Varela Aldas, José
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Varela Aldas, José
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Ambato
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josevarela@uti.edu.ec
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57192546163

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Immersive virtual reality app to promote healthy eating in children

2020 , Fuentes E.M. , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , García-Magariño I.

An immersive virtual reality application was developed as a serious game to support children on their decisions about food, the system was composed by the Gear VR (Viewer and controller), and a phone which contains the mobile application developed in Unity, providing the immersive environment, the platform was based on a path where the player has to go through it choosing between different sort of meals and also between different physical activities, the effect of balanced diet plus adequate physical activity seems reflected on the avatar previously chosen by the user, the app was tested on 12 children between 8 and 10 years old during one week, children participated on the study after receiving an informed consent, analyzing the tendencies of food choice on children before and after, a notorious positive effect could be seen on the users according to the avatar analyzed at the end of the round, besides a System usability ore was also applied to evaluate the degree of usability of the app, reaching a ore of 88.33% which rates the app as very usable, this results were even better than what was planned at the beginning of the experience. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Immersive virtual reality app for mild cognitive impairment

2019 , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , García-Magariño I.

A characteristic symptom of neurodegenerative diseases is the deterioration of the memory. These problems usually worsen with the progression of the disease, being the cognitive rehabilitation an important tool in order to slow down the progress of the disease in the patient. This work presents the development of a mobile virtual reality application through a serious game to boost the memory by solving mazes in three levels of difficulty. The application uses the Gear VR glasses to provide the user with an immersive experience. The results present the proposed application, showing the components of the virtual environment. © 2019, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

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Monitoring Security in a Vehicle Using a Mobile Application

2022 , Miranda M. , Granda K. , Castillo Salazar D.R. , Palacios-Navarro G. , Varela Aldas, José

Today it can still be seen that the lack of technology in old and low-cost vehicles does not allow basic security remote monitoring. For this reason, it is necessary to update its technology, installing electronic systems based on free hardware to perform readings in the vehicles. In addition, mobile devices allow viewing this information remotely using the Internet. In this work, the monitoring of security in a vehicle is carried out using a mobile application. For this, the door state and the vehicle’s internal temperature are read. This electronic system is based on the ESP32 board that has a WiFi communication module to connect to the internet. This is programmed using the Arduino IDE environment. On the other hand, the mobile application installed on a mobile phone is constantly updated and alerts in case of changes. This application is developed in App inventor. A cloud database in Firebase is used to interconnect these two stations, which serves as a container to exchange information. As result, a product acceptance test was applied, obtaining a qualification that validate this proposal. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Fog computing for assisting and tracking elder patients with neurodegenerative diseases

2019 , García-Magariño I. , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , Lloret J.

U.S. hospitals transmit and manage great amounts of information with the avenue of Internet of things. This work departs from a real need detected by healthcare centers and hospitals in U.S., Spain and Ecuador. This work focuses on the application of fog computing for obtaining an app rich in visual content that will not overload U.S. hospital infrastructures even if it was used massively. The simulation results showed that the proposed fog-based approach could support a regular use (one day out of three on average) by 1% of patients of one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in 14 states in U.S (i.e. 36,400 patients in total) with only a traffic of 528 KB per day on average when using one hospital per state. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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Head-mounted display-based application for cognitive training

2020 , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , Amariglio R. , García-Magariño I.

Virtual Reality (VR) has had significant advances in rehabilitation, due to the gamification of cognitive activities that facilitate treatment. On the other hand, Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) produces outstanding results due to the interactive features with the user. This work introduces a VR application for memory rehabilitation by walking through a maze and using the Oculus Go head-mounted display (HMD) technology. The mechanics of the game require memorizing geometric shapes while the player progresses in two modes, autonomous or manual, with two levels of difficulty depending on the number of elements to remember. The application is developed in the Unity 3D video game engine considering the optimization of computational resources to improve the performance in the processing and maintaining adequate benefits for the user, while the generated data is stored and sent to a remote server. The maze task was assessed with 29 subjects in a controlled environment. The obtained results show a significant correlation between participants’ response accuracy in both the maze task and a face–pair test. Thus, the proposed task is able to perform memory assessments. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

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Effects of immersive virtual reality on the heart rate of athlete’s warm-up

2019 , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , García-Magariño I. , Fuentes E.M.

An adequate warm-up prior to intensive exercise can bring benefits to athletes, these requirements may vary depending on the physical activity and the training needs. The immersive virtual reality could have benefits in the warm-up and it can be determined by physiological data of the athlete. This work presents a mobile virtual reality application to stimulate the warm-up of an athlete using a standard treadmill, where the developed application is composed of a pleasant and stimulating environment. A Smartphone and the Gear VR are used as an HMD device, and wireless headphones are placed in the users, in addition, the heart rate of the athletes is monitored using a Polar H7 sensor. Experimental results are obtained in athletes with similar characteristics and conditions, identified a direct relation of the virtual environment with the pulsations per minute (ppm), denoting pulsations greater than usual in case of the stimulating environment and lower pulsations for the pleasant environment. Finally, a usability test is performed that shows the level of sociability of the system. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

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Electric Monitoring System for Residential Customers Using Wireless Technology

2022 , Buele, Jorge , Morales-Sánchez J.C. , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , Ayala-Chauvin, Manuel Ignacio

Power grids continue to develop and it is increasingly difficult to guarantee the quality of service offered to the user. In several developing countries, consumption is calculated on the basis of visual inspection, which is prone to errors. Consequently, this document outlines the construction of electrical consumption telemetering equipment. This is designed to reduce human error through manual measures and have a web backup that can be accessed from anywhere. To develop the prototype voltage and current sensors are used, and the signal is conditioned for the control stage. The processing unit is the Arduino Mega embedded board, which incorporates a GPRS Shield (General Packet Radio Services) that handles communication with a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) connected to the Internet. It also incorporates a block of connection and disconnection of the electrical service that would leave the whole house without service. Two functionalities are used to present the data, one is local on the LCD display of the equipment installed in the home (user) and the second is remote access to a website (server). The results show that in comparison with a standard voltage device it presents an error of 0.28% and 4.12% in current. In this way, the use of this prototype for real-time monitoring of electricity consumption is validated, since it works similarly to a conventional one. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Control of a Security Door Through the Internet of Things

2022 , Toapanta J. , Miranda M. , Andaluz V.H. , Palacios-Navarro G. , Varela Aldas, José

Home security has increased in recent years with the help of technology. Even more, the appearance of the internet of things (IoT) allows it to control and monitor devices from anywhere in the world. This work develops a proposal that alerts the user about the status of a door through a mobile application using low-cost devices. For the electronic design, a magnetic contact sensor has been used that detects if the door is open. An electric lock is also used to control the door with the mobile application from anywhere in the user. The electronic system is based on an ESP32 board that has WiFi communication, this board sends the door status data to the mobile application. The electric lock can be activated in three ways: manually from the door, automatically according to a programmed routine, and remotely using the mobile app. The platform used for the IoT is Firebase, which allows the exchange of information between the local site and the remote site. The tests carried out around the prototype have responded correctly, the installed sensor continuously reports on the status of the door, and the control is executed according to the orders sent through the cloud. In addition, an acceptance test is used that guarantees the correct operation of the proposal. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Development of a WBGT Index Meter Based on M5Stack Core2

2022 , Varela Aldas, José , Buele, Jorge , Mosquera H. , Palacios-Navarro G.

Environmental working conditions are of crucial importance for job performance. Thus, thermal comfort helps the human body to withstand long working hours without stress. There are several indicators of heat stress, but one of the most complete is the WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) index, which considers 3 temperatures to determine the heat stress index, the dry bulb temperature, the wet-bulb temperature, and the temperature of radiation. For this reason, this document describes the process of building a low-cost heat stress meter. Two DHT22 sensors and M5Stack Core2 controller are used that includes a screen for the presentation of the information. The user interface includes buttons for changing the view type to show indoor or outdoor results, as well as the battery level. In addition, all this information is sent to the IoT platform of ThingSpeak through internet access using WiFi communication, this information can be displayed graphically from a web browser and from anywhere in the world. The data are compared with a commercial meter to validate this prototype, obtaining an error of less than 5% and no significant differences were found. In this way, it is possible to offer equipment for industrial solutions, but at a fraction of its cost. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Development of a Scale Prototype of Smart Bed Controlled Using a Mobile Application

2022 , Soberon J.C. , Gamboa G. , Castillo F. , Palacios-Navarro G. , Varela Aldas, José

The need for a technological system for health care for sick people is evident. This work develops a scale prototype of a smart bed controlled through a mobile application. The electronic design consists of two servomotors that act to position the bed; these actions can be activated through the mobile application. At the same time, the patient can be monitored by a camera and an infrared thermometer that sends the data to the application through the Internet. The local operating code is designed so that the position of the bed changes automatically according to a preset sequence. The electronic system is based on the ESP32 board; this chip integrates WiFi communication that allows the connection of the bed with the cloud-based in Firebase. Temperature tests were carried out with the help of people to ensure that the data taken was correct. In addition, bed positions and reception of camera images were tested on a mannequin. As a result, adequate communication was obtained between the mobile application and all the devices installed in the smart bed. Finally, an acceptance test is applied that validates this proposal with a good score. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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