Current Research

Below you can find a list of the latest papers I have worked on.
Please feel free to browse and contact me if you are interested.

For a more complete list of my latest publications according to Google Scholar, please follow this link:
https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=eCOZ3t8AAAAJ&hl=en

Is the Overfitting in a Neural Network a Reliable Model for the Recognition of Activities of Daily Living?

Authors

Lina Xu, Nuno Pombo, Ivan Miguel Pires, Nuno M Garcia

Publication date

2019/9/25

Conference

Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good

Pages

223-226

Publisher

ACM

Description

Recently human behaviour recognition based on mobile devices have become attractive to facilitate Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). Due to the diversities of data acquired from a large range of sensors that are available in the off-the-shelf mobile devices, the overfitting problems are highly concerned in the training of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for the recognition of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and the detection of the associated environments. The purpose of this paper is to explore the correlation and causation of these ANN. We also aim to address problems such as how to avoid the overfitting and in what way these ANN models will affect the accuracy of the predictions from the automatic recognition of ADL and the detection of the environments. Several tests have been performed based on three different types of ANN created for our previously proposed framework. From the results, we can see that the …

Scholar articles

Is the Overfitting in a Neural Network a Reliable Model for the Recognition of Activities of Daily Living?

L Xu, N Pombo, IM Pires, NM Garcia - Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on …, 2019

 

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Smartphone-based automatic measurement of the results of the Timed-Up and Go test

Authors

Vasco Ponciano, Ivan Miguel Pires, Fernando Reinaldo Ribeiro, Nuno M Garcia, Nuno Pombo, Susanna Spinsante, Rute Crisóstomo

Publication date

2019/9/25

Conference

Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good

Pages

239-242

Publisher

ACM

Description

The Timed-Up and Go test is a very used test in the physiotherapy area. For the measurement of the results of the test, we propose to use a smartphone with several embedded sensors, including accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, a Bitalino device with the Electromyography (EMG) and Electrocardiography (ECG) sensors, and a second Bitalino device with a pressure sensor connected and positioned in the back of the chair. This architecture allows to capture several types of data from the sensors easily. In this paper, we present a structured method to implement the measurement of the different parameters involved in the Timed-up and Go test, for acquiring, processing and cleaning the collected measurements. This data will help in the classification of the test results initially, and later on to discover more complex patterns and related conditions, such as equilibrium changes, neurological pathologies …

Scholar articles

Smartphone-based automatic measurement of the results of the Timed-Up and Go test

V Ponciano, IM Pires, FR Ribeiro, NM Garcia, N Pombo… - Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on …, 2019

 

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CoviHealth: Novel approach of a mobile application for nutrition and physical activity management for teenagers

Authors

María Vanessa Villasana, Ivan Miguel Pires, Juliana Sá, Nuno M Garcia, Nuno Pombo, Eftim Zdravevski, Ivan Chorbev

Publication date

2019/9/25

Conference

Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good

Pages

261-266

Publisher

ACM

Description

The increasing number of teenagers with obesity and sedentary lifestyle is related to the poor habits of diet and physical activity. There is a large diversity of mobile applications related to diet control and physical activity, mainly directed to adults and without any medical control. CoviHealth project consists of the implementation of a mobile application for young people to promote healthy dietary habits and physical activity based on anthropometric parameters control and gamification. The main contribution of this paper is a detailed specification of an integrated mobile for promoting healthy habits for young people. Additionally, it leverages the effects of the gamification and medical control on stimulating education with healthy habits. Even though other mobile applications have some features that the proposed application has, to the best of our knowledge, a standardized specification for the integration of activity …

Scholar articles

CoviHealth: Novel approach of a mobile application for nutrition and physical activity management for teenagers

MV Villasana, IM Pires, J Sá, NM Garcia, N Pombo… - Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on …, 2019

 

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A review of frameworks on continuous data acquisition for e-Health and m-Health

Authors

Salome Oniani, Ivan Miguel Pires, Nuno M Garcia, Ia Mosashvili, Nuno Pombo

Publication date

2019/9/25

Conference

Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good

Pages

231-234

Publisher

ACM

Description

There is a huge number of mobile devices which use as an e-Health and m-Health system. The main purpose of the article is to make a review of frameworks for continuous data acquisition to identify the most commonly used and better methods. We are discussing environmental monitoring, middle-tier, cross-sending, and middleware frameworks such as SeeMon, DEAMON (Distributed Energy-Aware Monitoring), PRISM (Performance of Routine Information System Management), Medusa, MOSDEN (Mobile Sensor Data Processing Engine), C-MOSDEN (Context-aware data streaming engine called Mobile Sensor Date Engine) and MECA (Mobile edge capture and analysis middleware for social sensing applications) frameworks. These results are able to develop e-Health and m-Health systems in order to improve their efficiency.

