Sofia Scataglini

University of Antwerp | UA

This study presents some preliminary and unexpected findings of the possible role of the music in Tourette Syndrome (TS) treatment in a single case study who first elicit this effect. The role of rhythmic music auditory stimulation on tics modulation was quantitively investigated using an integrated assessment that consist in collecting simultaneou...

In this paper, we present a new framework to integrate movement acquired by a motion capture system to a statistical body shape model using Blender. This provides a visualization of a digital human model based upon anthropometry and biomechanics of the subject. A moving statistical body shape model helps to visualize physical tasks with inter-indiv...

The ‘collaborative model’ (co-model) is a modeling of the Research Through Co-design (RTC) that is based on a new methodology that uses the control system theory as an intuitive language for defining RTC as an essential key. Closed-loop control system theory is discussed and used to identify the most complex parts of the RTC system such as the huma...

DHM and Posturography explores the body of knowledge and state-of-the-art in digital human modeling, along with its application in ergonomics and posturography. The book provides an industry first introductory and practitioner focused overview of human simulation tools, with detailed chapters describing elements of posture, postural interactions, a...

The book presents the state of the art of the Internet of Things (IoT), applied to Human-Centered Design (HCD) projects addressed to ageing users, from the perspective of health, care and well-being. The current focus on the ageing population is opening up new opportunities for the development of niche solutions aimed at the niche category of older...

(1) Background: Traditional gait assessment methods have limitations like time-consuming procedures, the requirement of skilled personnel, soft tissue artifacts, and high costs. Various 3D time scanning techniques are emerging to overcome these issues. This study compares a 3D temporal scanning system (Move4D) with an inertial motion capture system...

(1) Background: Marker-based 3D motion capture systems (MBS) are considered the gold standard in gait analysis. However, they have limitations for which markerless camera-based 3D motion capture systems (MCBS) could provide a solution. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to compare the accuracy, validity, and reliability of MCBS...

Research Through Design (RTD) needs to reconsider the meaning of “designing” in the research process of “through design.” We propose Research Through Co-design (RTC) as a new application of Control System Theory (CST) that includes a research problem assigned to a co-design process in RTD. It embeds the participatory paradigm through collaborative...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify how generalized fatigue along with hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle affects trunk variability and local dynamic stability during gait. Methods General fatigue was induced by an incremental test on a treadmill, and the menstrual cycle was divided into three phases: follicular, ovulato...

This book reports on advances in human modeling techniques, covering cutting-edge algorithms and their practical implementation in health and medicine, automotive, clothing, virtual reality simulations, robotics, and assistive technologies. Gathering the proceedings of the 8th International Digital Human Modeling Symposium, held on September 4-6, 2...

This pilot study investigates the effect of music-based rhythmic auditory stimulation on stroke patients.Six stroke participants wore a wearable mocap system (Xsens, MVN Awinda, Movella, NL) performing the ten-meter walking test (10WMT) while listening through headphones to familiar, rock, and no music. From the findings of this study, rock music h...

A precise understanding of stent deformation in the upper respiratory tract is important in analyzing critical and dangerous effects of stent displacement on suffocation. Coughing and sneezing cause significant muscular respiratory reflexes in the body. Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) from the mouth during coughing and sneezing was determined using spir...

This paper addresses the need to define and discuss the relationship between the digital human model, the human digital twin and the digital twin. Nowadays, in scientific literature, the new terms human digital twin or digital twin are mentioned in different fields of applications, omitting the concept digital human model. However, a model is not t...

The analysis of human movement using 4D data is explored in this paper. Using the CAESAR database, reference distributions of body segment volumes and 3D mesh vertices connected to anatomical landmarks were created. A child (10 years old, male) with lower limb asymmetry of idiopathic origin was investigated, comparing the asymmetries seen in “A-pos...

The book examines the current state of mHealth and Human-Centered Design (HCD) initiatives toward health, care, and well-being. The present surge in interest in improving people's quality of life is creating new prospects for the development of innovative design solutions aimed at enhancing living conditions. The combination of emerging user needs...

Music plays a role in Tourette syndrome. In this chapter, an overview of this relationship between music, musicians, and Tourette Syndrome is presented mHealth and telehealth protocols using rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) are also discussed. These findings highlight the importance of studying and using music therapeutically in TS, and future r...

(1) Background: Even though music therapy is acknowledged to have positive benefits in neurology, there is still a lack of knowledge in the literature about the applicability of music treatments in clinical practice with a neurological population using wearable devices. (2) Methods: a systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines...

