Over €4 million worth of EU funding has been awarded to the international network ‘ENTWINE informal care’, led by Prof. Mariët Hagedoorn and Prof. Robbert Sanderman from the department of Health Psychology at the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). The grant will be used to train 15 novice researchers to study and solve questions relating to sustainable ways of providing informal care.

Informal carers provide unpaid care to relatives or friends with a chronic illness, disability or another long-term care need. An ageing population and medical advances are causing a sharp rise in the care needs of the elderly and the sick, while the availability of informal carers in Europe is dropping. European healthcare systems rely heavily on the services of informal carers, but there are fears for the long-term sustainability of these systems. Who will look after our elderly relatives in the future, and how? 

For the purposes of this research, the ENTWINE network will focus on both the increasing need for care and people's willingness and capacity to provide care. Cultural and individual differences will be among the factors examined. Combining knowledge from the fields of both psychology and technology will enable the network to develop support to help informal carers keep up their commitment and to promote positive caregiving experiences. This could involve using social robots to reduce stress among informal carers, or fitting homes with sensors to monitor confused or vulnerable care recipients. The network also wants to find the best way of implementing support such as this for informal carers. By providing this research opportunity and training programme for novice researchers, the network hopes to take up a key position in the development of sustainable informal care in Europe.

The strength of the ENTWINE network stems from the close collaboration between researchers from various academic fields and between universities, businesses and non-profit organizations in a range of European countries. The researchers (PhD students) will be appointed in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel, Italy and Sweden. As 15 PhD positions are available, the network is interested in candidates from diverse backgrounds including psychology, sociology, economics and technology, as well as computer, communication and health sciences. Applications are welcome until 30 November 2018.

The EU grant has been allocated as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme: a programme that aims to give novice researchers a chance to improve their research skills, work with established research teams and elevate their own career prospects. Grants are awarded on the understanding that the projects involve several organizations from different European countries and that close collaboration will develop between research institutes and businesses.

More information is available at: www.entwine-itn.eu

We are very excited to present this new Frontiers research topic on Positive Technology

Frontiers in Psychology is the #1 largest and the #2 most cited psychology journal in the world. Impact Factor: 2.463 (as accessed May 2017)

Submission Deadlines

30 September 2017 -> Abstract

28 February 2018 -> Manuscript

We look forward to receive your contribution!

I have created a new project in ResearchGate for those of you who are interested to get the latest updates in PT research (including full-text access to most of our papers):

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Positive-Technology-...

It is also a useful tool to explore scientific collaboration opportunities, so if you find anything that matches your interests please let us know!

Two good news for Positive Technology followers.

1) Our new book on Human Computer Confluence is out!

2) It can be downloaded for free here

Human-computer confluence refers to an invisible, implicit, embodied or even implanted interaction between humans and system components. New classes of user interfaces are emerging that make use of several sensors and are able to adapt their physical properties to the current situational context of users.

A key aspect of human-computer confluence is its potential for transforming human experience in the sense of bending, breaking and blending the barriers between the real, the virtual and the augmented, to allow users to experience their body and their world in new ways. Research on Presence, Embodiment and Brain-Computer Interface is already exploring these boundaries and asking questions such as: Can we seamlessly move between the virtual and the real? Can we assimilate fundamentally new senses through confluence?

The aim of this book is to explore the boundaries and intersections of the multidisciplinary field of HCC and discuss its potential applications in different domains, including healthcare, education, training and even arts.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL BOOK HERE AS OPEN ACCESS

Please cite as follows:

Andrea Gaggioli, Alois Ferscha, Giuseppe Riva, Stephen Dunne, Isabell Viaud-Delmon (2016). Human computer confluence: transforming human experience through symbiotic technologies. Warsaw: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110471120.

In recent years, the increasing convergence between nanotechnology, biomedicine and health informatics have generated massive amounts of data, which are changing the way healthcare research, development, and applications are done.

Clinical data integrate physiological data, enabling detailed descriptions of various healthy and diseased states, progression, and responses to therapies. Furthermore, mobile and home-based devices monitor vital signs and activities in real-time and communicate with personal health record services, personal computers, smartphones, caregivers, and health care professionals.

However, our ability to analyze and interpret multiple sources of data lags far behind today’s data generation and storage capacity. Consequently, mathematical and computational models are increasingly used to help interpret massive biomedical data produced by high-throughput genomics and proteomics projects. Advanced applications of computer models that enable the simulation of biological processes are used to generate hypotheses and plan experiments.

