependent on wheelchairs, whether they are victims of stroke or elderly people. Thus, we selected five essential simple movements of the upper-body for balance training and motor coordination, in which underlies the game mechanics of PhysioMate. We use the Microsoft Kinect sensor to detect and track the movements of patients.

Serious games-based therapies are currently gaining massive interest of both computer science and healthcare communities. This paper focuses on the design and use of personalized therapeutic serious games in a pervasive healthcare assistive environment that integrates smart objects such as wheelchairs. The smart objects have embedded sensors to measure physiological parameters. Tablet PCs are being attached to the wheelchairs, serving several application purposes. We are in the process of studying and developing a serious games model, taking into account elements such as the use of RFID for game playing, tablets for interaction and patient's physiological vital signals for personalization and adaptation issues. The first prototype is directed to address therapeutics activities in aphasia and alexia, the most common speech and language disturbance in stroke and head trauma. The paper also describes the rationale, the game description and the main development issues behind this prototype.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. The MoveONParkinson project aims to enhance exercise engagement among people with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD) in the Portuguese context through the ONParkinson digital platform, which provides mobile and web interfaces. While the broader MoveONParkinson project has been previously described from a health-focused perspective, this study specifically focuses on the development and integration of an AI-driven conversational agent (CA) for the Portuguese language, called PANDORA, within the mobile interface of the solution to assist and motivate PwPD in their exercise routines. PANDORA (Parkinson Assistant in Natural Dialogue and Oriented by Rules and Assessments), designed based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), addresses the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. A preliminary study involving 20 PwPD, 10 caregivers, and 5 healthcare professionals informed the design requirements for PANDORA. The development process involved four main phases: (1) Design of the Chatbot’s Motivation Model, (2) Design and implementation of the conversational agent, (3) Technical Performance Evaluation, and (4) User Experience Evaluation. Technical Performance Evaluation, conducted with three physiotherapists, assessed domain coverage, coherence response capacity, and dialog management capacity, achieving 100% accuracy in domain coverage and coherence response capacity and 89% in dialog management capacity. The User Experience Study involved eight PwPD users recruited from Portuguese healthcare units performing predefined tasks, with user satisfaction scores ranging from 4.2 to 4.9 on a five-point Likert scale. The findings indicate that integrating a conversational agent with motivational cues tends to increase patient engagement. However, further studies are required to determine PANDORA’s impact on exercise engagement in PwPD.