A long-term care resident sits in front of a TV. With the push of a remote control button she instantly sees and visits with her children and grandchildren over 500 miles away. She last saw them on her 80th birthday, four years ago. She and her family are participants in a social action inquiry that explores video conferencing in order to understand the value of technology enhanced face-to-face interaction in a long-term care home. <p>This research, designed as a compassionate response to the serious problems of isolation, loneliness, helplessness, and boredom in long-term care, set out to determine what video conferencing can mean to long-term care residents and to the people they connect with. The study queried possibilities for improving the quality of social interactions of residents in long-term care facilities with family members living at some considerable distance from them. It involved setup of technical equipment, then three residents in a long-term care facility in western Canada were introduced to the practice of video conferencing with their families. Each conferencing event was supported with volunteers for a three-four month exploration period. <p>The research was intended to contribute to knowledge about learning in later life, to promote a way of increasing communication between the elderly and younger generations, and to address issues associated with elderly long-term care residents access to video conferencing technology. <p>Data collected through memory logs, observations, and interviews indicates that all study participants, including residents, family, and volunteers, responded favourably to the video conferencing experience. This study supports the claims that video conferencing can increase the frequency of contact between long-term residents and family members, and that the quality of this contact is enhanced through the visual presence and engagement of participants, through use of video conferencing technology. The video conferencing enabled family members separated by distance and unable to visit frequently to take on a "regular visitor role" and for residents to go visiting. The visually enhanced communication / visits transformed the otherwise limited audio interaction of phone calls or no interaction into socially substantive experiences of connectedness, inclusion about which residents reported feeling excited and connected with something to look forward to. <p>This suggests video conferencing could contribute to a good quality of life for residents. Future communications infrastructures should seriously consider inclusion strategies and availability of effective applications to long-term care residents.

A long-term care resident sits in front of a TV. With the push of a remote control button she instantly sees and visits with her children and grandchildren over 500 miles away. She last saw them on her 80th birthday, four years ago. She and her family are participants in a social action inquiry that explores video conferencing in order to understand the value of technology enhanced face-to-face interaction in a long-term care home. <p>This research, designed as a compassionate response to the serious problems of isolation, loneliness, helplessness, and boredom in long-term care, set out to determine what video conferencing can mean to long-term care residents and to the people they connect with. The study queried possibilities for improving the quality of social interactions of residents in long-term care facilities with family members living at some considerable distance from them. It involved setup of technical equipment, then three residents in a long-term care facility in western Canada were introduced to the practice of video conferencing with their families. Each conferencing event was supported with volunteers for a three-four month exploration period. <p>The research was intended to contribute to knowledge about learning in later life, to promote a way of increasing communication between the elderly and younger generations, and to address issues associated with elderly long-term care residents access to video conferencing technology. <p>Data collected through memory logs, observations, and interviews indicates that all study participants, including residents, family, and volunteers, responded favourably to the video conferencing experience. This study supports the claims that video conferencing can increase the frequency of contact between long-term residents and family members, and that the quality of this contact is enhanced through the visual presence and engagement of participants, through use of video conferencing technology. The video conferencing enabled family members separated by distance and unable to visit frequently to take on a "regular visitor role" and for residents to go visiting. The visually enhanced communication / visits transformed the otherwise limited audio interaction of phone calls or no interaction into socially substantive experiences of connectedness, inclusion about which residents reported feeling excited and connected with something to look forward to. <p>This suggests video conferencing could contribute to a good quality of life for residents. Future communications infrastructures should seriously consider inclusion strategies and availability of effective applications to long-term care residents.

Turbo codes have been the subject of much research in recent years, producing results very close to the theoretical limit set by Shannon. The codes have been successfully implemented in satellite and video conferencing systems and provision has been made in 3rd generation mobile systems. These codes have not been used for short frame systems due to the delay at the decoder. In this thesis, comprehensive comparisons of the two common decoding algorithms are made, with reference to short frames. The effects of increasing memory size of component codes, frame sizes, utilising puncturing and errors in channel estimation are investigated over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels. The decoder systems are compared for complexity as well as for equal numbers of iterations. Results show that less complex decoder strategies produce good results for voice quality bit error rates. Investigations are also made into the effects of errors in signal-to-noise ratio estimation at the SOVA turbo decoder, showing this decoding algorithm to be more resilient than Log-MAP decoders in published literature. The decoders are also tested over channels displaying inter-symbol interference. Channels include a time-invariant channel and three ETSI standard time-varying channels simulating indoor, pedestrian and vehicular situations, upgraded for more realistic Doppler effect. To combat these types of channels, a derivative of turbo codes, turbo equalisation is often used. To keep receiver delay to a minimum, decision feedback equalisation is used here. Results show that the combination can produce improvements in decoded results with increasing turbo iterations where ISI is low, but that iterative improvements do not occur under harsh circumstances. The combination produces much superior results compared with codes on their own under even the most extreme circumstances.

