Category Archives: tril

June 2008 BioMOBIUS in the news

Connecting People, Heath and Health Care

For nearly 10 years, Intel has focused on people-centered research that leads to innovative technologies to improve the care of aging and chronically ill individuals in the home. Personalized technologies based on this research can help address the rising costs of chronic disease and the aging population, while also allowing people to become more actively engaged in managing their health.

One example of Intel’s commitment to multidisciplinary research is its involvement in the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre, a groundbreaking research collaboration jointly funded by Intel Corporation and the Irish government to explore technologies that will enable people of any age to live independent lives. One of the TRIL Centre’s recent innovations is BioMOBIUS(TM), a low-cost research computing platform that can be easily tailored to quickly build a research tool in a simple way by those with limited technical knowledge.

Another example of Intel’s research-driven solutions demonstrated today is a gait analysis system that reveals the key factors in people’s gait (the manner or rate of movement on foot) and determines their risk of falling. While currently a research project, concepts like this would improve quality of life and reduce the burden on the country’s health care system.

June 2008 EMBC Workshop Accepted

EMBC 2008 logo

Along with colleagues in the TTP in TRIL we had our proposal for a pre-workshop event at EMBC 2008 accepted. Our event is called “Platform Oriented Approaches to Biomedical Application Development for In-lab and In-home Deployments” to be held at the 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society August 20-24, 2008 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. If you are interested in rapid application development, data collection in biomedical research (in lab or in home), remote and home monitoring then please come along to this event where we will cover much of the related work and demonstrate our BioMOBIUS research platform.

The success of biomedical systems that enable research both in lab and in the home is predicated on the available of ICT solutions which can be used throughout the research community. The success of technology in other domains such as the internet, personal computers has been based on a set of fundamental tools is necessary to ensure interoperability, rapid development, and user confidence. This workshop will review the challenges associated with development of systems to support biomedical research both in the laboratory and in the home. The key characteristics of a reusable toolbox will be defined. These tools, by necessity, will be heterogeneous and diverse – ranging from body sensor networks to mobile communication devices to home based monitoring systems. Practical demonstrations of how the features have been realized in an open, extensible and reusable toolbox will be based on the TRIL’s centre BioMOBIUS™ research platform will be included through out the workshop.
BIOMOBIUS comprises of both hardware and software components that support rapid application prototyping and development of biomedical research systems which incorporate a wide range of monitoring capabilities.

Apr 2008 TRIL BioMOBIUS Launch

I am one of the Principal Investigators for the TRIL Centre (Technology Research for Independent Living) on the Technology Platform and today we launched the BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform. This is the combined effort of a dedicated and highly creative group of hardware engineers, software engineers, biosignal process engineers, researchers, designers and managers. Congratulations to the entire TRIL TTP team for great research platform.

NEWS Links:
UCD Research
CARDI

BioMOBIUS Logo

The TRIL Centre BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform an Open, Shareable Hardware and Software System

TTP TeamIn a clinical laboratory in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, an older woman walks along a mat that is embedded with motion sensors. The woman, who has experienced a recent fall, is also wearing several wireless sensors that monitor her heart rate and the motion of her limbs as she walks across the room. Small video cameras placed around the room also track her movement. As data is captured by the sensors and cameras, it is processed and streamed to a nearby computer. The computer screen displays a continually changing graph indicating irregularities in the woman’s gait that could lead to another fall—and a costly hospital stay. The clinical researcher viewing the screen asks the woman to slow her pace. Her gait becomes more regular and her heart rate slows. The clinician ends the experiment, gives the woman feedback on the results, and together they review a rehabilitation plan to help the woman improve her gait and hopefully, prevent another fall.

Scenarios such as the one above unfold on a regular basis at a clinic in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, enabled by the TRIL Centre BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform is a combination of hardware, sensors, software, services, and a graphical development environment that enables therapists, clinicians and engineers to rapidly deploy technology solutions for biomedical research. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform supports the application needs of a broad range of stakeholders, from non-technical end users (such as older people) to hardware and software engineers.

Applications built using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform can be deployed in a wide variety of settings, from the clinical lab to the home. A typical application comprises wireless sensors that monitor markers such as gait stability, heart rate, and alertness; processing functionality, which
converts the sensor data into meaningful information; and a user interface, which enables the clinician to view the information and adjust application settings (for instance, to increase or reduce the frequency of sensor data collection).

The BioMOBIUS Research Platform was developed by the TRIL (Technology Research for
Independent Living) Centre— a groundbreaking research collaboration, jointly funded by Intel Corporation and the Irish government, to explore technology to help older people to continue living independently in the homes of their choice. Intel and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland launched the Centre in 2007, jointly investing $30 million in this three-year research initiative involving researchers from Intel, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.

