EIT Digital DLUB (Don’t Leave Us Behind)

2020.07.30.

With its rehabilitation platform, the Italian-Hungarian research group supports continuity of treatment of people with disabilities during the epidemic period and beyond. It is now clear that the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has radically changed the lives of all of us, for a longer time than expected.

The EIT Digital DLUB (Don’t Leave Us Behind) project supports the therapeutic options of children and young adults with intellectual disabilities through developments in changed circumstances. The solution is seen by Italian and Hungarian researchers in a telerehabilitation system that supports the cooperation of the therapist, parent and the patient. In addition to the functionality of standard video calls, it reproduces personal presence as much as possible and digitally supports the therapist's observations.

Cooperating partners are the FifthIngenio, Politecnico di Milano from the Hungarian side, the Neural Information Processing Group of ELTE Faculty of Informatics, led by András Lőrincz.

With the help of an innovative software platform using a game-based approach, therapeutic games can be customized based on continuous interaction between the patient, therapist and parent or caregiver. Therapists can configure games before the session, select the appropriate content, adjust the level of complexity, and control behaviour and dynamics of the game while running. Multisensory technology allows data automatically collected during various therapeutic activities to make a wide range of analysis of behaviour and performance of the patient, making the therapist’s job easier. As another important aspect, the creators of the system took into account that the technology used (e.g. webcam) should not interfere with or influence the patient's behaviour. The effectiveness of games is supported by empirical studies in therapeutic centres.

With the desktop and web platform - supported by a cloud-based infrastructure -, researchers plan to support rehabilitation work across Europe from 2021. The EIT Digital has been present in Hungary since 2012, Hungary became a full member of the EIT Digital in 2017. The most important domestic partner of the organization is ELTE, whose Lágymányosi Campus also serves as the Hungarian Co-Location Centre.