19-10-2010, 05:48 PM
[attachment=6614]
WIRELESS APPLICATION PROTOCOL
Daniel Roggen, Bert Arnrich, Gerhard Tr¨oster
Wearable Computing Laboratory, ETH Z¨urich, Switzerland
http://wearable.ethz.ch
Abstract.
Wearable computers, embedded in clothing or seamlessly integrated
in devices we carry with us, have a tremendous advantage to
become the main gateway to personal health management. Current stateof-
the-art devices allow to monitor basic physical or physiological parameters.
Applications include e.g. improving performance in sports, early
fall detection for elderly people, long-term heart monitoring in order to
quantify recovery after surgery.
Those devices however tend to focus on elementary physical or physiological
aspects of health management. In this article we point out that
future wearable device will need to take into considerations social as well
as mental aspects in addition to physical and physiological information
in order to deliver truly personalized, proactive, wearable health or life
style management systems. We highlight open research topics that need
to be addressed to make this vision a reality.
Introduction
The current health care system faces many challenges in view of the aging population.
Reducing health costs while maintaining universal and high quality of
care are among the toughest challenges nowadays. At the same time, with an
increasingly mobile life style, people desire more flexibility in their relation to
the health care system, such as the possibility to get in touch with health care
professionals anywhere and anytime.
Wearable computing has the potential to revolutionize health care by decentralizing
it, giving more control to the patient, and shifting the focus from
treatment to prevention. Wearable computers may become the main gateway
to personal health management, therefore becoming personal health assistants.
Current state-of-the-art devices already allow to monitor basic physical or physiological
parameters. Applications include e.g. early fall detection for elderly people,
or long-term heart monitoring in order to quantify recovery after surgery,
as well as improving performance in sports.
The health care system nowadays is mostly designed to address “life threatening”
situations that have an immediate effects on survival chances (e.g. heart
conditions, diabetes). However, individual life style may have a strong influence
on future health prospects, even if it has no immediate impact on survival. Forof cardiovascular diseases in the long run. The management of these lifestylerelated
factors is difficult to integrate in the current health care system which
is mostly based on sporadic visits of the patient to the health care professional.
Implementing a health-friendly life style may also be a difficult task for the patient
himself. Since the life style may not have immediate effect on the patient’s
health, there is no strong incentive to change one’s behavior, and even if the
patient perceives the need for a change, this may be a daunting task if unaided.
Wearable computing has the potential to become an ubiquitous tool to help
patients manage their life style in a more efficient way, and thus signal a shift
toward user-centric health-management or lifestyle-management.
Health-management addresses a wider population than the current health
care system, targeting the more general “health-savvy” citizen, rather than patients
suffering from critical conditions. Furthermore, health is more than the
mere absence of illnesses. Indeed the World Health Organization defines health
as [...] a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity [1].We envision that, in addition to supporting
lifelong health-management, wearable devices will shift toward supporting the
more all-encompassing concept of “well-being” along the three axes of physical,
mental and social well-being.
This in turn will require new tools, technologies and algorithms to understand
the user’s state and provide him with adequate feedback on how to improve
his condition. We argue that one of the key mechanism of wearable computing,
context recognition, will need to be expanded significantly in order to understand
higher level, more complex, contexts than what is currently state of the art. In
particular, the detection of cognitive, social or emotional states may be required
for the system to understand the current state and needs of the user.
In this article we highlight the open questions and future research topics
that need to be addressed by the research community in order to make of this
vision a reality. We describe our vision of life style management in section 2. We
then review in section 3 current state of the art wearable devices, that mostly
address the physical aspect of well-being. In section 4 we describe recent results
evidencing that the detection of mental as well as social states is possible, and
therefore that the combination of the three aspects of physical, mental and social
well-being in a device may be a likely outcome. In section 5 we highlight the open
questions that must be addressed. In particular, recognizing the user context,
his daily routine, together with his social interactions, emotional or cognitive
states, and correlating these with a sense of well-being or with potential long
term clinical outcomes, are research topics that have not yet been tackled in the
wearable computing community. Finally we conclude this paper in section 66
WIRELESS APPLICATION PROTOCOL
Daniel Roggen, Bert Arnrich, Gerhard Tr¨oster
Wearable Computing Laboratory, ETH Z¨urich, Switzerland
http://wearable.ethz.ch
Abstract.
