2nd inter stress newsletter 31.03

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Welcome to the INTERSTRESS Newsletter

INTERSTRESS was launched in March 2010 with

the aim of designing, developing, and testing an

advanced ICT-based solution for the assessment

and treatment of psychological stress. The kick-off

meeting for the project was 19 March 2010 at

Istituto Auxologico Italiano in Milan, Italy.

The project will use a new eHealth concept known

as Interreality, which the creators define as a

hybrid, closed-loop, empowering experience

bridging both physical and virtual worlds into one

seamless reality. In other words, behaviour in the

physical world will influence the virtual world

experience, and behaviour in the virtual world will

influence the real-world experience.

Clinical use of interreality is based on a closed-loopconcept that involves the use of technology for

assessing, adjusting, and/or moderating the

emotional regulation of the individual. This is

achieved by increasing the individuals coping skills

and appraisal of the environment based upon a

comparison of the individuals behavioural and

physiologic al response to training or performance

criterion. The project will provide a proof of concept

of the proposed system with clinical validation. The

INTERSTRESS project will run for 36 months.

Partner Profiles

C.E.R.T.H

TheCentre for Research and Technology

Hellas(C.E.R.T.H.), the largest research center in

Northern Greece, was founded in March 2000.

CERTHis a non-profit organization that directly

reports to the General Secretariat for Research and

Technology (GSRT), of the Greek Ministry of

Development.

The mission of CERTH is to carry out

fundamental and applied research with emphasis

on development of novel products and services

of industrial, economic and social importance in the

following fields:

a. Chemical and Biochemical Processes andAdvanced Functional Materials

b. Informatics and Telecommunications

c. Land, Sea and Air Transportation

d. Agrobiotechnology and Food Engineering

e. Enviromental Friendly Technologies for

Solid Fuels and Alternative Energy Sources

and

f. Biomedical Informatics, Biomedical

Engineering, Biomolecular Medicine and

Pharmacogenetics

CERTH participates in the INTERSTRESS project

by working on the creation of the data fusion model

(DFM) that will be designed to allow for automatic

detection, aggregation and combination of data

from multiple sources (subjective/self-report data,

physiological data, behavioral activity data). The

DFM will have to manage uncertainty in the system

generated by incompleteness, noise, and errors of

wearable sensors.

University of Pisa (U.D.P.)

University of Pisa is represented by the

Interdepartmental Research Center "E. Piaggio", a

research Center of the University of Pisa dedicated

to Bioengineering and Robotics. The Center is a

focal point for multidisciplinary research for several

departments and faculties, including the Faculty of

Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences.

INTERSTRESSInterreality in the Management and Treatment of Stress-Related Disorders

INTERSTRESS Newsletter * March 2011 * Issue 2


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Among the main fields of research in

Bioengineering at the Centre are portable and

wearable health monitoring systems and

biomimetic robots mimicking the biological behavior

by means of dedicated materials and structures,

likewise control strategy, algorithms and artificialneural networks.

The mission of the Centre is to perform research

work and train research personnel for the study,

design and exploitation of automation and

biomedical devices. It cooperates with private and

public companies to study specific application

problems that need advanced or innovative

solutions.

For decades the Center has collaborated with the

Institute of Clinical Physiology (IFC) of the NationalResearch Council (CNR). In the INTERSTRESS

project the Center will benefit from the professional

expertise and experimental support of IFC

researchers. IFC researchers will work on Personal

Biomonitoring System (PBS) physiological data

fusion protocols, the development of knowledge-

based models for the physiological evaluation, as

well as the hierarchical model of the decision

support system and support to clinicians and

patients.

Partner News

ISDA 2010

On November 29 and December 1st,

INTERSTRESS partner Universit di Pisa (UDP)

attended the 10th International Conference on

Intelligent Systems Design and Applications, where

Alessandro Tognetti of UDP co-chaired a special

session on Advances in Robotics and Virtual

Reality. The session aim was to stimulate and

exchange research ideas that will contribute to the

collective advancement of robotic and virtual reality

systems.