The emerging discipline of computational biomedicine is concerned with the application of computer-based techniques and particularly modelling and simulation to human health. Since almost ten years, this vision is at the core of an European-funded program called “Virtual Physiological Human”. The goal of this initiative is to develop next-generation computer technologies to integrate all information available for each patient, and generated computer models capable of predicting how the health of that patient will evolve under certain conditions.

In particular, this programme is expected, over the next decades, to transform the study and practice of healthcare, moving it towards the priorities known as ‘4P's’: predictive, preventative, personalized and participatory medicine. Future developments of computational biomedicine may provide the possibility of developing not just qualitative but truly quantitative analytical tools, that is, models, on the basis of the data available through the system just described. Information not available today (large cohort studies nowadays include thousands of individuals whereas here we are talking about millions of records) will be available for free. Large cohorts of data will be available for online consultation and download. Integrative and multi-scale models will benefit from the availability of this large amount of data by using parameter estimation in a statistically meaningful manner. At the same time distribution maps of important parameters will be generated and continuously updated. Through a certain mechanism, the user will be given the opportunity to express his interest on this or that model so to set up a consensus model selection process. Moreover, models should be open for consultation and annotation. Flexible and user friendly services have many potential positive outcomes. Some examples include simulation of case studies, tests, and validation of specific assumptions on the nature or related diseases, understanding the world-wide distribution of these parameters and disease patterns, ability to hypothesize intervention strategies in cases such as spreading of an infectious disease, and advanced risk modeling.

“This system allows wearers like me to focus on the speaker’s lips and facial gestures, “said School of Interactive Computing Professor Jim Foley.

“If hard-of-hearing people understand the speech, the conversation can continue immediately without waiting for the caption. However, if I miss a word, I can glance at the transcription, get the word or two I need and get back into the conversation.”

Captioning on Glass display captions for the hard-of-hearing (credit: Georgia Tech)

The “Captioning on Glass” app is now available to install from MyGlass. More information here.

Foley and the students are working with the Association of Late Deafened Adults in Atlanta to improve the program. An iPhone app is planned.

Information – Entropy by Oliver Reichenstein

Will information technology affect our minds the same way the environment was affected by our analogue technology? Designers hold a key position in dealing with ever increasing data pollution. We are mostly focussed on speeding things up, on making sharing easier, faster, more accessible. But speed, usability, accessibility are not the main issue anymore.  The main issues are not technological, they are structural, processual. What we lack is clarity, correctness, depth, time. Are there counter-techniques we can employ to turn data into information, information into knowledge, knowledge into wisdom?

Oliver Reichenstein — Information Entropy (SmashingConf NYC 2014) from Smashing Magazine on Vimeo.

The recent convergence between technology and medicine is offering innovative methods and tools for behavioral health care. Among these, an emerging approach is the use of virtual reality (VR) within exposure-based protocols for anxiety disorders, and in particular posttraumatic stress disorder. However, no systematically tested VR protocols are available for the management of psychological stress. Objective: Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of a new technological paradigm, Interreality, for the management and prevention of psychological stress. The main feature of Interreality is a twofold link between the virtual and the real world achieved through experiential virtual scenarios (fully controlled by the therapist, used to learn coping skills and improve self-efficacy) with real-time monitoring and support (identifying critical situations and assessing clinical change) using advanced technologies (virtual worlds, wearable biosensors, and smartphones).

Full text paper available at: http://www.jmir.org/2014/7/e167/

Call for papers IDGEI 2014 - International Workshop on Intelligent Games for Empowerment and Inclusion - associated with "Intelligent User Interfaces IUI 2014"

2nd International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

http://idgei2014.joanneum.at/

Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion possess the potential to change our society in a most positive way by preparing selected groups in a playful and fun way for their everyday life’s social and special situations. Exemplary domains span as far as from children with Autism Spectrum Condition to young adults preparing for their first job interviews or migrants familiarizing with their new environment. The current generation of such games thereby increasingly demands for computational intelligence algorithms to help analyze players’ behavior and monitor their motivation and interest to adapt game progress. The development of such games usually thus requires expertise from the general gaming domain, but in particular also from a game’s target domain, besides technological savoir-faire to provide intelligent analysis and reaction solutions. IDGEI 2014 aims at bridging across these communities and disciplines by inviting respective researchers and experts to discuss their latest perspectives and findings in the field of Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

 Suggested workshop topics include, but are by no means limited to:

• Machine Intelligence in Serious Games
• Mobile and Real-World Serious Gaming
• Emotion & Affect in Serious Games
• Player Behavior and Attention Modeling
• Player-Adaptation and Motivation
• Security & Privacy Preservation
• Novel Serious Games
• User Studies & Tests of Serious Games

Paper submission deadline 4 December 2013.