Work-related injuries involving significant physical loads are of growing concern, as these injuries can negatively impact work productivity, physical health and well-being at work, but also have economic costs due to absenteeism. This observational study aims to quantify the ergonomical assessment of dockworkers using wearable devices to reduce th...

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 8th Workshop on Body-Centric Computing and Systems 2023 (BodySys'23). BodySys workshop focuses on advances and discussions on how wearable and body-centric (human/animal) computing technologies can shape mobile computing, systems, and applications research. The goal of this workshop is to provide a for...

EDITORIAL article Front. Physiol., 09 May 2023 Sec. Computational Physiology and Medicine https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2023.1201847/full?utm_source=F-NTF&utm_medium=EMLX&utm_campaign=PRD_FEOPS_20170000_ARTICLE

Drivers use a range of back postures that affect seated positions. Standards in seat design and safety tests assume drivers sit in fully supported back postures which this investigation finds invalid for small females. Twenty-two cars and 20 utility vehicles from Europe, USA, and Asia were measured and evaluated with the ERL Digital Human Models. I...

The role of industrial workers is a significant element of any society and a vital stakeholder in an industrial setup. Their roles and existence in an organization affect the organizational culture, working environment, and quality of Life (QoL). In the same way, modern organizational culture and its environment affect the employee's psychology and...

For capturing only static models, 3D body scanning is well known in various application areas such as medicine, automotive, sports, clothing, product design and gaming. These models have some limitations in that they are unable to capture dynamic poses that can provide more information about real-time tasks and interactions with a real-life object,...

Digital Human Modeling and Applied Optimization : proceedings of the 13th AHFE International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applied Optimization, New York, USA, 24-28 July, 2022

Container lashers are at a significant risk of developing musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) when working at port facilities. Repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) to the back, shoulders, wrists, and hands, in particular, are widespread. This work investigates the ability of a closed-loop vibrotactile motion guidance (VMG) system to teach an ergonomics-fo...

BodySys workshop focuses on advances and discussions on how body-centric (human/animals) computing technologies can shape mobile computing, systems, and applications research. The goal of the workshop is to provide a forum to bring together researchers and de-sign experts to discuss how wearable, body-centric, and user-in-the-loop technologies have...

The port of Antwerp executes its container lashing with specialized dockworker crews called container lashers. These container lashers train in the port training center, OCHA, in order to execute container lashing safely and efficiently. Container lashing is considered labor intensive. Due to the future trends within maritime transportation, the in...

This chapter focuses on the relationships between Ergonomics and innovation through design from a service perspective. The aim is to underline how design for elderly users can be a resource for finding inclusive innovations that can be exploited for all the service users. This work underlines how Design for Inclusion represents a design resource fo...

Container lashing teams experience a number of repetitive and physically demanding tasks. These labor intensive tasks force container lashers into awkward postures which can lead to an increase of the biomechanical risk factors resulting in work related musculoskeletal disorders. An observation concluded that there is a knowledge gap between traini...

Comfort is a subjective measure of how well motor vehicles accommodate the population. With Digital Human Models (DHMs) as drivers, comfort can be objectively evaluated on a 10-point scale with dimensions that measure accommodation of body size and back posture in seat support, controls reach, and lines of sight. In this study, the authors describe...

This paper investigates interactions between Ergonomics and the Research Through Co-Design (RTC) theory. The RTC model is based on Control System Theory (CST) and Research Through Design (RTD) which takes on board the nature of co-design as a generator of knowledge according to a research question. The authors investigated the role of the co-design...

This study aims to measure and compare spatiotemporal gait parameters in nineteen subjects using a full wearable inertial mocap system Xsens (MVN Awinda, Netherlands) and a photoelectronic system one-meter OptoGaitTM (Microgait, Italy) on a treadmill imposing a walking speed of 5 km/h. A total of eleven steps were considered for each subject consti...

Although overhead work is closely related to musculoskeletal disorders, it is difficult to avoid the postures introduced by overhead work for heavy load professions. Prismatic glasses can help to avoid these disorders. As prismatic glasses obstruct the central view of the user, the sensory system linked with the posture control of the user can be d...

Nowadays, wearable technologies are capable of monitoring human activities and performances in different environments. In this paper, we present an investigation of their usage as tools for risk assessment and training in a maritime environment. In particular, bend sensors, stretch sensors and wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) were investi...

This paper frames theoretical reflections to connect the Design for All (DfA) approach with Policy Ergonomics (PE) through the Research Through Co-design (RTC) theory. We used the RTC theory for connecting variables of the RTC model with DfA by assuming the context of policy-making. We also used a polynomial to express the diversity in the RTC mode...