The INTERSTRESS project was introduced during

the session by way of a collaborative paper

between INTERSTRESS partners CNR, UDP and

IAI, entitled Interreality: the Use of Advanced

Technologies in the Assessment and Treatment ofPsychological Stress". The joint efforts of our

INTERSTRESS members have participated and introduced the

project at the following conferences and workshops (Sept 2010

Feb 2011)

ICT 2010, September 2010, Brussels, Belgium

UBICOMP 2010, 26-29 September 2010,Copenhagen DK

Blue Helmet Forum, 5-7 October 2010, Vienna,Austria.

10th

International Conference on Intelligent System

Design and Application, November 29 December

1, Cairo, Egypt. European Association for Behavioral & Cognitive

Therapies, October 2010, Milan, Italy

Health Info 2011, International Conference on HealthInformatics, 26-29 January 2011, Rome IT

Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR), February2011, Newport Beach, California, U.S.A.

Upcoming opportunities for the next 6 months (Mar 2011 to

August 2011) include:

First International Forum on Health Care andInformation Communication Technologies

(HICT2011) - Barcelona, Spain (March 8-10)

IEEE Virtual Reality 2011 Singapore (March 19-23)

Med-eTel 2011 - Luxembourg, (April 6-8)

Computer Human Interaction Conference -Vancouver, Canada (May 7-12)

World of Health IT 2011 - Budapest, Hungary (May10-13)

International Conference on ComputerCommunications and Management - Sydney,

Australia (May 13-14)

ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering InteractiveComputing Systems - Pisa, Italy (June 13-16)

16th Annual CyberPsychology & CybertherapyConference - Quebec, Canada (June 20-22)

12th IEEE International Conference on RehabilitationRobotics: Reaching Users and the Community -

Zurich, Switzerland (June 29 - July 1)

HCI International 2011 Orlando, Florida (July 9

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partners allowed INTERSTRESS to reach the

versatile audience of researchers, engineers,

stakeholders, experts and other professionals that

were present in Cairo, Egypt, during this

Conference.

Blue Helmet Forum

INTERSTRESS partner VRMI introduced the

project during the conference on Stress

Management and Peace Soldiering, which took

place in Vienna, 5 - 7 October 2010.

The conference, co-chaired by the Institute for

Human and Social Sciences of the Austrian

National Defense Academy, focused on the

different aspects of stress and stress managementin connection with international operations.. The

possible applications of INTERSTRESS to help

military members was introduced during the

conference. The Forum addressed preventive

measures such as stress management during the

preparation phase of operations, the strain during

operations and the challenges for aftercare and

reintegration.

International Conference on Health Informatics

(ICHI)

On 26 January 2011, the International Conference

on Health Informatics brought together researchers

and practitioners interested in the application of ICT

for healthcare and medicine in general and for the

specialized support of persons with special needs

in particular.

Databases, networking, graphical interfaces,

intelligent decision support systems and specialized

programming languages are just a few of the

technologies currently used in medical informatics.

Mobility and ubiquity in healthcare systems,

standardization of technologies and procedures,

certification, and privacy are some of the issues

that medical informatics professionals and the ICT

industry in general need to address in order to

further promote ICT in healthcare. For medical

rehabilitation and assistive technology the use of

ICT has produced important results in the

enhancement of quality of life, contributing to betterintegration of all citizens in society.

Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR)

In February 2011 INTERSTRESS was presentedduring the MMVR conference in Newport Beach,

California. A symposium, entitled Virtual Realityand Advanced ICT in Europe chaired by Prof.Giuseppe Riva, was intended to enlighten

attendees on the advances being made in Europewith new tools and technologies. Other members

of the symposium were,Prof. Andrea Gaggioli, andProf. Brenda K. Wiederhold, both from theINTERSTRESS project, and Prof. Rosa Banos,Prof. Cristina Botella, both from the OPTIMI project,

also funded by ICT for Health.MMVR served as a forum for researchers

harnessing IT advances for the benefit of patient

diagnosis and care, medical education, andprocedural training. The conference went beyond

VR, presenting a wide spectrum of biomedical

innovation. It provided an excellent occasion to

entertain singular interactions between developers

and end-users. MMVRs aim is to encourage and

create a collaborative environment for sharing new

solutions to healthcare challenges among

scientists, physicians, engineers, educators,

students, military, industry, psychologists,

designers, futurists, and others who are interestedin medicine's future.

C. Botella, G. Riva, B.K. Wiederhold, R. Banos, and

A. Gaggioli, at the MMVR conference.

2nd inter stress newsletter 31.03

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