Associated with International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2014.

For more info, download Call for Papers (PDF; 582 KB)

Special issue editors:
• Hugo Gamboa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
• Hugo Plácido da Silva (IT – Institute of Telecommunications, Portugal)
• Kiel Gilleade (Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom)
• Sergi Bermúdez i Badia (Universidade da Madeira, Portugal)
• Stephen Fairclough (Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom)

Contact:
s.fairclough@ljmu.ac.uk

Deadline for Submissions:
30 June 2014

Physiological data provides a wealth of information about the behavioural state of the user. These data can provide important contextual information by allowing the system to draw inferences with respect to the affective, cognitive and physical state of a person. In a computerised system this information can be used as an input control to drive system adaptation. For example, a videogame can use psychophysiological inferences of the player’s level of mental workload during play to adjust game difficulty in real-time.

A basic physiological computer system will simply reflect changes in the physiological data in its system adaptations. More advanced systems would use their knowledge of the individual user and the context in which changes are occurring in order to “intelligently” adapt the system at the most appropriate time with the most appropriate intervention.

In this special issue we call for the submission of cutting edge research work relating to the creation, facilitation of and issues involved in intelligent adaptive physiological computing systems (PCS). The focus of this special issue is on Physiological Computing for Intelligent Adaptation, and within this the scope includes but is not limited to:

• Applications of intelligent adaptation in PCS
• Mobile and embedded systems for intelligent adaptation in PCS
• Adaptive user interfaces driven by physiological computing
• Assistive technologies mediated by physiological computing
• Pervasive technologies for physiological computing
• Affective interfaces
• Context aware interfaces
• The user experience of intelligent adaptive PCS
• Ethics of intelligent adaptation in PCS

All contributions will be rigorously peer reviewed to the usual exacting standards of IwC. Further information, including submission procedures and advice on formatting and preparing your manuscript, can be found at:http://iwc.oxfordjournals.org/

The design contest solicits entries from student teams worldwide and is aimed at finding solutions that help keep people with cognitive impairments independent as long as possible.

The competition is currently accepting submissions in what is called Phase I of the challenge. Submitted concepts will be judged in January and finalists will be given financial help to flesh out their design and travel to Stanford to present it.

From January until April, called Phase II, finalists will also have access to mentors in different schools and centers at Stanford

The final presentations, in April, will be before a panel of academics, industry professionals, nonprofit groups and investors.

The top prize is $10,000, while the second place team will take home $5,000 and third place will get $3,000.

Good news!

Our networking session proposal was accepted at the ICT 2013 Conference in Vilnius (6-8 November, 2013).

Title: Positive Technology: Steps Towards Ubiquitous Empowerment (07/11/2013, Booth 4, 18:00-19:30)

More than 5000 researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, industry representatives are expected to attend the conference. That's indeed a great opportunity to explore the future developments of Positive Technology within Horizon2020.

If you are also planning to attend the conference and you're interested in participating to this special networking session, drop me a message here.

7-9 January 2014, Lisbon, Portugal

http://www.phycs.org/

Physiological data in its different dimensions, either bioelectrical, biomechanical, biochemical or biophysical, and collected through specialized biomedical devices, video and image capture or other sources, is opening new boundaries in the field of human-computer interaction into what can be defined as Physiological Computing. PhyCS is the annual meeting of the physiological interaction and computing community, and serves as the main international forum for engineers, computer scientists and health professionals, interested in outstanding research and development that bridges the gap between physiological data handling and human-computer interaction.

Regular Paper Submission Extension: September 15, 2013
Regular Paper Authors Notification: October 23, 2013
Regular Paper Camera Ready and Registration: November 5, 2013

We hope you will join us in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday June 29th for attending the Symposium on Positive Technology.

The special session features interventions by key PT researchers and is a great opportunity to meet, share ideas and build the future of this exciting research field!

Download the conference program here (PDF)

Are you interested in Positive Technology? Then come and join us on LinkedIn!

Our new group is the place to share expertise and brilliant ideas on positive applications of technology!