Bakgrund: Digitala vårdmöten är något som används mer och mer, särskilt i samband med COVID-19 men även i enlighet med olika mål för digitalisering. Videomöten har visat sig fungera ganska bra som alternativ till vanliga besök och telefon, men det saknas en bild av hur just fysioterapeuter upplever digitala möten.  Syfte: Att undersöka fysioterapeuters upplevelser och erfarenheter av digitala vårdmöten jämfört med traditionella fysioterapeutbesök inom primärvården. Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ design. Data samlades in genom 5 semistrukturerade intervjuer med fysioterapeuter och analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultat: Analysen av intervjuerna resulterade i 6 kategorier och 15 underkategorier. Kategorierna var; Digitala möten kan underlätta för patienten och fysioterapeuten, Fysioterapeutens arbete utvecklas och anpassas under pandemin, Utmanande att få till bra digitala möten, Möjligheter med digitala möten, Begränsningar med digitala möten och Förbättringspotential. Konklusion: Digitala vårdmöten inom fysioterapi skulle kunna vara ett alternativ för patienter som är intresserade och för besök som innefattar samtal, observation, rådgivning, träning och uppföljning, och där det inte krävs en mer ingående manuell undersökning. Digitala möten kan underlätta för både patienten och fysioterapeuten, men fortsatt utveckling av teknik och tillgänglighet behövs för att ytterligare förbättra patientarbetet. / Background: Digital healthcare consultations is something used more and more, especially during COVID-19 but also in accordance with various goals for digitization. Video consultations has proven to work well as an alternative to regular visits and telephone calls, but there is no clear view on how physiotherapists experience digital meetings.  Objective: To investigate physiotherapists' experiences of digital care meetings compared to traditional physiotherapist visits in primary care.  Method: The study has a qualitative design. Data was collected through 5 semi-structured interviews with physiotherapists and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.  Result: The analysis of the interviews resulted in 6 categories and 15 subcategories. The categories were; Digital meetings can make it easier for the patient and the physiotherapist, The physiotherapists' work is developed and adapted during the pandemic, Challenging to get good digital meetings, Opportunities with digital meetings, Limitations with digital meetings and Potential for improvement. Conclusion: Digital care meetings in physiotherapy could be an alternative when patients want it and for visits including conversation, observation, advice, training and follow-up, and where there is no need for a more thorough manual examination. Digital meetings can make it easier for both the patient and the physiotherapist, but further development of technology and accessibility is needed to improve the work with the patient.

Advancements in computer technology are making video conferencing a viable communication medium for desktop computers. These same advancements are changing the structure and means by which information workers conduct business. From a human factors perspective, however, the study of new communication technologies and their relationships with end users presents a challenging research domain. This study employed two diverse research approaches to the problem of reduced video frame rate in desktop video conferencing. In the first study, a psychophysical method was used to evaluate video image quality as a function of frame rate for a series of different scenes. Scenes varied in terms of level of detail, velocity of panning, and content. Results indicate that for most scenes, differences in frame rate become less detectable above approximately 10 frames per second (fps), suggesting a curvilinear relationship between image quality and frame rate. For a traditional conferencing scene, however, a linear increase in frame rate produced a linear improvement in perceived image quality. High detail scenes were perceived to be of lower quality than the low detail scenes, while panning velocity had no effect. In the second study, a collection of research methods known as ethnography was used to examine long-term use of desktop video by collaborators in a real work situation. Participants from a graduate course met each week for seven weeks and worked on a class project under one of four communication conditions: face-to-face, 1 fps, 10 fps, and 25 fps. Dependent measures included interviews, questionnaires, interaction analysis measures, and ethnomethodology. Recommendations are made regarding the utility and expense of each method with respect to uncovering human factors issues in video-mediated collaboration. It is believed that this research has filled a significant gap in the human factors literature of advanced telecommunications and research methodology. / Ph. D.