Scholar articles

A review of frameworks on continuous data acquisition for e-Health and m-Health

S Oniani, IM Pires, NM Garcia, I Mosashvili, N Pombo - Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on …, 2019

 

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Towards an accurate sleep apnea detection based on ECG signal: The quintessential of a wise feature selection

Authors

André Pinho, Nuno Pombo, Bruno MC Silva, Kouamana Bousson, Nuno Garcia

Publication date

2019/6/24

Journal

Applied Soft Computing

Pages

105568

Publisher

Elsevier

Description

A wise feature selection from minute-to-minute Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is a challenging task for many reasons, but mostly because of the promise of the accurate detection of clinical disorders, such as the sleep apnea. In this study, the ECG signal was modeled in order to obtain the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and the ECG-Derived Respiration (EDR). Selected features techniques were used for benchmark with different classifiers such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machine(SVM), among others. The results evidence that the best accuracy was 82.12%, with a sensitivity and specificity of 88.41% and 72.29%, respectively. In addition, experiments revealed that a wise feature selection may improve the system accuracy. Therefore, the proposed model revealed to be reliable and simpler alternative to classical solutions for the sleep apnea detection, for example the ones based on the …

Scholar articles

Towards an accurate sleep apnea detection based on ECG signal: The quintessential of a wise feature selection

A Pinho, N Pombo, BMC Silva, K Bousson, N Garcia - Applied Soft Computing, 2019

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Towards Pain-Fingerprinting: A Ubiquitous and Interoperable Clinical Decision Support System for Pain Assessment

Authors

Nuno Pombo, Nuno M Garcia

Publication date

2019/5/16

Conference

International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering

Pages

453-457

Publisher

Springer, Cham

Description

The subjectivity and the multidimensionality of pain raises several challenges in terms of its description, assessment and treatment. This study presents a Clinical Decision Support System for the pain condition based on the fusion of its different dimensions in order to produce an accurate and reliable assessment. The proposed system includes not only the value of the pain intensity but also several scores (e.g. regarding anxiety, or depression) obtained from the analysis of patients’ behaviour related with the posted messages on social networks, such as Facebook, or Twitter. This study aims to introduce the paradigm for the pain assessment based on patients’ behavioural scores to the detriment of it self-reporting of pain.

Scholar articles

Towards Pain-Fingerprinting: A Ubiquitous and Interoperable Clinical Decision Support System for Pain Assessment

N Pombo, NM Garcia - International Conference on Medical and Biological …, 2019

Related articles All 2 versions

 

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Identification of Real and Imaginary Movements in EEG Using Machine Learning Models

Authors

Joana Moreira, Mariana Moreira, Nuno Pombo, Bruno MC Silva, Nuno M Garcia

Publication date

2019/5/16

Conference

International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering

Pages

469-474

Publisher

Springer, Cham

Description

The neural activity of the brain may be observed by means of an electroencephalogram (EEG) whose analysis and/or interpretation may lead to the recognition of human activities and behaviors. However, on imagined body movements the brain produces the same EEG patterns as the action performed. This study aims to differentiate real movements from imagined ones, through EEG signals. Three different models; Support Vector Machine, Logistic Regression, and K-Nearest neighbour were implemented to classify these events. The preliminary results, obtained from 15 participants, revealed that the Logistic Regression was the best classifier into the proposed model with accuracy rates varying from 36.8 to 90%. Finally, complementary studies should be addressed to optimize not only the accuracy but also to assure uniform accuracy among the different participants.

