Maurizio Caon

School of Management Fribourg | HEG

The presence of an audience and its feedback could affect people’s performance and experience during an event, especially related to sports such as tennis or boxing. Similarly, in videogames, players’ gameplay could be affected if there is an audience and its feedback in response to players’ performance in the environment. The inclusion of an audie...

This article describes a tangible interface for an e-coach, co-designed in four countries to meet older adults’ needs and expectations. The aim of this device is to coach the user by giving recommendations, personalized tasks and to build empathy through vocal, visual, and physical interaction. Through our co-design process, we collected insights t...

This article describes the coaching strategies of the NESTORE e-coach, a virtual coach for promoting healthier lifestyles in older age. The novelty of the NESTORE project is the definition of a multi-domain personalized pathway where the e-coach accompanies the user throughout different structured and non-structured coaching activities and recommen...

Background Obesity amongst children and adolescents is becoming a major health problem globally and mobile food records can play a crucial role in promoting healthy dietary habits. Objective To describe the methodology for the implementation of the e-Diary mobile food record, to assess its capability in promoting healthy eating habits, to evaluate...

Visual cues are essential in computer-mediated communication. It is especially important when communication happens in a collaboration scenario that requires focusing several users' attention on aspecific object among other similar ones. This paper explores the effect of visual cues on pointing tasks in co-located Augmented Reality (AR) collaborati...

Background Conversational agents, which we defined as computer programs that are designed to simulate two-way human conversation by using language and are potentially supplemented with nonlanguage modalities, offer promising avenues for health interventions for different populations across the life course. There is a lack of open-access and user-fr...

This chapter discusses the theoretical behaviour change framework and its integration and implementation of behaviour change techniques that form the conceptual psychological basis for innovative but efficient coaching approach. We review the current state of e-coaching solutions for older adults that can be found in the literature and identify gap...

E-coaches are promising tools for health interventions, being scalable and relatively low costs compared to human coaches. Nevertheless, they cannot compare to humans when it comes to trust and social companionship. Hence, many researches were held around the importance of tangible user interfaces in building trust and companionship during human-ma...

Diverses initiatives encouragent l’utilisation de pictogrammes dans le contexte du devoir d’informer préalablement à un consentement à un traitement de données personnelles. L’article discute les conditions de validité du consentement et en particulier les exigences au devoir d’informer (II. et III.). Les auteurs se demandent ensuite, en prenant en...

Digital technologies are profoundly changing our daily life and our society more in general. This transformation brings new opportunities and challenges also in terms of inclusion. Indeed, some technologies can present barriers in terms of adoption and accessibility; for this reason, it is important to elaborate new methodologies that can guide the...

The current research proposes a technological system “NESTORE” designed for and with older adults in four different countries in order to improve and sustain their wellbeing. The system personalized activities and architecture, co-designed interfaces, and its multilingual aspect aim to establish an ‘inclusion’ criterion based on the user’s sociocul...

The blockchain technology offers reliability, decentralization, security and credibility. Blockchain solutions can be based on smart contracts and on the use of utility tokens which may represent a utility of a company like limited fashion items, cars, car parts or even human biological samples stored in biobanks. However, decentralization comes wi...

As the European population is getting older, there is an increasing need in maintaining older adults living independently at home. Vocal assistants may offer various services that can be beneficial for senior citizens. In the context of the Silver&Home living lab, we tested the Google Home Smart speaker connected to smart lighting installation with...

Background: Chronic pain is a complex problem for many older adults that affects both physical functioning and psychological well-being. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have shown promise in supporting older persons in managing chronic conditions. Cognitive behavior therapy is recommended for older people with chronic pain. However, web-based...

In a world where the data is a central piece, we provide a novel technique to design training plans for road cyclists. This study exposes an in-depth review of a virtual coach based on state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques to schedule road cycling training sessions. Together with a dozen of road cycling participants’ training data, we...