The first version of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform was released on 22 April, 2008 and is being made freely available to the research community (for research only) by the TRIL Centre. It can be downloaded at biomobius.trilcentre.org.

Reusable, Extensible

A key challenge in health care research is the amount of time that must be devoted to technology development. ‘In a typical research project, 50 percent of a researcher’s time may be spent creating the foundational technologies required to get to the point of collecting data,’ says Dr. Aaron Quigley (UCD), the Academic Principal Investigator for the TRIL Technology Platform research strand. ‘Every researcher has to essentially reinvent the wheel. That’s inefficient, and it stalls research progress.’ The BioMOBIUS Research Platform addresses the problem by enabling researchers to leverage previous technology development efforts. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform is reusable and extensible, with an open architecture. The underlying model relies on the use of discrete functional
components or ‘blocks’ of code that perform certain tasks. Blocks can be reused or reconfigured to create new applications. This allows researchers to spend more time focusing on their research and less on developing technology. The first release of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform includes roughly 40 blocks that users can access to build applications, and anyone can build new blocks that others can reuse, modify and extend.

Simple, User-Friendly
The BioMOBIUS Research Platform addresses another challenge that researchers face: the
complexity of sensor software. ‘Much health care research relies on wireless sensing capability to collect data, but the software that comes with the wireless sensors usually is esoteric and quite difficult to use,’ says Michael McGrath, the Industrial Principal Investigator for the TRIL Technology Platform
research strand. ‘You have to be a specialized programmer to use the software effectively, due to its complexity.’

The software component of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is complex too, but the complexity is hidden from most users. The software is based on the EyesWeb graphical development environment, created at the University of Genoa, and it makes the process of creating an application intuitive. The user drags and drops icons (blocks) onto a palette. Each icon represents an input (e.g., motion data or heart rate), output (e.g., a display of a graph) or processing function. The user connects the blocks in
the required order of execution to create an application. Even non-technical users can develop simple applications in a matter of minutes.

The technical requirements to use the BioMOBIUS Research Platform are modest. Running the BioMOBIUS Research Platform requires a medium- to high-specification PC or notebook computer (it runs on any x86-32 bit PC running Windows XP, but it works best with a multicore CPU). There is plenty of support at the BioMOBIUS Research Platform website (biomobius.trilcentre.org) for users who need it, including a discussion forum, documentation, guidelines and tutorials.

The BioMOBIUS Research Platform provides support for a variety of hardware, via wired and wireless interfaces. Default blocks are supplied to support a wide range of generic hardware devices (e.g., TCP/IP, Serial, and WDM camera devices). The BioMOBIUS Research Platform also currently supports the SHIMMER (Sensing Health with Intelligence, Modularity, Mobility and Experimental Reusability) family of wireless sensors, developed by Intel’s Digital Health Group, as well as Tactex Controls Inc. sensor products.

While the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is designed for ease of use, some engineering support likely will be required to configure and test new applications. In addition, non-technical users who want to develop new blocks will need the help of a software developer to write appropriate code (C++). BioMOBIUS Research Platform Applications

Today the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is being used primarily by TRIL researchers to help clinicians detect and prevent or ameliorate certain conditions related to ageing, such as falls and cognitive decline, and to help older people to strengthen their social connections. Among other applications developed using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform, TRIL researchers have created a neurological monitor, gait analysis and sleep quality applications, and a falls data capture solution involving the use of USB cameras.

Researchers within and beyond TRIL have shown a strong interest in developing other health care applications as well, including in-home diagnostic tests to identify biomarkers of diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Beyond health care, the BioMOBIUS Research Platform can be used for a range of applications that require wireless capture and processing of sensor data, such as sports science applications.

An Expanding Ecosystem

In 2008, applications developed in the lab using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform will be tested in a small number of homes. The TRIL researchers will apply the results to further refine the prototypes and inform their research. The test results also can be used by clinicians to make informed recommendations to the healthcare and/or social services agencies who serve the older people participating in the pilots.

The establishment of the TRIL Centre and launch of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform have put ageing and independent living. An ecosystem of activity has
been growing steadily around TRIL, with the Irish business community, Irish universities, and multinationals such as Intel collaborating to provide research and technology leadership in this important domain.

The TRIL researchers hope that the ecosystem will grow and expand beyond Ireland. ‘We’re anxious to have researchers around the world embrace the open BioMOBIUS Research Platform,’ says McGrath. ‘We want to build a global community of practice, with people creating and sharing new blocks and applications that others can use, so we can accelerate research progress.’ As future versions of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform are released, TRIL plans to host a series of national and international workshops to promote the platform.

