Measurement of people receives thrust by AI

“Smartphones, wearables and co. leave a permanent multiensory footprint of our lives. The potential for health care is huge, but we have hardly used it so far,” says Jan Smeddinck, co-director of Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Prevention. In addition to objective information, digital tools would also guarantee motivation and support.

With AI-based approaches, earlier problems with scalability, incomplete data and complex interpretations can be tackled. Of course there are legitimate concerns about data protection, reliability and traceability. Such systems would be used for a day on its own initiative-quasi “off-label” for health purposes.

AI assistant for the elderly
According to experts from the University of Graz, artificial intelligence also focuses on individual health responsibility. Language-controlled AI assistants, for example, must help the elderly, they must understand, classify, warn and transfer as recognizing moods, giving therapeutic impulses or informing family members. “There is a new form of care – one that never sleeps,” says scientists who, among other things, investigate what “communicative AI” means to our society.

On the Vienna University of Applied Sciences campus, a system is currently being developed to support patients after hip joint operation in therapy at home. In particular, the motion data is collected for exercises for the television equipped with a camera. With the help of techniques for machine learning, individual feedback on training takes place in real time. The system works completely offline and anonimizes the data, according to Klaus Widhalm, which leads the FH movement laboratory.

The University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria also follows a data -saving approach. Health data would be processed locally and special AI models are developed that are carried out directly on portable devices. One sees a great potential in smart textiles that continuously records physiological data without limiting the freedom of movement or comfort. In the care sector, among other things, an intelligent bed is used – which recognizes movement patterns and moisture – for example through incontinence or sweating.

Shortly before the solo in the Elbphilharmony
Portable powerful sensors in the form of a medically certified smartwatch are currently used by musicians: they train real concert situations with VR glasses, for example on a virtual stage in the Elbphilharmonie. In combination with the data from the smartwatch it can be determined how well the participants deal with theater shell and which techniques – such as breathing exercises – work, according to Matthias Bertsch, music scientist at the University of Music and Art Vienna.

Walter Ritter of the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences emphasizes that data generated by self -employees can also be restless by self -employees. Many users would initially trust the technology, but quickly lose interest if the results do not coincide with their subjective feeling. He mentioned a measured improvement in sleep quality as an example, but it was not felt. The corresponding context and individual communication are also required for objective data.

Digital diet coaches don’t work for everyone
Research projects at the University of Vienna show why nutritional apps do not help everyone. The digital diet coaches are therefore mainly used by younger people with a high level of education and income and are most effective for them. On the one hand, a lower level of education is associated with less knowledge about healthy eating, on the other hand, low earners could not afford the latest technology. These obstacles should be considered in digitization, said health psychologist Laura König.

Critical voices see the efficiency assessment through self-tracking technologies, apart from medical use, also a path to “dehumanization” and “reduced people to the machine”. Qualities such as creativity, empathy and ethical reflection would take a rear seat, Pia-Zoe Hahne and Alexander Schmölz of the BFI Vienna University of Applied Sciences explained.