BACKGROUND Conversational agents, which we defined as computer programs that are designed to simulate two-way human conversation by using language and are potentially supplemented with nonlanguage modalities, offer promising avenues for health interventions for different populations across the life course. There is a lack of open-access and user-fr...

In the context of the fourth revolution in healthcare technologies, leveraging monitoring and personalization across different domains becomes a key factor for providing useful services to maintain and promote well-being. This is even more crucial for older people, with aging being a complex multi-dimensional and multi-factorial process which can l...

Background: Connected bike computers can support professional cyclists in achieving better performances but interacting with them requires taking their hands off the handlebar compromising focus and safety. Objective: This research aims at exploring the design of an ergonomic interface based on micro-gestures that can allow cyclists to interact...

Interactions with treadmills are based on pressing buttons or through a touchscreen. However, these interactions require the user to touch the frontal dashboard of the treadmill while running. Indeed, for each interaction that the runner does, the user needs to break her/his running form to reach the interface. Those actions cost also some addition...

The population of people age 65 or over is increasing especially in Europe [3]. Granting to this target population a longer and healthier life is paramount for the European Community. In the context of the H2020 EU funded project “NESTORE” [11], an embodied and ubiquitous e-coach is being developed seeking to change the lifestyle of seniors in diff...

Virtual Coaches, also known as e-coaches, are a disruptive technology in healthcare. Indeed, among other usages, they might provide cost-effective solutions for increasing human wellbeing in different domains, such as physical, nutritional, cognitive, social, and emotional. This paper presents a systematic review of virtual coaches specifically aim...

The digitalization of humanitarian supply chains allows overcoming one of the greatest difficulties faced by NGOs and governments in managing health equipment in crisis situations: the visibility of stocks and consumption at the end of the chain. This paper presents the design process of the health equipment inventory management system developed to...

Background: Promotion of physical activity, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and reduced sedentary behavior in adolescents is a major priority globally given the current increase in population health challenges of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors such as obesity. Adolescents are highly engaged with mobile technology, but the challenge is t...

This paper presents the R’SENS project, the design for a system leveraging the Internet of Things to connect the dots between the user, her car and her environment through the integration of tools belonging to different domains, such as the connected car, the quantified self and web services. The aim of this study is to test a concept through a pro...

Digital curation of cultural heritage is an urgent and important matter for our society, which is becoming more and more digitized. In particular, preserving intangible cultural heritage requires novel solutions that can enable transmitting all the nuances of values and identity linked to different traditions and communities. The current developmen...

Athletes seek to constantly improve their performances pushing their limits and overwork is often the direct consequence of this behavior. This is not a common problem for professionals, who usually are followed by a coach, but it is a growing phenomenon in amateur sports, which drives people to get injured because of overtraining or incorrect move...

Background: Behaviour change interventions targeting physical activity, diet, sleep and sedentary behaviour of teenagers show promise when delivered through smartphones. However, to date there is no evidence of effectiveness of multicomponent smartphone-based interventions. Utilising a user-centred design approach, we developed a theory-based, mul...

The consistent phenomenon of immigration from countries with different cultures, that characterized the last decade, has changed the use of public spaces in European cities. The need to develop innovative solutions aimed at improving intercultural inclusion and mutual understanding of all citizens emerges, so that urban spaces become inclusive, saf...

BACKGROUND Promotion of physical activity, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and reduced sedentary behavior in adolescents is a major priority globally given the current increase in population health challenges of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors such as obesity. Adolescents are highly engaged with mobile technology, but the challenge is to...

Ageing population is growing faster in EU. ICT can provide solutions for Active Ageing; however, the success of novel ICT solutions depends on the user perception of their efficacy to support toward health promotion and global wellness. In this context, the H2020 project NESTORE (Non-intrusive Empowering Solutions and Technologies for Older people...

There are growing numbers of apps and smartphone-mounts for professional cyclists, since they are crucial to track performances during training. However, these solutions require the athlete to take her hand off the handlebar to interact with it. This represents a major safety issue for the cyclists since it requires leaving the brake control, shift...