Wearable computers, embedded in clothing or seamlessly integrated
in devices we carry with us, have a tremendous advantage to
become the main gateway to personal health management. Current stateof-
the-art devices allow to monitor basic physical or physiological parameters.
Applications include e.g. improving performance in sports, early
fall detection for elderly people, long-term heart monitoring in order to
quantify recovery after surgery.
Those devices however tend to focus on elementary physical or physiological
aspects of health management. In this article we point out that
future wearable device will need to take into considerations social as well
as mental aspects in addition to physical and physiological information
in order to deliver truly personalized, proactive, wearable health or life
style management systems. We highlight open research topics that need
to be addressed to make this vision a reality.
Introduction
The current health care system faces many challenges in view of the aging population.
Reducing health costs while maintaining universal and high quality of
care are among the toughest challenges nowadays. At the same time, with an
increasingly mobile life style, people desire more flexibility in their relation to
the health care system, such as the possibility to get in touch with health care
professionals anywhere and anytime.
Wearable computing has the potential to revolutionize health care by decentralizing
it, giving more control to the patient, and shifting the focus from
treatment to prevention. Wearable computers may become the main gateway
to personal health management, therefore becoming personal health assistants.
Current state-of-the-art devices already allow to monitor basic physical or physiological
parameters. Applications include e.g. early fall detection for elderly people,
or long-term heart monitoring in order to quantify recovery after surgery,
as well as improving performance in sports.
The health care system nowadays is mostly designed to address “life threatening”
situations that have an immediate effects on survival chances (e.g. heart
conditions, diabetes). However, individual life style may have a strong influence
on future health prospects, even if it has no immediate impact on survival. Forof cardiovascular diseases in the long run. The management of these lifestylerelated
factors is difficult to integrate in the current health care system which
is mostly based on sporadic visits of the patient to the health care professional.
Implementing a health-friendly life style may also be a difficult task for the patient
himself. Since the life style may not have immediate effect on the patient’s
health, there is no strong incentive to change one’s behavior, and even if the
patient perceives the need for a change, this may be a daunting task if unaided.
Wearable computing has the potential to become an ubiquitous tool to help
patients manage their life style in a more efficient way, and thus signal a shift
toward user-centric health-management or lifestyle-management.
Health-management addresses a wider population than the current health
care system, targeting the more general “health-savvy” citizen, rather than patients
suffering from critical conditions. Furthermore, health is more than the
mere absence of illnesses. Indeed the World Health Organization defines health
as [...] a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity [1].We envision that, in addition to supporting
lifelong health-management, wearable devices will shift toward supporting the
more all-encompassing concept of “well-being” along the three axes of physical,
mental and social well-being.
This in turn will require new tools, technologies and algorithms to understand
the user’s state and provide him with adequate feedback on how to improve
his condition. We argue that one of the key mechanism of wearable computing,
context recognition, will need to be expanded significantly in order to understand
higher level, more complex, contexts than what is currently state of the art. In
particular, the detection of cognitive, social or emotional states may be required
for the system to understand the current state and needs of the user.
In this article we highlight the open questions and future research topics
that need to be addressed by the research community in order to make of this
vision a reality. We describe our vision of life style management in section 2. We
then review in section 3 current state of the art wearable devices, that mostly
address the physical aspect of well-being. In section 4 we describe recent results
evidencing that the detection of mental as well as social states is possible, and
therefore that the combination of the three aspects of physical, mental and social
well-being in a device may be a likely outcome. In section 5 we highlight the open
questions that must be addressed. In particular, recognizing the user context,
his daily routine, together with his social interactions, emotional or cognitive
states, and correlating these with a sense of well-being or with potential long
term clinical outcomes, are research topics that have not yet been tackled in the
wearable computing community. Finally we conclude this paper in section 66