Smart clothing plays a big role to foster innovation and to. boost health and well-being, improving the quality of the life of people, especially when addressed to niche users with particular needs related to their health. Designing smart apparel, in order to monitor physical and physiological functions in older users, is a crucial asset that user...

World median age population growth during the last decades brought with it an improvement of the relationship between Design Research and older users. The balance between users’ requirements and Human-Centered Design (HCD) strategies to satisfy them has been destabilized by the COVID-19 pandemic. Human-Centered Design smart clothing is becoming an...

This book provides readers with a timely snapshot of modeling and simulation tools, including virtual and mixed-reality environment, for human factors research. It covers applications in healthcare and physical ergonomics, military and transportation systems, industrial monitoring, as well as economics and social sciences. Based on the AHFE 2021 In...

This paper draws a link between what happens in maker spaces and how these processes can be simulated in the mathematical collaborative model (co-model) of the research through collaborative design (co-design) process (RTC). The result is the ability to identify the main variables for simulating the “making” dynamics of the RTC model. This outcome...

This paper’s objective is to envision new design teaching and learning systems, offering a vision through the exploration of a model based on the “Research Through Co-Design” (RTC) theory, in order to understand how the model and the related perspectives can improve future design education experiences whilst encompassing equal, peaceful and inclusi...

Digital Human Modelling by Women (DHMW) is an international group of women and supporters with the main purpose of eliminating the gender gap, empowering women to exchange ideas, results, visions, and promote the women's participation in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and DHM fields. This study presents a demographic investig...

Safeguarding the health of dockworkers in maritime transportation represents a high priority with employer's organizations within the port facilities and maritime organizations. Riggers responsible for container lashing secure a high amount of containers on the ship while working with heavy equipment on a tight schedule and therefore risking muscul...

This paper presents a method to calculate spatiotemporal parameters using a chest-worn accelerometer. Accuracy was compared with an optical system that consists of a walkway of transmitting and receiving bars (Microgait, Optogait, Bolzano, Italy). To this purpose, seventeen healthy male wore a smart shirt based worn accelerometer performing five me...

This book presents the latest advances in modeling and simulation for human factors research. It reports on cutting-edge simulators such as virtual and augmented reality, multisensory environments, and modeling and simulation methods used in various applications, including surgery, military operations, occupational safety, sports training, educatio...

The paper describes possible connections between the Research Through Co-design (RTC) model and the contexts of the policy-making through a theoretical framework for envisioning the policy-making as a co-design process and the work of the policy-makers as an autoregulatory research process. The authors use the RTC model with the aim to understand i...

Background. Traditional monitoring of athletes during sports has long been hampered by bulky, complicated and tethered systems. In the past decade, this has changed due to the miniaturization of sensors and improvement of systems to store and transmit data. These systems have been integrated into textiles to create 'smart clothing' which has been s...

Gait analysis was calculated in eighteen healthy male adults (mean age 26.33 ± 4.40 years, body mass 74.66 ± 5.62 kg) wearing a smart shirt based on body-worn accelerometer. This approximation relating the inverted pendulum model to a fractal approach of walking, where an approximation of using the golden ratio is seen in our case nearby the golden...

Wearable devices are becoming a “virtual coach” for novice, recreational and competitive runnner. In fact, wearable devices are non intrusive and can ecologically monitor the performance and the well-being of the runner, providing personalize information to enhance performance, comfort and prevention. In this paper we present an exploratory study o...

Prolonged inadequate sitting posture together with overuse and repetitive strain cause musculoskeletal disorders and pain in pianists. Nowadays wearable sensors based on miniaturized Inertial Measurement Units combined with video recording can provide real time information of the performer in a non-intrusive way and ecological approach without affe...

Electrocardiogram (ECG) estimates the electric signals activity of the human heart and is extensively used for sensing heart aberrations due to ease of use and non-invasive application on human body. Human heart is a one of the vital organs of human body. In an industrial environment, heart impairments and abnormalities are attributed to the differ...

Automated driving (AD) specifications require that the human driver takes over, if an off-normal situation, such as a possible collision occurs. A critical problem is due in this case to the short time available to the driver to intervene and to take appropriate actions. It has been recently demonstrated, mostly in application to the aerospace doma...

Our hearing system works roughly like a calculator for Fourier series, decomposing a sound waves in basic frequencies and then activating respective nerve channels. This relatively easy architecture of our sound perceiving system accounts for the fact that we can filter different sources and thus also that we can focus on a single sound of interest...

