It seems like a vision of the future, but it has already found a place in our everyday lives at home and at work. Acceleration sensors in smartphones, smartwatches and in clothes are making the unobtrusive recognition of physical activity possible. In sports, they help digital trainers correct exercises. Intelligent living environments recognize falls and call for help. A hand movement can dim the light, lower venetian blinds or turn on the TV.
Such technologies are developed at Fraunhofer IGD. Technologies recognizing a person’s activity, thus allowing us to control applications and machines. For instance, they will measure your pulse, body movements or blood pressure. These data help physicians and therapists better evaluate the state of health and future development of a patient. At the workplace, an unhealthy body posture, excessive physical strain or dangerous noise levels can be detected. In the process, the Fraunhofer researchers attach great importance to the security of the collected data.
According to Professor Bodo Urban of Fraunhofer IGD in Rostock, we can expect exciting developments in the industry in the years to come: “Activity recognition is taking man-machine interaction to the next level.” Machines and robots recognize human activities and respond to these. Production plans can be intuitively controlled by gestures via a smartwatch. For instance, lifting up your hands in the case of a malfunction will trigger the emergency switch. Machines will register where the operator is at which time and ensure that the required materials and tools will be available in the right place at the right time. “The potential of activity recognition is far from being exhausted”, says Urban.
For more information:
Activity recognition in everyday life:
http://www.igd.fraunhofer.de/en/Institut/Abteilungen/IDE/Projekte/DiaTrace-Trace-your-Day
http://www.igd.fraunhofer.de/en/Institut/Abteilungen/IDE/Projekte/HIS-Home-Interaction-Service
TakeCare – Competence network on activity and vital data assistance:
https://www.igd.fraunhofer.de/en/Institut/Abteilungen/IDE/Projekte/TakeCare-Competence-Network-Activity-and-Vital-Data-Assistance