Difusión del uso de las tecnologías wearables en salud

The research group Biometrics, Biosignals and Security (GB2S) of the Centro de Domótica Integral (CeDInt-UPM) participated in the program 4eso+empresa which consists of the collaboration of high-school students with companies and research centers. During this collaboration, a group of nine students visited our facilities and attended a workshop about our work in the Data-as-a-Service Platform for Healthy Lifestyle and Preventive Medicine (DAPHNE) project. The target of the project is the monitoring of patients and the prevention of chronic diseases as the obesity using wearable sensors and a cloud platform.

The contribution of the GB2S research group to the DAPHNE project consists of the development of a software system able recognize the activities done by the patients wearing sensor, estimate the level of the expended energy during the whole day and also detect the level of stress.

Currently, wearable technology is widely used in different applications:  lifestyle, medical, fitness and video games among others. During four days the students learnt the applications of the wearable technology in the area of health prevention. The DAPHNE project uses two wearable sensors that collect data during the daily life of the patients.

The designed technology is able to recognize some activities such as walking, running, sitting down or lying. The students participated in the process of data collection wearing a sensor located on the wrist and a smartphone at the hip. While wearing both sensors they performed different activities so they were able to see what are the differences and similarities of the collected data when they do different activities and also when different people do the same activity. Finally, the students played a game to induce stress while their physiological signals were analysed.

The students had a first-hand experience of the results of a research project. They realised how useful can be the development of new technologies in Health, also the importance of the scientific development in transversal areas such as engineering and medical. Besides, they learnt how the work is in a research group.