Stefano Mottura

Virtual reality as a support tool in the shoe life cycle

The life cycle of an industrial product goes through several stages, from the initial idea to the finished product, and on to the purchase and recycling. Virtual reality environments (VRE) allow the user to interact with a digital representation of a product, and so can be used to perform aesthetical, ergonomic, functional tests as well to support customer decisions in the selling process; mainly for customized products. In this contribution, ITIA-CNR presents two important applications in the shoes context: VRShoe and MagicMirror. VRShoe is a VRE for designing shoe aesthetics. MagicMirror, currently under development, is an augmented reality (AR) system for supporting the decision-making processes of customer customized shoes.

New challenges in collaborative virtual factory design

The present paper describes the results of recent and ongoing major European projects about the virtual factory design topic, highlighting in particular new challenges related to the networked collaborative design of factories layout and configuration. A pilot factory for the production of customized shoes is referred to throughout the paper as application example of the proposed methods and tools.

A virtual reality system for strengthening awareness and participation in rehabilitation for post-stroke patients

This paper presents a system called REAPP, a virtual environment aiming at supporting upper-limb robotic neurorehabilitation for post-stroke patients. In the last few years different systems using either or both virtual environments and robots have been developed. However, such advanced systems often lack attention on the physical and psychological conditions perceived by the patient, who should be the key focus in therapies. In this context, REAPP aims not to be just an entertaining interface but also a means to investigate patients’ feelings toward the therapy and to enhance their self-perception while performing the rehabilitation exercises. Before and after the rehabilitation session the patients are inquired about their emotional state, their physical condition and a self-evaluation of the performance is done. While performing the exercises patients look at a 2D/3D interface which has the aim of enhancing their self-awareness by showing them, through an avatar, the movements they are doing. Widgets and a virtual assistant provide additional feedback about the quality of the movements which is computed through a specifically developed arm model that can be customized on the residual capabilities of each patient.

Enhancing awareness and personification by virtual reality and multimedia means in post-stroke patients during rehabilitation

The use of mechanical/robotic devices and of IT based applications in the post-stroke rehabilitation is one of the main challenges in applied research in health sector. Among the wide spectrum of systems, it seems that the focus is still much on the system itself, as a technological whole, and less on the key actor, that is the patient. In this paper a supporting system for post-stroke rehabilitation, based on a 2D/3D real time interface, is presented. It aims at enhancing the point of view of the patients by showing them the movements they are performing through an avatar and by presenting some qualitative aspects of the exercises that can help the patients to be more aware of, and eventually improve, their performance.

Shoe customers' behaviour with new technologies: the Magic Mirror case

European shoe manufacturing sector suffers a high pressure due to the eastern countries competition. Maintaining the competitiveness can appear a chess game in which western countries have to strategically find the appropriate solutions. Dorothy is a research project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme under the NMP theme. It promotes a response based on the transformation of shoe industry and related business model meant to strengthen Europes ability to compete in terms of high added value for the customer. This foreseen transformation deals with the development of tools for the design of customer driven adding value shoes and with the realization of tools for the design and reconfiguration of flexible multi-site and multi-nation production plants. Since the customer is the centre of the innovation process based on new technological approaches, this paper analyses the customer approach to the customized product and in particular impact of the Augmented Reality (AR). The Magic Mirror uses the AR (mixed of real and virtual images) for allowing the user to try-on a pair of virtual customized shoes. This new trial step implies a new purchasing path and a different approach with the product. This paper presents the Magic Mirror case study and a research made with a new questionnaire called “Flow for Presence Questionnaire” measuring the state of the user during the trial.

Antonyms: A serious game for enhancing inhibition mechanisms in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

This paper describes the planning and the implementation of a serious game (SG) for the improvement of attention skills in children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) to promote learning and autonomous management of impulsive behaviors and to inhibit irrelevant thoughts. The SG, called Antonyms, is a personal computer videogame consisting of a series of activities, each eliciting the tendency to respond in an immediate, inadequate way based on the Dual Pathway Model proposed by Sonuga-Barke. Children must block such a tendency, reflect upon the situation and find the nonintuitive solution to foster self-regulation skills. Antonyms consists of three mini-games in a single framework. It is designed for educational and rehabilitation settings. The expected outcome is an increase in the ability to keep attention focused on the relevant elements of situations that children face in their everyday life.

CREC: the role of serious games in improving flexibility in thinking in neuropsychological rehabilitation.

Abstract: An exploratory study aimed at testing CREC, a training programme designed for people with cognitive impairments caused by a stroke, is reported. The goal of the programme is to improve flexibility in thinking through a creative approach based on everyday problems. The programme includes two Serious Games (SGs) developed ad hoc, dealing with the transfer of the learned strategies to the home environment. The training was applied to six patients to test if it could bring beneficial effects to them. Before and after the training, patients’ neuropsychological functioning, emotional state and level of creativity were assessed. Results showed improvements in memory, logical reasoning and praxic skills. Improvements in quality of life and in creativity emerged as well. At the end of the training, the patients perceived themselves as more efficient in problem solving and recognised that the SGs led them to reflect critically on some aspects of their daily life that they usually took for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of a ICT-based training system to improve creative thinking in brain-damaged patients

This paper describes the design of a training program for adults with cognitive impairments associated to brain damages. The goal is to improve flexibility through a creative thinking approach inspired to everyday problems and challenges with the innovative support of technology. The training is grounded on the three fundamental components of creativity: widening, connecting, and reorganizing. It consists of 5 units, each of them scheduled across 4 steps. Units 2 and 5 include a fifth step consisting of two serious games based on the technological support of a laptop. The training program has been implemented in a pilot study, whose outcomes will be the base for future improvements of the whole training.

Supporting Rehabilitation of ADHD Children with Serious Games and Enhancement of Inhibition Mechanisms

The Attention Deficit–Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a behavior-related disorder, already present in children in pre-scholar and scholar age, that mainly includes hyperactivity, lacks in attention skills, impulsivity (delay aversion). While several approaches have been studied and developed for modelling and facing the various aspects of ADHD, the Dual Pathway Model (DPM), by Sonuga-Barke, is an evidence-based model that synthetizes in the cognitive and motivational paths the key dysfunctions, the inhibitory and delay aversion ones. In this paper is presented the development of a prototype of a computer serious game, called Antonyms, based on the DPM model, that is aimed at promoting learning and autonomous management of impulsive behaviors and at inhibiting irrelevant thoughts in children with ADHD. The game is structured as a set of tasks, contextualized in a story, impelling the player to react in an inadequate and immediate way while the player, to win, has to enhance his/her own skills of self-regulation, waiting, reflecting upon a situation, finding a not-intuitive solution. Preliminary tests on a control group show that impulsivity and inattention are really addressed during gameplay.

Architecture of a Virtual Reality and Semantics-Based Framework for the Return to Work of Wheelchair Users

Being reintegrated at work after an accident constitutes an important milestone to recover a good quality of life, especially for severely injured people forced on a wheelchair after a trauma. The presented framework exploits virtual reality technologies with the aim of supporting these people in gaining awareness of their new conditions, providing them training in simulated and riskless environments. During the training, that addresses key aspects related to mobility, upper body preservations and return to work, the behaviors of the users are tracked to assess their functional level. The evaluation of these data, in addition to the expertise of the clinical personnel, is used to determine the wheelchairs user’s health condition, which is properly formalized in a semantic data model. This model then allows inferring the jobs that are still suitable for each specific user and the most appropriate level of difficulty of the tasks proposed in the virtual environments.