Final Consortium Meeting in Vienna

We met for the last time in the new office of the project leader cogvis in Vienna and discussed our project accomplishments and future activities.

Scientific Publications

• Ballester I., Gall M. Brandstötter B., Kampel M. “ ToiletHelp: an assistive technology to guide people with dementia in the toilet“, submitted to the ACM Journal on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), February 2023.
• Ballester, I., Kampel, M. Automated vision-based toilet assistance for people with dementia. In: Matteo Zallio (eds) Human Factors in Accessibility and Assistive Technology. AHFE (2022) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 37. AHFE International, USA. http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1001638
• Ballester, I., Mujirishvili, T., Kampel, M. (2021). RITA: A Privacy-Aware Toileting Assistance Designed for People with Dementia. In: Lewy, H., Barkan, R. (eds) Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. PH 2021. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 431. Springer, Cham.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99194-4_20

4 Workshops on Ethics in 2022

We engaged various stakeholders to discuss care related issues of AI and privacy

March 4th, 2022, „Algorithmic Governance of Care and AI“, 10 participants

June 3rd 2022: „Data Protection“: 11 participants, VICESSE

June 13th 2022: Austrian Parliament, 13 participants (from all Austrian parties), AI and Care:„Riscs and Benefits“

Sept 23rd 2022: „Building a interdisciplinary vocabulary for Explainability, Transparency and Fairness in Care“, 12 participants 

Toilet Pilots concluded in Switzerland

We conducted end user trials at Geriatrische Klinik St. Gallen over a stretch of 1 week. Thanks to all participants and the team!

Supportive Toilet Demo Video (in German)

We concluded 2 sets of toilet testing sessions with a total of 20 participants.

DIANA assistant tested in Cáritas Coimbra’s Day Care Centre

The Day Care Centre of Rainha Santa Isabel Centre, a facility of Cáritas Coimbra, has been testing the pilot of the virtual assistant DIANA, which intends to help older adults in using the toilets. This test is part of the European project DIANA – Digital Intelligent Assistant for Nursing Applications, which has the partnership of Cáritas Coimbra.

Between November 15 and 17, Cáritas Coimbra received the project’s technological partners – Cogvis and TU Wien, which installed the DIANA system and monitored its technical performance.

During these days, the Day Care Centre users accessed the toilets with the support of the virtual assistant, who was giving them indications on the steps to follow (through a demonstrative video and audio), such as sitting down, getting up, dressing and, finally, washing their hands. In this way, it is intended to maintain a routine in the use of this space, so that no step is forgotten, preserving the autonomy and independence of users whose cognitive capacities begin to decline. An added value of this system is that if the person doesn’t go to the next step and remains without “reaction” during the pre-defined time, the sensors detect the anomaly and send a notification to the caregiver.

At the end, each user shared their experience and expectations regarding the DIANA system. To complement this testing phase, formal and informal caregivers also met the virtual assistant and interacted with the technology, to contribute with their comments and suggestions. All opinions were collected and will be considered.

In parallel, users had a playful activity, where they were invited to draw and paint the virtual assistant as they imagined it.

The DIANA project aims to support the caregivers’ tasks and at the same time improve the autonomy and safety of older people. In this sense, it is developing sensors that assist in monitoring the safety of older people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, thus supporting the routines and activities of daily living.

Besides this toilet virtual assistant, the DIANA project is also testing sensors in bedrooms and bathrooms at the Cáritas Coimbra’s Nursig Home Santo António, with the purpose of detecting falls, as well as providing relevant information to prevent them.

DIANA launches at Security Essen Fair 2022

For one week in September 2022 we presented DIANA at the joint booth from EET and cogvis. We received a lot of positive feedback and discussed with many potential integration partners from all over Europe.

Caritas Coimbra Pilot progress update

Project that detects falls advances to the second phase in Caritas Coimbra

Installation of DIANA sensors is progressing according to schedule.