European cities are changing due the immigration of people from different cultures.

Pain assessment is an essential first step in planning for and providing pain management. Access to effective pain management programs is often limited, due to scarcity of services. Other barriers to treatment include physical symptoms that limit mobility, distance from a clinic, transportation requirements and cost constraints. In response to thes...

The ability to engage the user in a conversation and the credibility of the system are two fundamental characteristics of virtual coaches. In this paper, we present the architecture of a conversational e-coach for promoting healthy lifestyles in older age, developed in the context of the NESTORE H2020 EU project. The proposed system allows multiple...

Human-computer interaction is progressively shifting towards natural language communication, determining the rise of conversational agents. In the context of ubiquitous computing, the opportunities for interacting with new services and systems in a conversational manner are increasing and, nowadays, it is common to talk to home assistants to intera...

In contemporary society, non-communicable diseases linked to unhealthy lifestyles, such as obesity, are on the rise with a major impact on global deaths. Prevention is the new frontier, promising to increase life expectancy and quality, while reducing costs related to healthcare. The PEGASO project developed a mobile ecosystem where the digital Com...

In the debate addressing socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement, some have suggested that technological modifications of individuals could vastly increase diversity between them. This article argues the contrary. In this thought experiment, we argue that if—as some have argued—we have a moral obligation to use technology to enhance human...

Promoting healthy lifestyles can be a successful weapon in counter-fighting the epidemics of overweight and obesity. The PEGASO project aims at encouraging adolescents to become co-creators of their own health. In particular, it aims at creating an ecosystem where adolescents are motivated and supported in adopting healthy lifestyles. In this ecosy...

User Engagement is a keyword employed by software companies, researchers, and developers designing user-centred applications. Indeed, designing digital experiences to engage users is a goal that is becoming increasingly important for several disciplines such as education, marketing, information systems, and much more. Since opinions concerning the...

La perte progressive de mobilité chez les seniors peut avoir de lourdes conséquences, pas seulement physiques, mais aussi psychiques et cognitives due à un isolement social croissant. La fenêtre interactive est un outil permettant la communication à distance. Elle est issue d’un projet de recherche qui vise à réduire l’isolement social des seniors...

Intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) have the potential of offering innovative solutions to mitigate the global burden of dementia and provide new tools for dementia care. While technological opportunities multiply rapidly, clinical applications are rare as the technological potential of IATs remains inadequately translated into dementia care....

Social relationships are crucial for older adults’ well-being. Past research demonstrated that video-communication technology could reduce social isolation. However, most commercial telecommunication systems have interfaces that are too complex to be operated by older adults without assistance. In this paper, we present a system that exploits the t...

This paper compares an emergent interaction modality for the In-Vehicle Infotainment System (IVIS), i.e., gesturing on the steering wheel, with two more popular modalities in modern cars: touch in the central dashboard and speech. We conducted a between-subjects experiment with 20 participants for each modality to assess the interaction performance...

The workshop on "Full-Body and Multisensory Experience" aims at discussing the rich possibilities that the body offers to experience the external world and the prospects that arise for interaction designers when these often-neglected abilities are taken into account. In particular, the workshop will focus on the rediscovery of the human senses, eit...

Interacting with digital lighting systems opens new opportunities and challenges, especially when those systems are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). This workshop aims at investigating richer interactions with interconnected lights. We strive for interactions that happen in our everyday environments and that go beyond not only swiping and...

Plants are live beings with often underestimated sensory and communicative abilities. In this paper, we sensitize to these natural abilities and we show how they can be extended through technology. To these purpose, we propose a framework for multisensory augmented plants and we present the design of three different augmented plants that are able t...

Research in human enhancement technologies (e.g., nanotechnology, genetic engineering, robotics et cetera) is exploding bringing unforeseen solutions that will expand human capabilities further. Therefore, new socio-ethical issues need to be continuously addressed. In this scenario, we argue that a revolution in addressing these issues is needed an...

