There is increased interest in reducing sedentary behavior of office workers to combat the negative health effects of prolonged sitting. Walking meetings offer a promising solution to this problem as they facilitate a physically active way of working. To inform future development of technologies supporting these type of meetings, in-depth qualitative insights into people’s experiences of walking meetings are needed. We conducted semi-structured walking interviews (N=16) to identify key drivers and barriers for walking meetings in a living lab setting by using the ‘WorkWalk’. The ‘WorkWalk’ is a 1.8 km walking route indicated by a dotted blue line with outdoor meeting points, integrated into the room booking system. Our findings provide insights into how walking meetings are experienced and affect the set-up and social dynamics of meetings. We offer design recommendations for the development of future technologies and service design elements to support walking meetings and active ways of working
Walking meetings are a promising way to reduce unhealthy sedentary behavior at the office. Some aspects of walking meetings are however hard to assess using traditional research approaches that do not account well for the embodied experience of walking meetings. We conducted a series of 16 bodystorming sessions, featuring unusual walking meeting situations to engage participants (N=45) in a reflective experience. After each bodystorming, participants completed three tasks: a body map, an empathy map, and a rating of workload using the NASA-TLX scale. These embodied explorations provide insights on key themes related to walking meetings: material and tools, physical and mental demand, connection with the environment, social dynamics, and privacy. We discuss the role of technology and opportunities for technology-mediated walking meetings. We draw implications for the design of walking meeting technologies or services to account for embodied experiences, and the individual, social, and environmental factors at play.
Aware of the consequences of their inactive lifestyles, many people still struggle to integrate enough physical activity into their busy lives. Interventions that nudge to reinforce existing active behaviour seem therefore more likely to be effective than those adding an activity to daily routines. To encourage people to increase their physical activity level, we designed Discov, a network of physical waypoints triggering people to lengthen their walks. Placed in a public park, Discov encourages people to explore their surroundings in a fun and challenging way by creating an interactive walking experience. Adopting a Research-through-Design approach, we explore the potential of the design of accessible infrastructures and human-environment interactions to impact public health by nudging citizens into being more physically active. We discuss insights gathered through this process and report on first user tests of this interactive walking experience.
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Every year the police are confronted with an ever increasing number of complex cases involving missing persons. About 100 people are reported missing every year in the Netherlands, of which, an unknown number become victims of crime, and presumed buried in clandestine graves. Similarly, according to NWVA, several dead animals are also often buried illegally in clandestine graves in farm lands, which may result in the spread of diseases that have significant consequences to other animals and humans in general. Forensic investigators from both the national police (NP) and NWVA are often confronted with a dilemma: speed versus carefulness and precision. However, the current forensic investigation process of identifying and localizing clandestine graves are often labor intensive, time consuming and employ classical techniques, such as walking sticks and dogs (Police), which are not effective. Therefore, there is an urgent request from the forensic investigators to develop a new method to detect and localize clandestine graves quickly, efficiently and effectively. In this project, together with practitioners, knowledge institutes, SMEs and Field labs, practical research will be carried out to devise a new forensic investigation process to identify clandestine graves using an autonomous Crime Scene Investigative (CSI) drone. The new work process will exploit the newly adopted EU-wide drone regulation that relaxes a number of previously imposed flight restrictions. Moreover, it will effectively optimize the available drone and perception technologies in order to achieve the desired functionality, performance and operational safety in detecting/localizing clandestine graves autonomously. The proposed method will be demonstrated and validated in practical operational environments. This project will also make a demonstrable contribution to the renewal of higher professional education. The police and NVWA will be equipped with operating procedures, legislative knowledge, skills and technological expertise needed to effectively and efficiently performed their forensic investigations.
Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and a significant contributor to work incapacity. Although effective therapeutic options are scarce, exercises supervised by a physiotherapist have shown to be effective. However, the effects found in research studies tend to be small, likely due to the heterogeneous nature of patients' complaints and movement limitations. Personalized treatment is necessary as a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not sufficient. High-tech solutions consisting of motions sensors supported by artificial intelligence will facilitate physiotherapists to achieve this goal. To date, physiotherapists use questionnaires and physical examinations, which provide subjective results and therefore limited support for treatment decisions. Objective measurement data obtained by motion sensors can help to determine abnormal movement patterns. This information may be crucial in evaluating the prognosis and designing the physiotherapy treatment plan. The proposed study is a small cohort study (n=30) that involves low back pain patients visiting a physiotherapist and performing simple movement tasks such as walking and repeated forward bending. The movements will be recorded using sensors that estimate orientation from accelerations, angular velocities and magnetometer data. Participants complete questionnaires about their pain and functioning before and after treatment. Artificial analysis techniques will be used to link the sensor and questionnaire data to identify clinically relevant subgroups based on movement patterns, and to determine if there are differences in prognosis between these subgroups that serve as a starting point of personalized treatments. This pilot study aims to investigate the potential benefits of using motion sensors to personalize the treatment of low back pain. It serves as a foundation for future research into the use of motion sensors in the treatment of low back pain and other musculoskeletal or neurological movement disorders.
Zwaar verkeer draagt voor ruim 40 % bij aan de Europese wegvervoersemissies. Voor zware voertuigen (trekker-oplegger) over langere afstand is puur elektrische aandrijving nog geen optie. Een interessante mogelijkheid is om de trekker te laten ondersteunen door een elektrische aandrijving op de oplegger waardoor brandstof wordt bespaard, en energie kan worden terug gewonnen bij remmen. Een dergelijk project, E-Trailer, is eerder opgestart door Kraker Trailers waarvoor de HAN is gevraagd om de regelaar te ontwikkelen. Voor een specifieke combinatie van trekker en oplegger is dat technisch haalbaar. Voortschrijdend inzicht in dat project geeft aan dat dit voor een gezonde businesscase niet voldoende is. De noodzakelijke opschaalbaarheid naar willekeurige trekker-oplegger combinaties stelt extra eisen aan de regelaar. Daarnaast biedt het systeem kansen die vooralsnog niet in ontwerp zijn meegenomen, zoals de mogelijkheid om puur elektrisch te rijden zonder dat ingeboet wordt op de actieradius (relevant voor zero-emission zones, wat de combinatie uniek maakt omdat er nog nauwelijks hybride zware voertuigen bestaan), of het ook te gebruiken als aandrijving van een ‘walking floor’, hydraulische pomp, of een koelunit, waardoor de conventionele systemen kunnen worden vermeden, en extra besparing wordt gerealiseerd. Tenslotte biedt de energiewinning bij remmen mogelijkheden om de huidige motorrem (retarder) te beperken of zelfs weg te laten. Het project EVENT onderzoekt de mogelijke uitbreiding van de regelaar cf. bovengenoemde punten, behandelt de nadere tuning van de uitgebreide regelsoftware (in software en vooral via experimenten), en omvat de experimentele validatie ervan om te komen tot een gevalideerde verbeterde regelaar met een gunstiger kosten-baten verhouding. Partners in het project beoordelen de consequenties voor het totale trailerontwerp. De verdere fysieke uitwerking kan plaats vinden in een vervolgtraject.
