This article presents an integrated, automatic home-monitoring, and assist system for patients suffering from end-stage heart failure, particularly patients with implanted mechanical circulatory support devices, such as ventricular assist devices and total artificial hearts. The system incorporates various biosensors to monitor the vital parameters of the patient unobtrusively in the home environment. Recorded data can be accessed online and in real time by a supervising physician, and these data serve as a means for immediate diagnosis of emergency events. The retrieved information can also be continuously analyzed to generate suggestions for medication, nutrition, and exercise for the patient to optimize their rehabilitation and overall health. An experimental environment (the Future Care Lab) was set up at RWTH Aachen University to serve as a testing environment for the development and evaluation of this novel integrated system. The Future Care Lab was not only used as a platform for technically testing the monitoring system, but also more concretely demonstrating to users the integration of these new medical technologies in a home. Thus, the Future Care Lab provides a unique environment for an interdisciplinary research approach consisting of iterative cycles of system development and evaluation of user acceptance.

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In this research, we describe an empirical study, which aimed at identifying influencing factors on acceptance of electric vehicles. Understanding individual arguments and to reach a high usage rate of these vehicles in the public and a broad acceptance, the identification of possible prousing motives as well as perceived drawbacks is essential, which would allow a sensitive and individually-tailored communication and information policy. Using an exploratory approach, a questionnaire study was carried out in which participants were requested to indicate the level of acceptance and the intention to use electric cars. The questionnaire items were taken from several focus groups, which had been carried out prior to the questionnaire study. Outcomes show that the traditional car is perceived still as much more comfortable, and receives a high trustfulness in comparison to electric cars. In addition, user diversity in terms of age and gender was found to considerably the perceived benefits and barriers. Female users but also aged persons show a higher level of acceptance, which might be due to their higher environmental consciousness in contrast to male persons and younger participants. Interestingly, the selfreported level of domain knowledge (significantly higher in men) did not show a large influence on the level of acceptance.

This paper illustrates the development of the roomXT system, a mixed reality communication system for the home domain. RoomXT virtually extends a user's physical environment by providing a "life-like" communication channel for informal and spontaneous interactions. We use a wall-sized display together with head-tracking and 3D rendering to achieve visual contiguity between the real and a virtual environment. As one possible application of this system, we set up a remote dining situation for two users. The dinner table is visually extended into the virtual environment in which a live video stream of the dining partner is shown. Great care was taken in regard to the aesthetic and device-free integration into the living room. First impressions of potential users support the validity of our design decisions.