This workshop aims at discussing the rich possibilities that the body offers to experience the external world and the prospects that arise for interaction designers when these often-neglected abilities are taken into account. In particular, the workshop will focus on the rediscovery of the five senses, either alone or in a multimodal combination, a...

Background The Health Companion App is being developed as a user interface and “gateway” for teenagers to interact with a multi-technology system comprising wearable sensors, garments, a serious game, and other services, designed to help promote and encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours to prevent obesity in 13-16 year olds across Europe.** The de...

The ubiquitous computing era is bringing to the human the possibility to interact always and everywhere with digital information. However, the interaction means used to access this information exploit only few of the human sensorimotor abilities. Most of these interactions happen through traditional desktop or mobile interfaces, which often involve...

This paper presents the Multisensory Interactive Window, a system that allows experiencing distant places and communicating with distant people through a tangible installation that exploits the window metaphor and multisensory feedback. Thanks to the feeling of being just in front of a natural landscape or a room inhabited by a beloved person, we s...

In the frame of the PEGASO European project, we aim at promoting healthier lifestyles among teenagers focusing on the alimentary education and physical activity. This paper presents a novel concept of mobile food record developed following a multidisciplinary approach to innovate both the monitoring and the user experience. This mobile food record...

Wearable devices are trying to conquer the market and to enter the users' daily life. However, wearables show their limits when creating long-term engagement, which is crucial for helping the users to build healthy lifestyles that can accompany them during their lives. The main goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioner...

Behavioral patterns linked to physical activity and nutrition are established during adolescence and people tend to maintain them throughout their whole lives. Wearable life tracking devices might be a useful tool in order to achieve healthy lifestyles among teens. The objective of this study is to investigate what teens think of current wearable d...

This paper illustrates an overview of the benefits provided by the practice of participatory design with special regard to the engagement of communities in the context of health promotion, as showed with the PEGASO experience.

In this paper, we describe a smartphone application that aims at motivating users to use facial expressions. This has a twofold goal: to reintroduce the use of facial expressions as nonverbal means in the computer-mediated communication of emotions and to provide the opportunity for self-reflection about the personal emotional states while fosterin...

This paper presents the concept of a lamp that allows displaying and collecting user's emotional states. In particular, it displays the emotional information changing colors and facial expressions; in fact, the lamp is characterized by anthropomorphic form and behavior in order to make the interaction more natural and spontaneous. The user can inte...

We present a concept where the smart environments of the future will be able to provide ubiquitous affective communication. All the surfaces will become interactive and the furniture will display emotions. In particular, we present a first prototype that allows people to share their emotional states in a natural way. The input will be given through...

Unhealthy alimentary behaviours and physical inactivity habits are key risk factors for major non communicable diseases. Several researches demonstrate that juvenile obesity can lead to serious medical conditions, pathologies and have important psycho-social consequences. PEGASO is a multidisciplinary project aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles a...

This article presents the design of a lamp that is able to represent and collect users' emotional states through a multimodal interaction based on tangible gestures on the users' side, and colors and facial expressions on the lamp side. In particular, the lamp benefits of anthropomorphic form and behavior in order to make the interaction more natur...

Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel" is a crucial principle to be taken into account designing interactions for current in-vehicle interfaces. Gesture interaction is a promising modality that can be implemented following this principle in order to reduce driver distraction and increase safety. We present the results of a user elicitation for gestu...

Wearable technologies are spreading into human's everyday life. Smart bracelets, watches and glasses promise to provide us with ready-at-hand access to several information and interaction possibilities. What happens when these technologies enter the car? Are they a mere danger or can also offer information and interaction opportunities that can imp...

Physical contact has an important role in human well-being. In this paper, we present Hugginess, a concept of interactive system that encourages people to hug by augmenting this gesture with digital information exchange. As a proof of concept, we developed two t-shirts that reciprocally send information to the hugged person through the conductive f...