Papers by Claudia Ferraris
Frontiers in neurology, Feb 8, 2024
Hence, this study suggests the potential benefits of continuous stimulation of upper limb functio... more Hence, this study suggests the potential benefits of continuous stimulation of upper limb function through gamified exercises and performance monitoring over medium-long periods in the home environment, thus facilitating the patient's general mobility in daily activities.
Electrodermal Activity in the Evaluation of Engagement for Telemedicine Applications
Objective Assessment of the Finger Tapping Task in Parkinson's Disease and Control Subjects using Azure Kinect and Machine Learning
Signals
Structural deterioration is a primary long-term concern resulting from material wear and tear, ev... more Structural deterioration is a primary long-term concern resulting from material wear and tear, events, solicitations, and disasters that can progressively compromise the integrity of a cement-based structure until it suddenly collapses, becoming a potential and latent danger to the public. For many years, manual visual inspection has been the only viable structural health monitoring (SHM) solution. Technological advances have led to the development of sensors and devices suitable for the early detection of changes in structures and materials using automated or semi-automated approaches. Recently, solutions based on computer vision, imaging, and video signal analysis have gained momentum in SHM due to increased processing and storage performance, the ability to easily monitor inaccessible areas (e.g., through drones and robots), and recent progress in artificial intelligence fueling automated recognition and classification processes. This paper summarizes the most recent studies (201...
Neuronal Spike Shapes (NSS): a simple approach to study electrophysiological data for heterogeneity investigation
ABSTRACTThe mammalian brain exhibits a remarkable diversity of neurons, contributing to its intri... more ABSTRACTThe mammalian brain exhibits a remarkable diversity of neurons, contributing to its intricate architecture and functional complexity. The analysis of multi-modal single-cell datasets enables the investigation of this heterogeneity. In this study, we introduce the Neuronal Spike Shapes (NSS), a straightforward approach for analyzing the electrophysiological profiles of cells based on their Action Potential (AP) waveforms. The NSS method holds the potential to effectively explore the heterogeneity of cell types and states by summarizing the AP waveform into a triangular representation complemented by a set of derived electrophysiological (EP) features. To support this hypothesis, we validate the proposed approach using two datasets of murine cortical interneurons. The validation process involves a combination of NSS-based clustering analysis, Differential Expression (DE), and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. The results demonstrate that the NSS-based analysis captures d...
Sensors
In aviation, any detail can have massive consequences. Among the potential sources of failure, hu... more In aviation, any detail can have massive consequences. Among the potential sources of failure, human error is still the most troublesome to handle. Therefore, research concerning the management of mental workload, attention, and stress is of special interest in aviation. Recognizing conditions in which a pilot is over-challenged or cannot act lucidly could avoid serious outcomes. Furthermore, knowing in depth a pilot’s neurophysiological and cognitive–behavioral responses could allow for the optimization of equipment and procedures to minimize risk and increase safety. In addition, it could translate into a general enhancement of both the physical and mental well-being of pilots, producing a healthier and more ergonomic work environment. This review brings together literature on the study of stress and workload in the specific case of pilots of both civil and military aircraft. The most common approaches for studying these phenomena in the avionic context are explored in this review...
Electronics
Good sleep quality is of primary importance in ensuring people’s health and well-being. In fact, ... more Good sleep quality is of primary importance in ensuring people’s health and well-being. In fact, sleep disorders have well-known adverse effects on quality of life, as they influence attention, memory, mood, and various physiological regulatory body functions. Sleep alterations are often strictly related to age and comorbidities. For example, in neurodegenerative diseases, symptoms may be aggravated by alterations in sleep cycles or, vice versa, may be the cause of sleep disruption. Polysomnography is the primary instrumental method to investigate sleep diseases; however, its use is limited to clinical practice. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the available innovative technologies and methodologies proposed for less invasive sleep-disorder analysis, with a focus on neurodegenerative disorders. The paper intends to summarize the main studies, selected between 2010 and 2022, from different perspectives covering three relevant contexts, the use of wearable and n...
Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing
Postural instability is one of the most disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, with important... more Postural instability is one of the most disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, with important impacts on people safety and quality of life since it increases the risk of falls and injuries. Home monitoring of changes in postural stability, as a consequence of therapies and disease progression, is highly desirable for the safety of the patient and better disease management. In this context, we present a system for the automatic evaluation of postural stability that is suitable for self-managing by people with motor impairment directly at home. The system is based on an optical RGB-Depth device, which tracks the body movements both for system’s interaction, thanks to a gesture-based human-machine interface, and the automated assessment of postural stability. A set of tasks, based on standard clinical scales, has been designed for the assessment. The user controls the delivery of the tasks through the system interface. A machine learning approach is adopted, and some kinematic para...
Electronics
Physical and cognitive rehabilitation is deemed crucial to attenuate symptoms and to improve the ... more Physical and cognitive rehabilitation is deemed crucial to attenuate symptoms and to improve the quality of life in people with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease. Among rehabilitation strategies, a novel and popular approach relies on exergaming: the patient performs a motor or cognitive task within an interactive videogame in a virtual environment. These strategies may widely benefit from being tailored to the patient’s needs and engagement patterns. In this pilot study, we investigated the ability of a low-cost BCI based on single-channel EEG to measure the user’s engagement during an exergame. As a first step, healthy subjects were recruited to assess the system’s capability to distinguish between (1) rest and gaming conditions and (2) gaming at different complexity levels, through Machine Learning supervised models. Both EEG and eye-blink features were employed. The results indicate the ability of the exergame to stimulate engagement and the capability of ...
