Abstract
In the last decades due to technological advances, Robotics has change its paradigm, as well as, its course of development. Therefore, a new generation of robots has emerged, the Socially Assistive Robotics. These robots aim to improve the assistance to human users through social rather than physical interaction. Consequently, many are the developments made through the use of social robots in mental healthcare scenarios, regarding the elderly population and children or young adults with mental disorders, in order to either prevent cognitive decline, improve psycho-social outcomes or the patient capabilities and lifetime. However, few breakthroughs have been made in the mental disorders field that differ from studies with people with Autism Spectrum Disorders or that are conducted with adults. This study aims to demonstrate that humanoid NAO can improve attention in adults with mental disorders during certain task and kept through several sessions over time.

Abstract
Abstract Background: Analysis of locomotion is often used as a measure for impairment and recovery following experimental peripheral nerve injury. Compared to rodents, sheep offer several attractive features as an experimental model for studying peripheral nerve regeneration. There are no studies on locomotion outcomes after peripheral nerve injury and repair in the sheep model. In the present study, we performed and compared two-dimensional (2D) and, for the first time, three-dimensional (3D) hindlimb kinematics during obstacle avoidance in the ovine model. This study aimed to obtain kinematic data to serve as a template for an objective assessment of the ankle joint motion in future studies of common peroneal nerve (CP) injury and repair in the ovine model. Results: The strategy used by the sheep to bring the hindlimb over a moderately high obstacle, set to 10% of its hindlimb length, was the pronounced knee, ankle and metatarsophalangeal flexion when approaching and clearing the obstacle. Despite the overall time course kinematic patterns about the hip, knee, ankle, and metatarsophalangeal were identical, we found significant differences between values of the 2D and 3D joint angular motion. Conclusions: Our results show that the most apparent changes that occurred during the gait cycle were for the ankle and metatarsophalangeal joints, whereas the hip and knee joints were much less affected. Data and techniques described here are likely to be useful for an objective assessment of altered gait after CP injury and repair in an ovine model.

Abstract
The great potential of Unmanned Vehicles (UV) for services is supported by the evolution of drones and their flexible ability to help us performing dangerous, boring and difficult tasks. The common communication solutions e.g., radio, consider a pilot and a vehicle in the same location. Besides, the alternatives based on Ground Control Stations (GCS) are difficult to configure, which makes it difficult for a common user and a developer to use and/or implement new services for drones. This work proposes a solution with a new messaging protocol to overcome the previous problems, allowing controlling a UV in a remote location after a simple configuration. The implementation of this approach is based on a cloud platform, responsible for UV and user management, and on TCP/IP WebSockets for the user to control remotely located vehicles, anytime and anywhere. This research starts with the analysis of the prior work regarding UV communication technologies and the available GCS. Minding the identified problems, we designed an architecture that represents a cloud platform and multiple users and UVs in different networks. To prototype this architecture, we developed the user interface, the platform and the UV control module. The functional assessment considers a generic simplified and controlled scenario, focusing on the real-time control and video stream. The results confirmed the possibility to control a UV in a different location, in real-time, with an average response time of 25ms. This work provides valuable insights regarding the communication in the fields of anytime and anywhere device control and vehicle-based services.

Abstract
Accessibility is important to include people with disabilities in public life. People with disabilities experience problems in their lives due to products which aren’t designed for them. Addressing these problems is the responsibility of all humanity and the search for solutions should increase. Improving disabled persons’ lives is only possible by applying some rules to product design, such as, improving use-case scenarios. Software solutions must be considered as products in this case. Developing special software programs and upgrading existing solutions to improve the user experience for disabled persons is the obligation of all software developers. Even though the mouse is one of the most important tools, required to access webpages and many other software programs, using it can be a huge problem for people with disabilities, such as, paralysis patients. Therefore, throughout history, different types of methods have been presented as solution. Most of them are not suitable, due to various reasons, like, economic feasibility, mechanic stability and bad designs. In this work, a new method, with more in-built modern and simple technologies, is presented as an alternative to others. To outclass the good economic advantage of its competitors, a limit was set on a low budget webcam and low-tier computer specifications. The Camera tracks the user’s head movements and reacts according to it, using as measurement some metrics about the physiology of human body. Machine learning is used to extract face features and learn the user’s face to determine mouse movements. Machine learning was kept as simple as possible, in order to cope with the low system specification limitations. The main topic of the work is the design and development experience. The solution was tested with a small group of participants and their feedbacks were taken to plan for future improvements. In generally, the users’ comments were good, although some features, such as sensitivity, should be improved. The result of this work will be used to improve the software solution and hopefully will touch the life of people with disabilities. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
e-Learning promotes asynchronous and synchronous access to education, free from geographical barriers, allowing a great number of people, that otherwise could not study, continue their academic life. Access, however, should be equally granted for All, not limited to the instrumental level, providing a dynamic model that meets the needs of the student user. e-Learning platforms have potential to both enhance learning quality and increase education access as long as is considered user’s different needs. In this paper, we present the theoretical background about the current state of accessibility of e-Learning educational platforms and contents, by analyzing the Brazilian online educational context. This study intends to identify barriers and possible tools to enhance user experience for Blind students, and also present a UX methodology to reach that goal. For the latter, we propose a methodology based on obtaining qualitative and quantitative data to be obtained from online questionnaires. The ultimate goal is to make a global UX evaluation in order to present a complete perspective, on the actual Blind student’s experience when interacting with the digital educational contents and platforms in specifics Brazilian universities digital platforms. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
Nowadays wearable devices are very popular. The reason for that is the sudden reduction in pricing and the increase in functionalities. Healthcare services have been greatly benefiting from the emergence of these devices since they can collect vital signs and help healthcare professionals to easily monitor patients. Medical wellness, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring services are the main focus of Healthcare applications. Some companies have already invested in this market and we present some of them and their strategies. Furthermore, we also conducted a group interview with Altice Labs in order to better understand the critical points and challenges they encountered while developing and maintaining their service. With the purpose of comprehending users’ receptiveness to mHealth systems (mobile health systems which users wear - wearables) and their opinion about sharing data, we also created a questionnaire (which had 114 valid responses). Based on the research done we propose a different approach. In our product and service concept solution, which we share herein, we consider people of all ages to be targets for the product/service and, beyond that, we consider the use of machine learning techniques to extract knowledge from the information gathered. Finally, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of this kind of system, showing our critical point of view. © 2020, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.