TY - JOUR
T1 - A natural user interface to integrate citizen science and physical exercise
AU - Palermo, Eduardo
AU - Laut, Jeffrey
AU - Nov, Oded
AU - Cappa, Paolo
AU - Porfiri, Maurizio
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/2
Y1 - 2017/2
N2 - Citizen science enables volunteers to contribute to scientific projects, where massive data collection and analysis are often required. Volunteers participate in citizen science activities online from their homes or in the field and are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Here, we investigated the possibility of integrating citizen science tasks within physical exercises envisaged as part of a potential rehabilitation therapy session. The citizen science activity entailed environmental mapping of a polluted body of water using a miniature instrumented boat, which was remotely controlled by the participants through their physical gesture tracked by a low-cost markerless motion capture system. Our findings demonstrate that the natural user interface offers an engaging and effective means for performing environmental monitoring tasks. At the same time, the citizen science activity increases the commitment of the participants, leading to a better motion performance, quantified through an array of objective indices. The study constitutes a first and necessary step toward rehabilitative treatments of the upper limb through citizen science and low-cost markerless optical systems.
AB - Citizen science enables volunteers to contribute to scientific projects, where massive data collection and analysis are often required. Volunteers participate in citizen science activities online from their homes or in the field and are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Here, we investigated the possibility of integrating citizen science tasks within physical exercises envisaged as part of a potential rehabilitation therapy session. The citizen science activity entailed environmental mapping of a polluted body of water using a miniature instrumented boat, which was remotely controlled by the participants through their physical gesture tracked by a low-cost markerless motion capture system. Our findings demonstrate that the natural user interface offers an engaging and effective means for performing environmental monitoring tasks. At the same time, the citizen science activity increases the commitment of the participants, leading to a better motion performance, quantified through an array of objective indices. The study constitutes a first and necessary step toward rehabilitative treatments of the upper limb through citizen science and low-cost markerless optical systems.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0172587
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0172587
M3 - Article
C2 - 28231261
AN - SCOPUS:85013646686
VL - 12
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 2
M1 - e0172587
ER -