Many musicians such as guitarists have to practice in very unnatural positions for several hours while making repetitive movements. Specific for guitar players, problems can occur in the long term, at the wrists, shoulders, neck, and low back. Based on user feedback, questionnaires and observations, two types of ergonomic adaptations have been prop...

In this paper we present a new quantitative kinesiophobia assessment that consists of a combination of Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK-DV) questionnaire with posturographic measures calculated by a pressure plate and a wearable mocap system in standing before and after 10 bending forward in open and closed eyes. Sixteen subjects aged between 18...

A collaborative logical aid (co-logical aid) in Research Through Co-design (RTC) system is an innovative assessment instrument in collaborative research context sharing and augmenting the knowledge among practitioners, researchers, human factor experts in applied human factor and ergonomics field with the specific aim to prevent a shared scenario o...

Smart clothes development history started in the military field and this still remains a main application field. A soldier is like a high-performance athlete, where monitoring of physical and physiological capabilities of primary importance. Wearable systems and smart clothes can answer this need appropriately. Smart cloth represents a “second skin...

Statistical body shape modeling (SBSM) is a well-known technique to map out the variability of body shapes and is commonly used in 3D anthropometric analyses. In this paper, a new approach to integrate movement acquired by a motion capture system with a body shape is proposed. This was done by selecting landmarks on a body shape model, and predicti...

In this paper we present an innovative approach to design smart clothing using statistical body shape modeling (SBSM) from the CAESAR™ dataset. A combination of different digital technologies and applications are used to create a common co-design workflow for garment design. User and apparel product design and developers can get personalized predic...

Open-source digital human modeling (DHM) software has emerged as an alternative to expensive and often complex industrial DHM systems. MakeHuman is an open-source software that has been used in ergonomic studies. Based on open-source Python code, the program creates realistic 3D virtual human body surfaces, primarily focusing on morphing details. A...

Posturography is a science of upright balance which is controlled by the postural system that organizes the equilibrium. The stabilization of this mechanically unstable body therefore requires a feedback control system that can detect any deviation from the “equilibrium position” to control the appropriate reactions required to return to the origin...

Evaluating human performance and identifying critical constraints in the human-machine-environment system is a challenge: the high number of variables and their mutual relation-ships and influence on the multiple degrees of freedom make it a complex task. Despite this complexity an ecologic approach is needed to analyse the system in its natural fu...

Several studies focused on the importance of postural balance as a key for success of shooting performance and training. The most destabilizing factor is recoil that is the reaction effect produced on humans by a shooting task. To assess the postural control during a shooting task, stabilometry (posturo graphy) is the golden standard technique. For...

This study presents the application of a wearable monitoring system for r the assessment of tic events in subjects affected by Tourette Syndrome (TS). A multifactorial analysis and validation of the proposed system is carried out collecting simultaneous and synchronized recordings of data from the wearable actigraph and from two videocameras that a...

Variations in heart rate can be evaluated by several methods and measurements instruments. Smart clothing offers the opportunity to monitoring soldier’s physiological status in an intrusive and ecological approach. Intensive military training, missions, fatigue can create Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) and Physical Exhaustion (FPE) on soldi...

Recoil is the effect produced on humans by a shooting task: it provokes an external perturbation on the postural control that can induce the COP to exit from the base of support thus implying the risk of falling. Several studies focused on the importance of postural balance as a key for success for the shooting performance and training (Ball, 2003;...

A good design of smart clothing for soldiers is crucial element for safety, security and ergonomic factors. These have to be addressed together with the traditional wearability and comfort ones. Anthropometric and gender considerations, as well as textile requirements are to be included into the design core. In that process, we can distinguish two...

The 13th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys 2015) covered a wide and rich range of topics in mobile systems, such as wearable computing, privacy and security, gaming, and wireless networks. The 13th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys 2015) covered a wide and r...

Digital Human Modeling has mainly focused on kinematic and dynamic performances of humans in different applications. Nowadays the new availability of wearable technologies offers innovative possibilities to integrate other mechanical, environmental and physiological parameters in an ecologic and not intrusive approach. In fact, evaluating human per...

Digital Human Modeling has mainly focused on kinematic and dynamic performances of humans in different applications. Nowadays the new availability of wearable technologies offers innovative possibilities to integrate other mechanical, environmental and physiological parameters in an ecologic and not intrusive approach. In fact, evaluating human per...

Wearable technologies are now pervading many applications in several fields. The aim of this review paper is to collect and summarize the actual smart clothing in the space and military field where conditions could be critical for health and safety, and outline the innovation trend for innovative services to police and soldiers.