Scholar articles

Identification of Real and Imaginary Movements in EEG Using Machine Learning Models

J Moreira, M Moreira, N Pombo, BMC Silva, NM Garcia - International Conference on Medical and Biological …, 2019

Related articles All 2 versions

 

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How to Get a Badge? Unlock Your Mind: Motivation through Student Empowerment

Authors

Nuno Pombo, Nuno Garcia, Pedro Alves

Publication date

2019/4/8

Conference

2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

Pages

115-119

Publisher

IEEE

Description

The introduction of gamification principles into the classroom may enhance and extend the student engagement in learning activities, and therefore, contribute to a more efficient knowledge acquisition. In this paper, we report a case study whose methodology is based on awarding merit badges as a result of the successful completion of learning activities focused on either soft and hard skills. This initiative was implemented in two universities, involving 221 participants, aimed at assessing how the proposed model may contribute to students’ motivation, appealing for its participation in the classroom, and measuring their stimulation for continuous study. Early stage results are promising and suggest not only a higher acceptance of the system and its effectiveness, but also, the suitability of gamification and reward systems on education. Further studies should be implemented in order to determine the effect of the …

Scholar articles

How to Get a Badge? Unlock Your Mind: Motivation through Student Empowerment

N Pombo, N Garcia, P Alves - 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference …, 2019

Related articles

 

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Keyed User Datagram Protocol: Concepts and Operation of an Almost Reliable Connectionless Transport Protocol

Authors

Nuno M Garcia, Fábio Gil, Bárbara Matos, Coulibaly Yahaya, Nuno Pombo, Rossitza Ivanova Goleva

Publication date

2019/2/7

Journal

IEEE Access

Volume

7

Pages

18951-18963

Publisher

IEEE

Description

Departing from the well-known problem of the excessive overhead and latency of connection oriented protocols, this paper describes a new almost reliable connectionless protocol that uses user datagram protocol (UDP) segment format and is UDP compatible. The problem is presented and described, the motivation, the possible areas of interest and the concept and base operation modes for the protocol named keyed UDP are presented (here called KUDP). Also, discussed are some of the possible manners in which the KUDP can be used, addressing potential problems related with current networking technologies. As UDP is a connectionless protocol, and KUDP allows for some degree of detection of loss and re-ordering of segments received out-of-sequence, we also present a proposal for a stream reconstruction algorithm. This paper ends by mentioning some of the research issues that still need to be …

Scholar articles

Keyed User Datagram Protocol: Concepts and Operation of an Almost Reliable Connectionless Transport Protocol

NM Garcia, F Gil, B Matos, C Yahaya, N Pombo… - IEEE Access, 2019

Related articles All 2 versions

 

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Enhanced Living Environments: Algorithms, Architectures, Platforms, and Systems

Authors

Ivan Ganchev, Nuno M Garcia, Ciprian Dobre, Constandinos X Mavromoustakis, Rossitza Ivanova Goleva

Publication date

2019

Volume

11369

Publisher

Springer

Description

This open access book is the final publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)” project. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is an area of research based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), medical research, and sociological research. AAL is based on the notion that technology and science can provide improvements in the quality of life for people in their homes, and that it can reduce the financial burden on the budgets of the healthcare providers. The concept of Enhanced Living Environments (ELE) refers to the AAL area that is more related with ICT. Effective ELE solutions require appropriate ICT algorithms, architectures, platforms, and systems, having in view the advance of science in this area and the development of new and innovative solutions. The aim of this book is to become a state-of-the-art reference, discussing progress made, as well as prompting future directions on theories, practices, standards, and strategies related to the ELE area. It was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”. The book contains 12 chapters and can serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate students, post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, medical doctors, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and research strategists working in this field.

Scholar articles

Enhanced Living Environments: Algorithms, Architectures, Platforms, and Systems

I Ganchev, NM Garcia, C Dobre, CX Mavromoustakis… - 2019

All 3 versions

 

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Healthcare

Authors

Sabina Baraković, Jasmina Barakovic Husic, Hrvoje Belani, Paula Conte García, Irene Coppola, Carina Dantas, Moriah Ellen, María Fernández-Vigil, Nuno Garcia, Réka Geambasu, Jonathan Gomez-Raja, Lucía González López, Marko Gošović, Andjela Jaksic-Stojanovic, Marcin Kautsch, Veronika Kotradyova, Ondřej Krejcar, Birgitta Langhammer, Igor Ljubi, Joana Madureira, Pierre Mallia, Oscar Martinez Mozos, Ana Mendes, Sarmitė Mikulionienė, Emanuele Naboni, Anders Q Nyrud, María del Mar Olmo, Dobrinka Peicheva, Antti Peltokorpi, Tomás Puebla, Jelena Ristic Trajkovic, Heidi Salonen, Lina Šeduikytė, Michalis Skarvelis, Hilde Thygesen, Willeke Van Staalduinen, Martin Weigl

Publication date

2019

Journal

State of the art report for smart habitat for older persons

Pages

171-255

Description

Abstract [eng]

