WP1. Management

The goal of WP1 is to plan and undertake all necessary activities for the project’s effective coordination, including: i) manage the partners and resources to reach the general objectives and goals of the project, on time and with the budget allocated; ii) provide internetworking tools for communication between partners; iii) provide a plan for knowledge management, IPRs, and exploitation of results; iv) initiate the project with success by clarifying the project and WP objectives, the monitoring and reporting processes and the working responsibilities to all involved parties; v) set up and administrate the tools, operations and documents for the efficient cooperation and communication among all involved parties; vi) plan and monitor the required activities for the timely and qualitative implementation of the project deliverables within the planned work packages; vii) monitor and control the project progress and resources, ensuring the direct and in-time information flow in every decision making level; viii) identify potential risks and changes (internal or external) and manage them effectively through predefined techniques; ix) ensure that ethical rules and codes are maintained; x) close the project with success by delivering the project final outcomes and setting the basis for their commercialization.

WP2. Sensor configuration & signal capturing

The general objective of WP2 is to provide guidelines and best practices for the configuration, calibration and synchronization of the sensor modules that constitute the core of MAMEM technology. This technology is built on three different sensor modules, i.e., an eye tracker, an EEG recording system and a set of bio-sensors. The technological limitations of each discrete module will be investigated and the description of its configuration will be introduced. Additionally, great emphasis will be given to the configuration of the overall sensor installation (i.e., the combination of the modules) as the synchronization and the real-time functionality are a prerequisite for autonomous BCI systems. Finally, the specific target group requirements will be considered right from the beginning of WP2, i.e., from the selection of the sensors to their calibration and parameterization. The work performed under WP2 will contribute in addressing Obj.1 (cf. Section 1.2) by undertaking the following tasks.

WP3. Signal processing for interaction control

In this work package, we will develop algorithms that take the signals from eye tracking, EEG and other bio sensors and interpret them to meaningful commands at a low level (e.g., onMouseMove), a meso level (e.g., onMouseOver, onMouseClick, onKeyStroke, or ticking a box) or at a high semantic level (e.g., selecting n items out of m given ones) (Obj.2). Each input will be considered independently, to extract as much information possible, and combined to create robust algorithms for accurate interpretations of the user’s intention. The number of accurately recognized mental commands will be explored and the limits of the technologies will be evaluated. WP3 will exploit the full range of acquired data and focus on the development of advanced signal processing techniques that will act as the core of the MAMEM mental strategy by undertaking the following tasks.

WP4. Middleware for interaction through eyes and mind

The general objective of WP4 is to implement MAMEM’s middleware that will run on top of current operating systems and will facilitate, on the one hand, the integration of add-on sensor modules (i.e., eye tracker, EEG recorder and bio-sensors) and, on the other hand, the execution of algorithms processing the captured signals. It will be a vendor-agnostic engine able to communicate with the majority of existing sensor solutions (i.e. EEG, eye-tracker, bio sensors). It will also simplify the process of using the existing APIs for the function calls on current operating systems. WP4 will follow the guidelines and best practices of WP2 for obtaining calibrated and noise-free signals and will act as the programming environment for the algorithms developed in WP3. Finally, it will be the enabling platform for the prototype interface applications developed in WP5. The work performed under WP4 will contribute in addressing Obj.3 (cf. Section 1.2) by undertaking the following tasks.

WP5. User modelling and interface design

The general objective of WP5 is to provide user modelling, and the basic principles and paradigms for interface design. First of all, crucial to MAMEM is modelling of users (based on relevant characteristics as (dis-)abilities, interaction behavior, emotions, intentions, social abilities and social network, extend to which training is needed, and sensitivity to persuasive strategies. These models will be used as input for several WP’s and tasks. Second, equally important as to user models, is a specification of the persuasive design principles to influence those users (e.g., increase adherence to therapy/exercises, increase trust in the interface). Finally, all the above will be used as the basis to design the necessary interfaces and develop a set of prototype applications that will be used during the pilot trials. The work performed under WP5 will contribute in addressing Obj.4 (cf. Section 1.2) by undertaking the following tasks.

WP6. Clinical requirements analysis and pilot trials with patients

The overall objective of the WP6 is to provide on-going transformational interface between the engineering developments and the required clinical implementations, in order to translate the technological method to an assistive platform that will empower social involvement of subjects with disabilities. Thus, within this WP, we will define the specific clinical requirements, which are derived from the specific needs of each patient cohort that will participate in the MAMEM project. Then, we will conduct pilot trials with patients to test and improve the usability of the platform, in particular related to multimedia authoring tasks. WP6 will provide a layout that now can be tested with respect to the goal of increasing social interactions through increased participation in web based multimedia authoring activities (WP7). The specific objectives are therefore: i) To define the clinical requirements of MAMEM for three patient cohorts (subjects with high spinal cord injury having tetraplegia, subjects with Parkinson’s disease and subjects with neuromuscular diseases). ii) To define the usage scenario specifications for each patient group. iii) To plan pilot experimental trials with the participation of patients and healthy subjects. iv) To conduct pilot experimental trials with the participation of patients and healthy subjects. v) To delineate each disease specific needs for using the new human-computer MAMEM interaction paradigm. The work performed in WP6 will contribute in addressing Obj.5 and Obj.6 (cf. Section 1.2) by undertaking the following tasks.

WP7. Monitoring social integration

The goal of WP7 is to assess the degree of success in bringing disabled people back to the society as a result of their newly acquired ability to manage and author multimedia content. Given that social integration is a multi-dimensional concept that cannot be easily assessed, the main objective of WP7 would be to research and adopt a methodology for monitoring social inclusion in a controlled group of subjects with disabilities. This methodology will be then used as a driver to: a) specify the indicators that will be used for quantifying social integration, b) establish the mechanisms necessary for observing certain aspects of a human’s social activity, and c) assess the impact of MAMEM technology in their digital life and digital productivity. WP7 activities will run continuously and in parallel to the project work plan for technology specification, development and evaluation. Strong interconnection with WP6 will be necessary during the conduct of the focus groups so as to mark down the starting point of the subjects with respect to their social indicators. This will be later on used as a reference point for verifying the anticipated change. The work performed in WP7 will contribute in addressing Obj. 6 and Obj. 7 (cf. Section 1.2) by undertaking the following tasks.

WP8. Dissemination, exploitation & innovation activities

WP8 deals with the MAMEM dissemination and exploitation activities, as well as mechanisms established for impact assessment and fostering innovation. As detailed in Section 2.2, our approach in this work package will rely on ongoing internal plans documenting the foreseen dissemination and exploitation activities of each partner. These plans will be subsequently used by the partner leading the corresponding task to correct or re-define the adopted strategy in case the undertaken activities are not delivering the expected impact. In this way, MAMEM is expected to optimally exploit the resources allocated for dissemination and exploitation activities and create the appropriate ground to foster innovation.