Exploration of Game Consoles As a Legitimate Computing Platform for In-The-Field Biomedical Data Acquisition and Management
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Exploration of Game Consoles as a legitimate computing platform for in-the-field biomedical data acquisition and management Christopher Armstrong 1, Diarmuid Kavanagh 2, Sara Lal 3, Peter Rossiter4 1University of Technology, Dept. Medical and Molecular Biosciences Sydney, Australia 2University of Technology, Dept. Medical and Molecular Biosciences Sydney, Australia 3University of Technology Dept. Medical and Molecular Biosciences Sydney, Australia 4 Forge Group, Sydney, Australia remains to be done and has so far proven difficult to Abstract — Biomedical research increasingly requires for undertake due to the lack of appropriate data collection testings be conducted outside the lab, in the field such as the technology. participant’s home or work environment. This type of While many of the effects of fatigue can be studied in research requires semi-autonomous computer systems that collect such data and send it back to the lab for processing the laboratory, there are limits on the ability to collect and dissemination. realistic ecologically data and the acceptability of A key aspect of this type of research is the selection of the laboratory results for drawing conclusions about real on- required software and hardware components. These systems road driver risk factors needs to be verified by more field need to be reliable, allow considerable customizability and be research. This is not the only instance of the need to verify readily accessible but also able to be locked down. laboratory based studies by equal field based research. In this paper we report a set of requirements for the Much human factors research is waiting for a practical hardware and software for such a system. We then utilise these requirements to evaluate the use of game consoles as a solution towards better instrumentation and technology to hardware platform in comparison to other hardware choices. enable important field research. A possible solution starts with a practical technology for collecting data about Index Terms — biomedical data acquisition, driver risk participants outside the lab, preferably from their own factors, game console platform, home gateway, remote-home home, places of work or even vehicles in the case of truck technology, smart data, wireless technology drivers. If we take truck drivers as an example, such technology needs to enable the capture of factors that may influence on-road driving risk that are present prior to I. INTRODUCTION driving long distances, factors in the home or in truck Through a number of ongoing projects and one in depots. Robust and reliable technology for continuous real particular associated with the SmartData project (funded time monitoring of physiological and psychological under ARC Linkage grant, Australia) where the broad aim factors in the field would provide more ecologically valid is to study the effects of environmental and human factors data sets reflective of the true physiology and psychology related risk factors in people whose work place requires of the sample group. In the case of truck drivers the ability good concentration for long periods of time, for example, to acquire and measure important data prior to long in professional truck drivers. The purpose of the driving episodes can take current research to new areas of SmartData project for instance is to build hardware and exploration. software infrastructure that will allow profiles of drivers It turns out that the requirement for a low cost reliable to be built through the continuous non-intrusive collection in-the-field biomedical data acquisition and management of physiological and psychological data in real time. The technology is a recurring theme. There may be a possible aim is to close the gap that remains in the study of extension of our research into the investigation of home physiological and psychological factors and fatigue. The based care applications for the aged through constant effects of fatigue on drivers has been examined round the clock non-intrusive physiological and extensively through laboratory based research ([1]; [2]), psychological monitoring. Hence there is a need to find a but important road environment field research still cost effective hardware and software combination that could stand up to the rigor of field deployment and at the Manuscript received 15/10/09. This work was supported in part by same time provide a reliable and robust platform on which the Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0562407). to deploy and support ongoing scientific investigations. There are many examples in the literature over the last 10 years of investigations in the field of telemedicine and II. REQUIREMENTS telecare and all require an underlying hardware and The SmartData project aims to collect data with software data acquisition combination for biomedical data relatively simple, off-the-shelf electronic devices that acquisition. Most usually involve the use of a PC or monitor heart rate, physical activity, etc., and examine this laptop as these are common and easy to obtain, however in the context of self- reported results from participant's as we will illustrate they do come with limitations and still response to psychological surveys (such anxiety, emotion, leave many questions of robust deployment and mood etc.) and certain physiological tests (reaction time, management unanswered. Indeed this paper suggests that ECG etc.). However, the data from such devices must be one of the issues that has hampered the emergence from constantly downloaded onto a desktop computer, and the the laboratory to the home of many of the ideas and effort required to manually collate and analyse this data innovations investigated in the field of telemedicine and using conventional methods such as paper-based forms telecare is the lack of a cheap and reliable instrument for makes such research substantially time-consuming and performing numerous and varied field investigations expensive. Furthermore, once a research program has particularly in the home. been started, it can be very difficult to change aspects of it The home is a very hostile and unpredictable during its progression, especially if the participants are environment in comparison to the laboratory and it is geographically displaced from the main research site for difficult to manage successful deployment of standard PC long periods of time, as would be in the case of truck based solutions because they are easily accessible and drivers. vulnerable to modification and re-configuration. The It is apparent that a device is required that could be standard PC and laptop with a well known operating placed in a participant's home to act as a hub or gateway systems invites interference by both expert and novice. to collect data and feed it back to the researchers in a We are unaware of any suitable devices available in the central location. This “gateway device” would allow the market that could be customised to such research needs. participants to provide response to electronic surveys. In Therefore, this paper describes the development of a order to monitor participants’ progress without physical 'gateway' device, which may be used as a hub to download access to the gateway device for long periods (sometimes data from medical monitoring devices, gather information up to a few weeks), the device would need to be from psychological surveys and schedule physiological controlled remotely, able to download updates, as well as tests, all in the home environment. With the ability to subsequently upload research data after the research monitor the device remotely. program commences. This paper considers game consoles (such as the Sony It was also a requirement that the device be readily PlayStation 2 and 3, Microsoft Xbox and Microsoft XBox available and easily obtainable. Even better if the device 360) as a hardware platform for the gateway device. We was a commodity while not an immediate or interesting use the term ‘gateway device’ to indicate the use of a target for hackers or denial of service attacks. It has been dedicated computer that is placed in a person’s home, and noted in the literature as devices for collecting important is used to coordinate a number of other digital and physiological and psychological data become more electronic devices that are connected to it. As this is the prevalent and critical to quality of life then the start of a flexible biomedical data acquisition and consequences of connectivity to the Internet and the management technology. inherent dangers of hacking and denial of service increase The programming language Java with an OSGi [8]. framework was chosen as our software platform because It was also a requirement that the device should be able of its suitability for residential gateway devices and to work with a minimal of support equipment. That is relative portability and security ([3]; [4]; [5]). This paper should be self contained and able to work to a standard will further proceed to describe experiments undertaken TV. On the basis that all homes are likely to have a TV in order to satisfy the base requirements with two game set. With the ambition of a device that can be readily consoles, (i) the Sony PlayStation-2 (Sony Computer deployed worldwide to all field situations, so no Entertainment, PLAYSTATION 2, Australia) and (ii) legitimate scientific investigation is hampered by lack of Sony PlayStation-3 (Sony Computer Entertainment, electronic resources and does not place a burden on PLAYSTATION 3, Australia) and the relative strengths potential participants and scientific endeavour to source and weaknesses of each console. additional monitors or anything but the standard power Much of our previous work and our future supply of the local. investigations are focusing on the popular notion of the The use of a PC as a solution was ruled out because it is smart home and [6] [7] and there are many reasons for too hard to control the operating system versioning, developing a cheap, reliable and resilient hardware and software updates and numerous other malicious pieces of software combinations that can be deployed to the field software which can find their way on to PC once and in particular the home environment.