‘The TRIL Centre is only scratching the surface of what we can do with the BioMOBIUS Research Platform, especially to empower older people,’ says Quigley. ‘Today there are 600 million people over the age of 60, and the UN projects that this figure will grow to almost two billion by 2050. Home-based applications that use the BioMOBIUS Research Platform could potentially help those two billion people to monitor their own health, remain in their own homes, and maintain their independence for as long as possible. That’s a huge opportunity to do good in the world. ‘

Apr 2008 TRIL TTP – CASL Research Day

TRIL TTP/ CASL joint research day
Date: April 9th 2008
Time: 9:00-14:10
Location: UCD CASL, Seminar Room (ground floor)
http://www.useamap.com/casl

  • 9:00 – 9:30 Welcome and coffee
  • 9:30 – 10:00 Dr. Joseph Kiniry – A Bit of Rigor Goes a Long Way – Making Small Changes to Software Process for Large Gains, School of Computer Science and Informatics UCD, CASL PI
  • 10:00 – 10:30 Dr. Brian Caulfield – Applications for wearable computing in sport and health, School of Physiotherapy UCD, CLARITY Associate PI
  • 10:30 – 11:00 Prof. Mark Keane – CSETs and their properties, Vice President for Innovation UCD
  • 11:00 – 11:15 Coffee break
  • 11:15 – 11:45 Dr. Scott Rickard – Techniques for Source Separation and Localization in Sensor Networks, School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering UCD, CASL Interim Director
  • 11:45 – 12:15 Dr. Colm Harmon – SHARE Ireland – Initial Findings from the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe, Geary Institute UCD
  • 12:15 – 12:45 Rodd Bond – Recent urban improvement initiative for positive aging, Netwell Centre, Dundalk IT
  • 12:45 – 13:15 Dr. Terry Dishongh – TRIL roadmap, Digital Health Group Senior P.E., PRI Lead Technologist Intel / CTO TRIL Centre
  • 13:15 – 13:40 Lunch
  • 13:40 – 14:10 Dr. Aaron Quigley – Research Opportunities for use of BioMOBIUS in Chronic Cancer Care Research ideas informed from Pervasive Computing research, School of Computer Science and Informatics UCD, TRIL TTP PI, CASL PI

Mar 2008 Postdoc HCI/Systems Engineering [Closed]

We had over 20 applications for these posts, thanks to all those who applied.

Post-Doctoral Fellow in HCI and Systems Engineering
March 31st Deadline

Fixed-term 1 year post (with a possibility of an extension)
Ref: 003291

Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre is looking for a Post-Doctoral Fellow specialising in HCI and Systems Engineering. TRIL is a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing.

The main role for the TTP Post-Doctoral fellow is in the exploration of applied independent living research questions stemming from clinical, user-centred and ethnographic perspectives. This is a full-time position.

Feb 2008 Jobs – Interaction Designer [closed]

We had over 20 applications for these posts, thanks to all those who applied.

Interaction Designer UCD College of Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Fixed-term 1 year post (with a possibility of an extension)
Ref: 003292

Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre is looking for an Interaction Designer. TRIL is a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing.

The main role for the TTP Interaction Designer is rapid prototyping and concept design and/or development, especially from user-centred and ethnographic perspectives. This is a full-time position.

Jan 2008 TRIL Centre IDA Review

Tril logo

Along with my co-Principal Investigators in the TRIL Centre (Technology Research for Independent Living) we presented to an external review panel on our work to date and plans for 2008 across the 5 strands within TRIL. I presented on the TRIL Technology Platform (TTP) which is headed up by Michael McGrath (Intel), Paddy Nixon (UCD) and myself Aaron Quigley (UCD).

I’ve only recently joined this team but I was very proud to present the outcomes of the TTP work to date. Across the strands the team have made great strides in clinical research, IT research, ethnographic research and developments targeted at key areas in ageing. Ageing is both a social and a biological process where I like to focus on the challenges, opportunities and excitement which it presents rather than the typical view of disconnection and decline.

The TRIL Centre is a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing, all informed by ethnographic research and supported by a shared pool of knowledge and
engineering resources.

Nov 2007 Appointed PI, TRIL Technology Platform Strand

Myself and Prof. Paddy Nixon are the two new Co-Principal Investigators into the TRIL Technology Platform Strand with a team of about 7 currently based in Engineering. TRIL represents a total investment by Intel and the IDA of around $30 million in the Technology Research for Independent Living Centre (TRIL). In the coming months we will be having a series of events to highlight our research to the Technology Platform Strand team and for them to showcase their impressive work to us here in the SRG and CSI.

Past News Item http://www.ucd.ie/news/feb07/020107_ageing_research.html