Introduction. Developed countries are currently undergoing demographic changes which entail the rising number of senior citizens. This particular demographic group is prone to suffering from numerous chronic diseases. The link between old age and chronic disease eg is illustrated by USA population reference bureau1, according to which up to 19 million people need to provide day-today primary assistance to their elderly family members. There are already a number of technologies in use, including digital devices, smart sensors and intelligent applications that assist elderly people with their everyday needs in their own homes. Developing a strategy for an integrated technological solution would resolve many issues faced by elderly patients and would lead to improving their quality of life, health, and safety. The objectives of COST Action CA 16226, Indoor living improvement: Smart Habitat for the Elderly (Sheld-on), Working Group 3 was: to explore the specific needs of elderly on physical and psychological level; to describe social, economic and technological consequences related to the care of elderly, to specify quality of live concept in context of smart environment; to review policies in different countries; to find good practices examples from different countries, in order to promote safe, comfortable and healthy living at home. WHO5 describes healthy ageing as the process of developing and maintaining functional ability that enables well-being in older age. Functional ability comprises the health related attributes that enable people to be and to do what they have reason to value. It is made up of intrinsic capacity of the individual …

Scholar articles

Healthcare

S Baraković, JB Husic, H Belani, PC García, I Coppola… - State of the art report for smart habitat for older persons, 2019

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Version Reporting and Assessment Approaches for New and Updated Activity and Heart Rate Monitors

Authors

Tim Collins, Sandra I Woolley, Salome Oniani, Ivan Miguel Pires, Nuno M Garcia, Sean J Ledger, Anand Pandyan

Publication date

2019/1

Journal

Sensors

Volume

19

Issue

7

Pages

1705

Publisher

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Description

This paper addresses the significant need for improvements in device version reporting and practice across the academic and technical activity monitoring literature, and it recommends assessments for new and updated consumer sensing devices. Reproducibility and data veracity are central to good scholarship, and particularly significant in clinical and health applications. Across the literature there is an absence of device version reporting and a failure to recognize that device validity is not maintained when firmware and software updates can, and do, change device performance and parameter estimation. In this paper, we propose the use of tractable methods to assess devices at their current version and provide an example empirical approach. Experimental results for heart rate and step count acquisitions during walking and everyday living activities from Garmin Vivosmart 3 (v4. 10) wristband monitors are presented and analyzed, and the reliability issues of optically-acquired heart rates, especially during periods of activity, are demonstrated and discussed. In conclusion, the paper recommends the empirical assessment of new and updated activity monitors and improvements in device version reporting across the academic and technical literature. View Full-Text

Scholar articles

Version Reporting and Assessment Approaches for New and Updated Activity and Heart Rate Monitors

T Collins, SI Woolley, S Oniani, IM Pires, NM Garcia… - Sensors, 2019

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A Telemedicine Robot System for Assisted and Independent Living

Authors

Natasa Koceska, Saso Koceski, Pierluigi Beomonte Zobel, Vladimir Trajkovik, Nuno Garcia

Publication date

2019/1

Journal

Sensors

Volume

19

Issue

4

Pages

834

Publisher

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Description

The emerging demographic trends toward an aging population, demand new ways and solutions to improve the quality of elderly life. These include, prolonged independent living, improved health care, and reduced social isolation. Recent technological advances in the field of assistive robotics bring higher sophistication and various assistive abilities that can help in achieving these goals. In this paper, we present design and validation of a low-cost telepresence robot that can assist the elderly and their professional caregivers, in everyday activities. The developed robot structure and its control objectives were tested in, both, a simulation and experimental environment. On-field experiments were done in a private elderly care center involving elderly persons and caregivers as participants. The goal of the evaluation study was to test the software architecture and the robot capabilities for navigation, as well as the robot manipulator. Moreover, participants’ reactions toward a possible adoption of the developed robot system in everyday activities were assessed. The obtained results of the conducted evaluation study are also presented and discussed. View Full-Text

Scholar articles

A Telemedicine Robot System for Assisted and Independent Living

N Koceska, S Koceski, P Beomonte Zobel, V Trajkovik… - Sensors, 2019

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The importance of biomedical indicators in sexual functioning in healthy Portuguese adults

Authors

Paula Teixeira, Henrique Pereira, Samuel Monteiro, Graca Esgalhado, Rosa Marina Afonso, Manuel Loureiro, Delfina Ferrão, Nuno Garcia

Publication date

2019

Journal

Revista internacional de andrologia

Volume

17

Issue

1

Pages

15-23

Description

BACKGROUND:

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of biomedical indicators, such as body mass index, blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, on sexual functioning in Portuguese adults.