A Preliminary Comparison between Traditional and Gamified Leg Agility Assessment in Parkinsonian Subjects
2022 IEEE 10th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health(SeGAH)
Telerehabilitation of cognitive, motor and sleep disorders in neurological pathologies: the REHOME project
2022 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC)
Automatic Detector of Gait Alterations using RGB-D sensor and supervised classifiers: a preliminary study
2022 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC)
Sensors
The progressive aging of the population and the consequent growth of individuals with neurologica... more The progressive aging of the population and the consequent growth of individuals with neurological diseases and related chronic disabilities, will lead to a general increase in the costs and resources needed to ensure treatment and care services. In this scenario, telemedicine and e-health solutions, including remote monitoring and rehabilitation, are attracting increasing interest as tools to ensure the sustainability of the healthcare system or, at least, to support the burden for health care facilities. Technological advances in recent decades have fostered the development of dedicated and innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based solutions, with the aim of complementing traditional care and treatment services through telemedicine applications that support new patient and disease management strategies. This is the background for the REHOME project, whose technological solution, presented in this paper, integrates innovative methodologies and devices for remo...
Motor impairments are among the most relevant, evident, and disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s dis... more Motor impairments are among the most relevant, evident, and disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that adversely affect quality of life, resulting in limited autonomy, independence, and safety. Recent studies have demonstrated the benefits of physiotherapy and rehabilitation programs specifically targeted to the needs of Parkinsonian patients in supporting drug treatments and improving motor control and coordination. However, due to the expected increase of patients in the coming years, traditional rehabilitation pathways in healthcare facilities could become unsustainable. Consequently, new strategies are needed, in which technologies play a key role in enabling more frequent, comprehensive, and out-of-hospital follow-up. The paper proposes a vision-based solution using the new Azure Kinect DK sensor to implement an integrated approach for remote assessment, monitoring, and rehabilitation of Parkinsonian patients, exploiting non-invasive 3D tracking of body movements to objecti...
GMH-D: Combining Google MediaPipe and RGB-Depth Cameras for Hand Motor Skills Remote Assessment
2022 IEEE International Conference on Digital Health (ICDH)
GMH-D: Combining Google MediaPipe and RGB-Depth Cameras for Hand Motor Skills Remote Assessment
2022 IEEE International Conference on Digital Health (ICDH)
Sensors
Arm swinging is a typical feature of human walking: Continuous and rhythmic movement of the upper... more Arm swinging is a typical feature of human walking: Continuous and rhythmic movement of the upper limbs is important to ensure postural stability and walking efficiency. However, several factors can interfere with arm swings, making walking more risky and unstable: These include aging, neurological diseases, hemiplegia, and other comorbidities that affect motor control and coordination. Objective assessment of arm swings during walking could play a role in preventing adverse consequences, allowing appropriate treatments and rehabilitation protocols to be activated for recovery and improvement. This paper presents a system for gait analysis based on Microsoft Azure Kinect DK sensor and its body-tracking algorithm: It allows noninvasive full-body tracking, thus enabling simultaneous analysis of different aspects of walking, including arm swing characteristics. Sixteen subjects with Parkinson’s disease and 13 healthy controls were recruited with the aim of evaluating differences in arm...
Tele-Monitoring and Tele-Rehabilitation of the Hand in Hemiplegic Patients: A Preliminary Study
Lecture notes in electrical engineering, 2022
Alterations of gait and balance are a significant cause of falls, injuries, and consequent hospit... more Alterations of gait and balance are a significant cause of falls, injuries, and consequent hospitalizations in the elderly. In addition to age-associated motor decline, other factors can impact gait and stability, including the motor dysfunctions caused by neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease or hemiplegia after stroke. Monitoring changes and deterioration in gait patterns and balance is crucial for activating rehabilitation treatments and preventing serious consequences. This work presents a Kinect-based solution, suitable for domestic contexts, for assessing gait and balance in individuals at risk of falling. The system captures body movements during home acquisition sessions scheduled by clinicians at definite times of the day and automatically estimates specific functional parameters to objectively characterize the subjects' performance. The system includes a graphical user interface designed to ensure usability in unsupervised contexts: the human-computer interaction mainly relies on natural body movements to support the self-management of the system, if the motor conditions allow it. This work presents the system's features and facilities, and the preliminary results on healthy volunteers' trials.
Système et procédé de capture de mouvements
La presente invention concerne un systeme de capture de mouvements. Le systeme comprend un dispos... more La presente invention concerne un systeme de capture de mouvements. Le systeme comprend un dispositif a porter sur soi (par exemple un gant) approprie pour etre porte par un utilisateur et presentant un ou plusieurs reperes ayant des couleurs respectives. Une camera video obtient une sequence d'images en couleurs de l'utilisateur alors qu'il se deplace en portant le gant. Simultanement, une camera telemetrique obtient des images de profondeur correspondantes de la meme scene. Une unite de traitement traite les images en couleurs et les images de profondeur de facon a reconstruire les positions tridimensionnelles des reperes. Plus precisement, les informations de profondeur fournies par les images de profondeur servent a isoler une zone de validite dans les images en couleurs. Les reperes sont recherches sur la base de leurs couleurs et exclusivement a l'interieur de la zone de validite des images en couleurs. Les mouvements de l'utilisateur sont alors captures so...
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Papers by Claudia Ferraris