Elderly population (over the age of 60) is predicted to be 1.2 billion by 2025. Most of the elderly people would like to stay alone in their own house due to the high eldercare cost and privacy invasion. Unobtrusive activity recognition is the most preferred solution for monitoring daily activities of the elderly people living alone rather than the camera and wearable devices based systems. Thus, we propose an unobtrusive activity recognition classifier using Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) and anonymous binary sensors (PIR sensors and door sensors). The real world long-term fully annotated Aruba open dataset collected by binary sensors has been employed for the training and evaluation of the classifier. First, ten basic daily activities, namely: Bed_to_Toilet, Eating, Meal_Preparation, Relax, Sleeping, Work, Housekeeping, Wash_Dishes, Enter_Home, and Leave_Home are segmented with different sliding window sizes, and then converted into binary activity images. Next, the activity images are employed for training the DCNN classifiers with different parameters. Finally, the trained classifiers are evaluated with the 10-fold cross validation method, and the results show that the best DCNN classifier gives 0.79 and 0.951 of F1-score for all 10 activities and eight activities (excluding Leave_Home and Wash_Dishes), respectively.

Background Many countries across the globe have released their own COVID-19 contact tracing apps. This has resulted in the proliferation of several apps that used a variety of technologies. With the absence of a standardized approach used by the authorities, policy makers, and developers, many of these apps were unique. Therefore, they varied by function and the underlying technology used for contact tracing and infection reporting. Objective The goal of this study was to analyze most of the COVID-19 contact tracing apps in use today. Beyond investigating the privacy features, design, and implications of these apps, this research examined the underlying technologies used in contact tracing apps. It also attempted to provide some insights into their level of penetration and to gauge their public reception. This research also investigated the data collection, reporting, retention, and destruction procedures used by each of the apps under review. Methods This research study evaluated 13 apps corresponding to 10 countries based on the underlying technology used. The inclusion criteria ensured that most COVID-19-declared epicenters (ie, countries) were included in the sample, such as Italy. The evaluated apps also included countries that did relatively well in controlling the outbreak of COVID-19, such as Singapore. Informational and unofficial contact tracing apps were excluded from this study. A total of 30,000 reviews corresponding to the 13 apps were scraped from app store webpages and analyzed. Results This study identified seven distinct technologies used by COVID-19 tracing apps and 13 distinct apps. The United States was reported to have released the most contact tracing apps, followed by Italy. Bluetooth was the most frequently used underlying technology, employed by seven apps, whereas three apps used GPS. The Norwegian, Singaporean, Georgian, and New Zealand apps were among those that collected the most personal information from users, whereas some apps, such as the Swiss app and the Italian (Immuni) app, did not collect any user information. The observed minimum amount of time implemented for most of the apps with regard to data destruction was 14 days, while the Georgian app retained records for 3 years. No significant battery drainage issue was reported for most of the apps. Interestingly, only about 2% of the reviewers expressed concerns about their privacy across all apps. The number and frequency of technical issues reported on the Apple App Store were significantly more than those reported on Google Play; the highest was with the New Zealand app, with 27% of the reviewers reporting technical difficulties (ie, 10% out of 27% scraped reviews reported that the app did not work). The Norwegian, Swiss, and US (PathCheck) apps had the least reported technical issues, sitting at just below 10%. In terms of usability, many apps, such as those from Singapore, Australia, and Switzerland, did not provide the users with an option to sign out from their apps. Conclusions This article highlighted the fact that COVID-19 contact tracing apps are still facing many obstacles toward their widespread and public acceptance. The main challenges are related to the technical, usability, and privacy issues or to the requirements reported by some users.

This paper proposes a customized convolutional neural network for crack detection in concrete structures. The proposed method is compared to four existing deep learning methods based on training data size, data heterogeneity, network complexity, and the number of epochs. The performance of the proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) model is evaluated and compared to pretrained networks, i.e., the VGG-16, VGG-19, ResNet-50, and Inception V3 models, on eight datasets of different sizes, created from two public datasets. For each model, the evaluation considered computational time, crack localization results, and classification measures, e.g., accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Experimental results demonstrated that training data size and heterogeneity among data samples significantly affect model performance. All models demonstrated promising performance on a limited number of diverse training data; however, increasing the training data size and reducing diversity reduced generalization performance, and led to overfitting. The proposed customized CNN and VGG-16 models outperformed the other methods in terms of classification, localization, and computational time on a small amount of data, and the results indicate that these two models demonstrate superior crack detection and localization for concrete structures.

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BackgroundRobot-assisted therapy has become a promising technology in the field of rehabilitation for poststroke patients with motor disorders. Motivation during the rehabilitation process is a top priority for most stroke survivors. With current advancements in technology there has been the introduction of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), customizable games, or a combination thereof, that aid robotic therapy in retaining, or increasing the interests of, patients so they keep performing their exercises. However, there are gaps in the evidence regarding the transition from clinical rehabilitation to home-based therapy which calls for an updated synthesis of the literature that showcases this trend. The present review proposes a categorization of these studies according to technologies used, and details research in both upper limb and lower limb applications.ObjectiveThe goal of this work was to review the practices and technologies implemented in the rehabilitation of poststroke patients. It aims to assess the effectiveness of exoskeleton robotics in conjunction with any of the three technologies (VR, AR, or gamification) in improving activity and participation in poststroke survivors.MethodsA systematic search of the literature on exoskeleton robotics applied with any of the three technologies of interest (VR, AR, or gamification) was performed in the following databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Direct & The Cochrane Library. Exoskeleton-based studies that did not include any VR, AR or gamification elements were excluded, but publications from the years 2010 to 2017 were included. Results in the form of improvements in the patients’ condition were also recorded and taken into consideration in determining the effectiveness of any of the therapies on the patients.ResultsThirty studies were identified based on the inclusion criteria, and this included randomized controlled trials as well as exploratory research pieces. There were a total of about 385 participants across the various studies. The use of technologies such as VR-, AR-, or gamification-based exoskeletons could fill the transition from the clinic to a home-based setting. Our analysis showed that there were general improvements in the motor function of patients using the novel interfacing techniques with exoskeletons. This categorization of studies helps with understanding the scope of rehabilitation therapies that can be successfully arranged for home-based rehabilitation.ConclusionsFuture studies are necessary to explore various types of customizable games required to retain or increase the motivation of patients going through the individual therapies.