METHODS:

The sample consisted of 225 healthy individuals (non-smokers, women not taking contraceptive pill), aged 18-89 years (mean= 41 years), of whom 107 were males and 117 females. A Sociodemographic Questionnaire, the Portuguese version of the Massachusetts General Hospital Sexual Functioning Questionnaire (MGH-SFQ) and biomedical indicators measurement devices were applied.

RESULTS:

59.6%(N= 134) of the participants presented levels for global sexual functioning below the expected values. Men scored better overall sexual functioning when compared to women, as well as the group of younger participants. Significant correlational values between BMI (r=-253, p<. 001), glycemic index (r=-. 230, p<. 001), total cholesterol (r=-144, p<. 05) and sexual functioning were obtained. The hierarchical regression model allowed to demonstrate the mediating effect of the biomedical variables on sexual functioning, explaining 31%(r2=. 31; p<. 001) of the total variance.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:

This research makes it possible to highlight the importance of biomedical indicators in sexual functioning, helping professionals working in this area to be aware of how biomedical contexts interfere with sexual expression.

Scholar articles

A importância dos indicadores biomédicos no funcionamento sexual em adultos portugueses saudáveis*

P Teixeira, H Pereira, S Monteiro, G Esgalhado… - Revista Internacional de Andrología, 2019

Related articles All 2 versions

The importance of biomedical indicators in sexual functioning in healthy Portuguese adults

P Teixeira, H Pereira, S Monteiro, G Esgalhado… - Revista internacional de andrologia, 2019

All 2 versions

 

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Automation in Systematic, Scoping and Rapid Reviews by an NLP Toolkit: A Case Study in Enhanced Living Environments

Authors

Rossitza Goleva, Nuno Pombo, Nuno M Garcia

Publication date

2019

Journal

Enhanced Living Environments: Algorithms, Architectures, Platforms, and Systems

Volume

11369

Issue

19

Pages

1

Publisher

Springer

Description

With the increasing number of scientific publications, the analysis of the trends and the state-of-the-art in a certain scientific field is becoming very time-consuming and tedious task. In response to urgent needs of information, for which the existing systematic review model does not well, several other review types have emerged, namely the rapid review and scoping reviews. In this paper, we propose an NLP powered tool that automates most of the review process by automatic analysis of articles indexed in the IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and Springer digital libraries. We demonstrate the applicability of the toolkit by analyzing articles related to Enhanced Living Environments and Ambient Assisted Living, in accordance with the PRISMA surveying methodology. The relevant articles were processed by the NLP toolkit to identify articles that contain up to 20 properties clustered into 4 logical groups. The analysis showed increasing attention from the scientific communities towards Enhanced and Assisted living environments over the last 10 years and showed several trends in the specific research topics that fall into this scope. The case study demonstrates that the NLP toolkit can ease and speed up the review process and show valuable insights from the surveyed articles even without manually reading of most of the articles. Moreover, it pinpoints the most relevant articles which contain more properties and therefore, significantly reduces the manual work, while also generating informative tables, charts and graphs.

Scholar articles

Automation in Systematic, Scoping and Rapid Reviews by an NLP Toolkit: A Case Study in Enhanced Living Environments

R Goleva, N Pombo, NM Garcia - Enhanced Living Environments: Algorithms …, 2019

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RFID Supporting IoT in Health and Well-Being Applications

Authors

Sari Merilampi, Johanna Virkki, Nuno Pombo, Nuno Garcia

Publication date

2018/9/4

Book

Sensors for Diagnostics and Monitoring

Pages

265-278

Publisher

CRC Press

Description

In the healthcare and well-being industry, technology applications tackling future challenges are gaining more and more interest. The current trend is in preventive, health-promoting activities as well as in helping people with disabilities to live independently at home instead of in care homes. As the importance of home nursing is expected to grow in general, the freedom of movement achieved by technology is especially significant. In this study, we concentrate on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology and its applications in this context. We introduce commercial and emerging RFID-based applications in general and investigate the suitability of the technology for a new purpose: wearable sensors and smart well-being-enhancing environments. The most mature care–related RFID applications are asset

Scholar articles

RFID Supporting IoT in Health and Well-Being Applications

S Merilampi, J Virkki, N Pombo, N Garcia - Sensors for Diagnostics and Monitoring, 2018

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