Memory, language, and perception are just a few examples of what are known as cognitive abilities. These are processes in the brain that perceive and process signals from the environment. Technical assistance systems can provide support in everyday life for people with cognitive impairments. The Ambient Intelligent Systems (AIS) Lab, based at the Kamp-Lintfort campus, specialises in researching and developing digital cognitive assistance systems for practical applications. Examples include Heidi, a robot doll that can talk to people with dementia; smartphone-based public transport navigation; and Amica, an AI llama chatbot designed for children with special needs.
In recent years, the AIS Lab has developed into a key player both within and beyond the university, combining science, technology and application. By capitalising on the opportunities offered by the CASPAR (Centre for Assistance and Participation) research focus area, the laboratory’s network has grown significantly both within and outside HSRW. CASPAR links different fields, disciplines and research laboratories, creating a place where different perspectives come together. The AIS laboratory now cooperates closely with the psychology laboratories at the HSRW Kamp-Lintfort campus, for example. Networking with laboratories on the Kleve campus has also been strengthened, including funded research projects. This has created an ideal starting point for interdisciplinary application-oriented research and a ‘strategic synergy space’ for new ideas.
In addition, November 2023 saw the launch of the Rhine-Ruhr Assistive Technologies Centre (ZAT) project, which emerged from this established structure. ZAT is a joint project between Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and the University of Duisburg-Essen. It is funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Culture and Science. In addition to research, the focus is particularly on closer external links – to the social environment, to partners in practice and to other universities.
This networking enables research results to be put into practice more quickly and new ideas from practice to be fed back into scientific work. Future research thus benefits from a lively exchange between science and society and close links with cooperation partners. A novelty in third-party funded projects: Prof. Dr. Nele Wild-Wall, Professor of Psychological Methodology, Neuropsychology and Gerontopsychology at the Faculty of Communication & Environment (K&U), and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Ressel, Professor of Ambient Intelligent Systems at the Faculty of K&U, share the project management at ZAT.
Communication in older age
Miriam Drazek is a research assistant in the LabLandscapes sub-project ofour project. The close collaboration with the various laboratories at HSRW and the insights gained from this led her, as she says, to ‘connect strands and generate ideas.’ The result: a doctoral thesis on gerontological language in nursing and medicine. Miriam decided to pursue a cooperative individual doctorate at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). The topic of language had already been part of her professional life before she started at TransRegINT.
The wealth of assistance systems and their wide range of applications that she experienced in the labs sparked Miriam’s idea to investigate linguistic interaction with older people in nursing and medicine. Biographical work is the keyword. How are personal information and the individual life stories of patients communicated in treatment situations? And how do medical and nursing staff learn about these important details in times of staff shortages and exploding costs in nursing care? How could technical support be provided in this area? In order to pursue these research questions in practice, Miriam was able to establish valuable contacts with St. Bernhard Hospital in Kamp-Lintfort through the AIS Lab with CASPAR and ZAT.
Identifying emotions from an ECG
Johannes Pfeifer is currently a research assistant in occupational and organisational psychology. Starting in January, he will be working on scalable AI and machine learning in the EFRE SALAMI project. For his doctoral thesis at the Promotionskolleg NRW, he is investigating whether emotions can be measured. More specifically, he is examining which parts of an electrocardiogram (ECG) represent emotions such as sadness, anger and joy. This can provide insight into e.g. how emotional states change during therapy. In addition to existing data sets, he would like to collect his own data. To this end, emotions are to be triggered in a pilot test involving around 40 people in a virtual reality setting.
Support from the AIS Lab
Despite pursuing different paths to their doctorates, Miriam and Johannes regularly cross paths at the AIS Lab and within the AIS Lab’s sphere of influence. This is because the AIS Lab is a hub for technical applications and support. Miriam is particularly interested in voice assistants, whileJohannes focuses on technical skills and expertise in virtual reality.They both have close professional relationships with the scientific staff, Dr Kyra Kannen, Sarah Büscher and Dr André Frank Krause. Both emphasise how much they benefit from cooperative project work and highlight its networking function.
‘The valuable connections to other scientists are a great advantage.’
What makes Miriam and Johannes unique is that they are pursuing external doctorates. Their professional activities at HSRW are not related to their PhDs. They openly talk about feeling alone, particularly at the start of their respective processes. Over the past weeks and months, they have received support from the AIS Lab. Now they feel like they belong to the team – an empowering and motivating experience for both of them.