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The development of devices capable of delivering tactile and thermal feed-back have the potential to improve brain-machine interfaces for neuroreha-bilitation protocols. Monetary rewards are known to improve some types of passive tactile processing. The aim of this study was to describe the perfor-mance and neural activity of subjects receiving tactile stimuli through a tac-tile stimulation sleeve in the presence or absence of monetary rewards. Healthy subjects were required to discriminate between different tactile stim-ulation patterns delivered through a stimulation sleeve while their neural ac-tivity was recorded with Electroencephalography (EEG). Behaviorally, no significant differences were observed in the performances of subjects wear-ing the sleeve. Meanwhile, analysis of neural activity revealed that the intro-duction of monetary rewards consistently generated significant differences in theta frequency band for occipital electrodes. These results support the no-tion that monetary rewards can significantly influence tactile information processing.

Population aging is a social phenomenon characterized by an increase in the proportion of elderly people in relation to the total population. For the World Health Organization, an elderly person is an individual between 61 and 75 years of age. Several aspects at the psychomotor level decrease with age increasing, with characteristics of the body that will change over time. Thus, the focus of this study was established on elderly’s clothing with limitations resulting from degenerative joints pathologies. The aim of this study is to develop hypotheses of ergonomic clothing for the elderly population considering their physical and aesthetic needs. The methodology used was direct observation that allowed to obtain a holistic and natural perspective of the dressing / undressing routine. In a second phase, a prototype was developed to validate and deepen some formal requirements. With the analysis of the results obtained, it is concluded that the prototype fulfilled the defined objectives, using wool as a sustainable and biodegradable material, as well as allowing greater ease in the wearability and accessibility of people with fine motor skills difficulties., O envelhecimento da população é um fenómeno social caracterizado pelo au- mento da proporção de idosos em relação à população total. Para a Organização Mundial de Saúde um idoso é o indivíduo entre 61 e 75 anos de idade. Diversos aspetos ao nível psicomotor diminuem com o acréscimo da idade, havendo carac- terísticas do corpo que se vão modificar ao longo do tempo. Desta forma estabeleceu-se o foco deste estudo no vestuário para idosos com limitações decorrentes de patologias degenerativas das articulações. O objetivo deste estudo é desenvolver hipóteses de vestuário ergonómico para a população idosa considerando as necessidades físicas e estéticas desta. A metodologia utilizada foi a observação direta que permitiu obter uma perspetiva holística e natural da rotina de vestir/ despir. Numa segunda fase desenvolveu-se um protótipo para validar e aprofundar alguns requisitos formais. Com análise dos resultados obtidos conclui-se que o protótipo cumpriu os objetivos definidos, utilizando a lã como material sustentável e biodegradável assim como permitiu uma maior facilidade na vestibilidade e acessibilidade de pessoas com dificuldades ao nível da motricidade fina.

Repetitive movements in hands may cause strain injuries that negatively influence the employee performance. The lack of awareness for prevention this type of working injuries often leads the employers to believe that costs associated to prevention are unnecessary expenditures. So, the objective of this paper is to develop a serious game for preventing repetitive strain injuries in hands. The game activities are developed in Unity 3D software and using the 3D sensor, Intel RealSense 3D Camera F200. There are two sets of exercises, the warming up and the stretching off exercises, to be executed during the playing activity. Three game scenarios were developed. The tests performed so far allow concluding that the proposed system correctly detects the hands movements., The authors would like to express their acknowledgments to COMPETE:POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Toys should be firstly approached according to each child’s interest. Regarding children with special needs, it is indispensable to analyse the way they physically reach the toy, their interaction and difficulties/limitations. So, a toy that is specifically designed for children with special needs is a fundamental piece in their development and quality of life, also being an auxiliary tool for therapists to use in therapy sessions. Based on that, this article presents a proposal of an inclusive toy, named “HugMe”, which was especially designed for children with special needs. The results from the first tests are presented which allow to infer its application in game activities with children with special needs and to identify possible improvements of the toy., We would like to thank the children, the therapists and assistants of children with special needs for their collaboration with the research team. This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – para a Ciência e Tecnologia” within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Tese de Doutoramento em Design apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Doutor. Submitted by Pilar Lago (mpilar@fa.utl.pt) on 2016-12-05T11:16:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PhD-DMatos_Fev16.pdf: 9162230 bytes, checksum: 42e50072821cb3b1faa727d9914e9a7d (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-05T11:16:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PhD-DMatos_Fev16.pdf: 9162230 bytes, checksum: 42e50072821cb3b1faa727d9914e9a7d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02

The growth of the elderly population enhances the importance of the quality of the healthcare, which should be administered daily by professionals, whether on a temporary or permanent basis. A core issue to take into account, in this context, is the characterization of these services, especially their adaptation to the specific needs of the bedridden people. In doing so, the quality of life of caregivers, in what concerns facilitating their daily tasks, is also taken into account. A questionnaire was developed to gather information allowing the characterization of both needs and gaps in healthcare identifying the particularities and necessities of the provided services. The questionnaire focuses on three targets: the bedridden characterization, the permanent caregiver and the non-permanent caregiver. The study is descriptive and exploratory, contemplating a quantitative approach. The main objective of the study is to define the important areas worthy of attention, to protect the healthcare of caregivers in the utilization of devices and to be able to build products without structural problems, thus, creating better condition of life and offer solutions in some contexts and tasks, such as, comfort, hygiene and safety., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion