This document describes the iCognos cognitive stimulation system. It includes a Cognitive Stimulation Control System (CSCS) that provides the user interface and communication between devices. A Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System (CSTS) executes tasks. The CSCS uses open source libraries and cross-compilation to run on Raspberry Pi and control an e-puck robot and Wii remote. Validation feedback was positive and suggested improving usability, accessibility and defining task levels/instructions. Future work includes further cognitive task design, exploring robotic sensors/actuators, data mining for personalization, and market requirements.

1. Sergi Torrellas
Barcelona, June 2013
Advisor: Gregrorio Robledo

2.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

3.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

4. Human cognition relies on cognitive abilities, skills to carry out any
task from the simplest to the most complex
 The Bloom’s Taxonomy, created in 1956, is a formal description for the
cognitive skills
 Cognitive skills are combined to
acoomplish the Adaptive
behaviour
 Adaptive behavior enable
individuals to perform real life
acitivities boosting
independence, dignity, and
autonomy

5. Brain diseases (e.g. psychiatric, psychological and cognitive) account
for a 35% of the total burden of all diseases in Europe
Sources of impairment are diverse
 Age-related like Dementia
 People surviving stroke
 Brain injury from car accidents
 Children with learning disabilities
… but affectations remain the
same in most occasions
Source: Cost of disorders of the Brain in Europe, European
Journal of Neurology, Volume 12, September 2005

6. Motivation is key for
effectiveness of therapies
 Difficult to keep high
 Influences drastically on
performance
iCognos will improve motivation of end-users through the
application of SmartObjects in cognitive stimulation
therapies

7.  iCOGNOS-OBJ-001
Breakthrough on the traditional cognitive stimulation incorporating
SmartObjects
 iCOGNOS-OBJ-002
Improvement of motivation of the end-users incorporating ecologic
cognition tasks
 iCOGNOS-OBJ-003
Low-cost and affordable platform enlarging the number of
beneficiaries
 iCOGNOS-OBJ-004
Provide an enhanced user experience accessible for everyone with
the novel Hex-O-Spell interface

8.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

9. Personal Assistant Robots are robotic assistants which
either help an individual in doing some task or a robot able to
assist the user in anything s/he requires
• Interacts with environment and people
• Provision assistance in everyday life
activities
• Few of them provide cognitive
stimulation
REEM, Q.bo and Paro assistive robotics

10. Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a term for tangible artifacts whose
design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can
make, modify, distribute, and use those things
• OSWH facilitates hardware customisation
• OSHW reduces the cost of hardware design
• OSHW contributes knowledge sharing
OSHW principles are applied to a wide range of projects from low-level
electronics to high-performance applications

11.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

12.  Raspberry PI is a credit-card-sized single-board computer with a
Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC) with an ARM processor
 Raspberry PI contains an ARM-based processor which makes it to
operate on just 5V
R-PI Board Components R-PI Processor architecture

13. Distributions
The Raspberry PI is a single-board computer with resources enough to run
a full operative Operating System
The Raspberry PI Foundation provides several GNU/Linux ARM
distributions for download
Debian Wheezy Raspbian
Official Debian distribution ported GNU/Linux distribution based on
for the -R-PI Hardware Debian taking advantage of the
hard-float feature

14. ePuck robot is a low-cost robot for educational and research following
OSHW principles. Similarly, the e-puck software is fully open
source, providing low level access
 The robot was Created by École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
(EPFL)
 The Price of the appliance is between 450
and 550 €
 Applied in multiple fields such as Automatic
control, Signal processing or Distributed
intelligent systems

15. ePuck hardware is published under OSHW but also software libraries
are published under a OSS license
ePuck software libraries enable access and control over the different
services of the robot:
 Analog/Digital Module  FFT Module
 Bluetooth Module  I2C Module library
 Camera Module  Motor/led Module
 Codec Module  UART Module
e-puck software libraries are
published under the OSS license GNU
GPL v3

16. Wii Remote is the Wii's main input device for the Nintendo’s Wii video-
game console
 Built around a Broadcom BCM2042
 Contains multiple peripherals that provide data to it
 Uses (and, at times, abuses) the standard Bluetooth HID protocol to
communicate with the host

17. Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for
developing application software with a graphical user interface (GUI)
 Qt is available under a OSS licenses GPL v3
and LGPL v2
 Qt runs on the major desktop platforms and
some of the mobile platforms
 Qt also includes non-GUI feature such as
SQL database access, XML parsing, thread
management, network support

18.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

19. iCognos has been developed upon different OSS project
which have dramatically facilitated the development:
 Qt Project is an a software framework developed in C++ mainly used
to facilitate the development of UI
 Cwiid is an open-source software package which enables the
connection with the Nintendo’s WiiMote
 Raspbian is an open source project to create a GNU/Linux based
distribution for the R-PI
 e-puck Libraries is a software project for the e-puck robot that
abstracts the user from the low-level development

20. General overview
iCognos provides a new concept in the cognitive stimulation therapies
incorporating the principles of ecologic cognition
iCognos is composed of two different appliances
 CSCS : Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 CSTS: Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
SmartObjects are devices capable of
understanding the environment and
react accordingly

21. CSCS development might be realised within the R-PI itself but limited
number of resources discard this choice
The alternative is to develop the code in a Development station lately
executed by the R-PI with a cross-compilation scheme
A Cross-compiler is a
software program able of
creating binary code for a
architecture other than itself

22. CSCS is to provide the UI to guide the user and maintain the proper
communication between all the devices: the Input Device and the CSTS
 CwiidCommunicator holds the communication
with the Input Controller
 ePuckCommunicator maintains the connection
with the ePuck implementing the necessary
functions to send and receive commands
 EventDispatcher connects the events from the
different modules
 hosContainer handles the events of the Hex-O-
Spell
 VisualInterface shapes the interface for the user

23. The ePuck robot contains at its heart a dsPIC microcontroller which is the
piece of hardware able to be programmed with a dedicated software (i.e. a
firmware)
Microchip, dsPIC manufacturer, provides a software for development of
firmware, called MPLAB IDE, a free, integrated toolset for the development of
embedded applications

24. CSTS is a hardware platform responsible for executing the
commands issued by the CSCS to perform the requested task
Architectural diagram
Flow diagram

25. iCognos appearance
Input Control
CSCS
CSTS
See demonstration video here

26.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

27. The validation was performed with a common set-up
Different profile were selected
 Thesis supervisor
 Researcher in rehabilitation
 Journalist
Collected feedback classified
 Concept
 Usability and Accessibility
 Improvements

28.  Concept
 The system might include algorithms to understand the interaction of the user
 iCognos is nearer than a serious game to the activities of daily life
 The concept is very attractive for everyone
 Usability and accessibility
 Limitated by the usage of a single interface
 HoS interface is not the best interface
 Exploit the possibilities offered by the WiiMote
 Improvements
 Usage of more features from the robotic platforms
 Define levels in the cognitive tasks
 Include instructions for every task to be performed

29.  Introduction
 Context of the domain
 System components
 iCognos description
 Communication Interfaces
 Cognitive Stimulation Control System
 Cognitive Stimulation Telerobotics System
 Analysis of the validation
 Conclusions
 Future Work

30. Prototype completed
 Cognitive Rehabilitation platform
 Robotic platform is attractive
 Open-Source and Open-source Hardware
Different OS projects working in concert
 Raspberry PI
 ePuck
 WiiMote – Cwiid
Acquired competences
 Embedded system programming
 GNU/Linux for low-level software
 Usage of OSS libraries
iCognos relies on different projects

31. Deeper study on designing cognitive stimulation tasks
 Contact therapists
 Include end-user from the conception phase
Features of Robotic Platform
 Sensors: Microphone, 3D Accelerometer, Camera, IR sensors…
 Actuators: Speaker, Arms…
Add data mining capabilities
 Personalisation of therapies
 Study evolution of disability
iCognos to market:
 Professional requirements and objectives
 Real End-User testing Implement feedback
 Product / Marketing

32. Thanks for your attention