title: A natural user interface to integrate citizen science and physical exercise.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, United States of America.|Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laut
authors.affiliation: Department of Technology Management and Innovation, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Oded
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nov
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, United States of America.|Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cappa
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Porfiri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D015444:Exercise; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D012106:Research; D012586:Science; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014838:Volunteers; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult