In order to reinforce the context awareness of the augmented work and learning environment of the project incluMOVE, a simple form of emotion recognition will be implemented. The emotion recognition allows the assistive system to immediately react to the users’ needs: If the users feel overstrained with the given task, the level of difficulty can be reduced, and helpful instructions are being offered. But if the system recognizes a certain level of confidence within the user’s working process of the presented task, it reduces the instructions and turns on a gamification element to extol the user.
The user’s emotions can be analyzed via minimal changes in mimic and expressions of the face. This can be supported further through physiological measurements. Modern wearables like patches or fitness trackers offer a wide range of possibilities to take reliable measures of subconscious and situational physiological reactions. The conference ‘Wearable Technologies – Europe 2019’ and the fair ‘ISPO 2019’ in Munich offer the world’s greatest exhibition of modern and innovative wearables of various fields. Here, an equally broad range of information of the latest developments (research) and commercially available products (economy) can be acquired. Trough the combination of talks and exhibition booths, a detailed overview of the current standard in the wearable industry can be received quickly. Simultaneously, there is the unique chance to discuss a possible adaption or provision of a potential functional wearable for the incluMOVE project in person.
The visit of both, the fair and conference offered a variety of highly interesting insights and contacts. The innovations presented at the conference ‘Wearable Technologies’ within the ‘Innovation World Cup 2019’ had been especially promising. A smart garment of the Fraunhofer Institute ILS for example, is able to determine the stress level of patients going through anxiety therapy (RespiSHIRT), an innovative ring which detects various physiological parameters including the heart rate (Xenxo S Ring) or a device to analyze stress reactions with clinical precision (FirstBeat).
Altogether the visit of the conference and fair was of great value for the incluMOVE project. We were able to gain a vast overview of the current products and innovations, but also discovered that the trend is shifting more and more towards unobtrusive and less restricting wearables. This is of special importance for incluMOVE, as the work and study environments should be supportive and not distracting or disruptive. Especially pleasing was, that we were able to promote the project incluMOVE furthermore at the conference and fair and that all companies, which were introduced to the project, expressed great interest in it.