1st International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion

Website: http://idgei.fdg2013.org/
14 May 2013, Chania, Crete, Greece
chaired by Björn Schuller, Lucas Paletta, Nicolas Sabouret

Paper submission deadline: 11 March 2013

Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion possess the potential to change our society in a most positive way by preparing selected groups in a playful and fun way for their everyday life’s social and special situations. Exemplary domains span as far as from children with Autism Spectrum Condition to young adults preparing for their first job interviews or migrants familiarizing with their new environment. The current generation of such games thereby increasingly demands for computational intelligence algorithms to help analyze players’ behavior and monitor their motivation and interest to adapt game progress. The development of such games usually thus requires expertise from the general gaming domain, but in particular also from a game’s target domain, besides technological savoir-faire to provide intelligent analysis and reaction solutions. IDGEI 2013 aims at bridging across these communities and disciplines by inviting respective researchers and experts to discuss their latest perspectives and findings in the field of Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

Suggested workshop topics include, but are by no means limited to:

- Machine Intelligence in Serious Games
- Mobile and Real-World Serious Gaming
- Emotion & Affect in Serious Games
- Player Behavior and Attention Modeling
- Player-Adaptation and Motivation
- Security & Privacy Preservation
- Novel Serious Games
- User Studies & Tests of Serious Games

Date: 17th, 18th and 19th July 2013

Venue: IRCAM
Location: Paris, France
Website: http://www.ircam.fr/

The 2nd HCC summer school aims to share scientific knowledge and experience among participants, enhance and stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue as well as provide further opportunities for co-operation within the study domains of Human Computer Confluence.

Technologies for Affect and Wellbeing- Special Issue of theIEEE Transaction on Affective Computing.

Guest Editors

• Rafael A. Calvo (The University of Sydney)
• Giuseppe Riva (ICE-NET Lab- Universitta Catolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan Italy)
• Christine Lisetti (Florida International University)

Background and Motivation
There is an increased interest in using computer interaction to detect and support users’ physical and psychological wellbeing.  Computers can afford multiple forms of transformational experiences. Some of these experiences can be purposely designed to, for example, detect and regulate students’ affective states to improve aspects of their learning experiences. They can also be used in computer-based psychological interventions that treat psychological illness or that preventively promote wellbeing, healthy lifestyles, and mental health.
The application domain, so far referred to as ‘positive computing’, ‘positive technologies’, and ‘positive design’, draws on ideas from positive psychology, particularly the extensive research on developing human strengths and wellbeing. It is closely linked to the HCI work on personal informatics, and the development of tools that help people learn more about themselves through reflection.
This special issue will focus on ideas, methods and case studies for how affective computing can contribute to this goal. Articles should discuss how information that computers collect about our behaviour, cognition – and particularly affect can be used in the further understanding, nurturing or development of wellbeing and human strengths: e.g. self-understanding, empathy, intrinsic motivation toward wellbeing healthy lifestyles.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Systems to detect or support positive emotions and human strengths for example Reflection, Empathy, Happiness, Gratitude, Self-understanding/ interpersonal skills, Emotional intelligence/ emotion regulation, Social intelligence/ intrapersonal skills, Motivation.
• Using affect and motivation for physical and psychological health.
• Cyberpsychology for positive psychology and wellbeing
• HCI design strategies for support of wellbeing and human strengths
• Virtual Reality for support of wellbeing or human strengths
• Positive personal health informatics for health promotion
• Patient-centered technologies for healthy behaviour change
• Empathic intelligent virtual agents for lifestyle monitoring and behaviour change
• Mobile applications of affective computing for health and wellbeing
• Informatics technologies for patient empowerment

Timetable

• Call for Papers out: Feb 2013
• Submission Deadline:  July 1st, 2013
• Notification of Acceptance:  October 1st, 2013
• Final Manuscripts Due:  December 1st, 2013
• Date of Publication: March or July 2014

Review process

The Transactions on Affective Computing Special Issue on “Affect and wellbeing” will consist of papers on techniques, methods, case studies and their evaluation. Some papers may survey various aspects of the topic, particularly in ways that bring the psychological, health and wellbeing, and technical literature together. The balance between these will be adjusted to maximize the impact of the special issue. All articles are expected to follow the standard review procedures for the IEEE TAC.

Via The New York Times

As young people spend more time on computers, smartphones and other devices, researchers are asking how all that screen time and multitasking affects children’s and teenagers’ ability to focus and learn — even drive cars.

A study from Stanford University, published Wednesday, wrestles with a new question: How is technology affecting their happiness and emotional development?

Read the full article here

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/does-technology-affect-happiness/