Abstract Older adults with complex memory problems benefit when they have the opportunity to consult with a specialist for a comprehensive cognitive assessment. Specialists such as geriatricians, psychogeriatricians or neurologists often work in major cities or large metropolitan towns. Travelling to see a specialist either alone or with a carer is complicated for an older person because of medical issues or disability. The use of videoconferencing may provide a way to link a specialist with a patient without the need for the patient, or the specialist, to travel long distances. Two literature reviews were carried out. The initial review identified studies of the diagnosis of cognition via telemedicine. Thirty-two studies were identified which assessed cognition via telephone or video conference. The focus of the study was either the administration of a standardised cognitive assessment tool (n=30) or an unstructured comprehensive cognitive assessment interview (all via video conference) (n=2). The sample sizes were small but the levels of agreement were high, suggesting that further work in this area may identify that diagnosis of dementia via video conference is reliable. There has been limited work in the area of diagnostic agreement when a specialist is assessing a patient for the first time via video conference, even less work in the area of mental health assessment of older people. The second literature review identified 19 studies of diagnostic agreement using video conference with a sample size of 20 or more. The fields of research were: Dermatology (n=10); Mental Health (n=4); Minor Injuries (n=2); Neurology (n=2); and Rheumatology (n=1). Of the four studies in the area of mental health, one focused on the diagnosis of dementia with the publication of a protocol for assessing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) via video conference. The review highlighted that diagnosis via video conference in other medical fields had been shown to be reliable but that limited work was evident regarding the reliability of diagnosing dementia via video conference. A range of statistical analyses have been used to measure agreement in studies of diagnosis via VC. Overall Proportional Agreement (Po) and Cohen’s kappa (K) are the two most common calculations. There was little uniformity of reporting in the studies identified in the literature review. The variation in reporting made it difficult to compare results or provide data for a meta-analysis of similar studies. Consideration of the methods for analysing diagnostic agreement was undertaken using the approaches identified in the literature review as a starting point. The aim of this research was to identify if a diagnosis of the presence of dementia in an older adult by a specialist is reliable when the assessment interview occurs via video conference. A pilot study was carried out prior to the implementation of a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded multi-site project to test inter-rater agreement for the diagnosis of dementia and subsidiary questions. The candidate is a Chief Investigator (CI) on the NHMRC project grant and participated in writing the grant submission. A pilot study was completed for the purpose of refining the research protocol and establishing preliminary data for the calculation of sample size. A geriatrician carried out a cognitive assessment via video conference with the patient and the carer. The doctor had access to the patient’s chart and the results of a battery of standardised cognitive assessments administered face-to-face (FTF) by the clinic nurse earlier in the day. A second interview was carried out, face-to-face, by a second doctor on the same day. Inter-rater reliability was assessed between doctors. To place the level of agreement in context, inter-rater reliability between paired face-to-face assessments was also measured. Forty-two participants were divided into two groups: paired face-to-face assessments (FF, n=22) or paired video conference and face-to-face assessments (FV/VF, n=20). Twenty-two participants were male. Their average age was 70 years (SD=11.1, Range 50-90). The mean Standardised Mini-Mental State Examination (SMMSE) score was 23.93 (SD=5.42, Range 8-30)[1]. The outcome of agreement was measured using PO and Cohen’s K. FF group (PO=0.636; K=0.430, p=0.005) and the FV/VF group (PO=0.650; K=0.650, p=0.004) showed similar levels of agreement. The main study was a non-inferiority, prospective cohort study following a similar format as the pilot. Patients were randomised to two groups. The first group participated in two interviews; one via VC, the other was face-to-face (FV/VF). The second group was subjected to dual face-to-face assessments (FF). The video conference interview consisted of real-time video conference with the doctor interacting with both the carer and the patient. A battery of standardised assessments, a medical history, imaging and blood tests were prepared before hand and available to the doctor for use in the interview. One hundred and fifty-five participants were divided into two groups: paired face-to-face assessments (FF, n=73) or paired video conference and face-to-face assessments (FV or VF, n=82). Seventy-five of the participants were male. The average age was 76-years (SD=9, Range 54-95). The mean SMMSE was 23.8 (SD=4.4, Range 8-30). Overall proportional agreement (Po) and Weighted K were calculated as a measure of agreement for the presence of dementia. The FF group (Po=0.740; K=0.57, p<0.0001) and the FV/VF group (Po=0.780; K=0.64, p<0.0001) showed similar levels of agreement. Using the same study cohort, additional data were collected to identify the significance of the physical examination (PE) for diagnosing dementia. One of two doctors was allocated the task of completing a physical examination of the patient following initial assessment interview and after the diagnosis decisions had been recorded. Following the physical examination a second record of diagnosis decisions were recorded by the same doctor. The doctor was asked to identify if the diagnosis, formulation, treating options or additional investigations had altered as a result of the in-person physical examination. The physical examination supported clarity of the diagnosis particularly if a vascular element was involved. This dissertation provides evidence of the reliability of a diagnosis of dementia obtained via video conference. Furthermore, the work detailed in this dissertation represents the largest international study on assessing diagnostic accuracy of cognition and makes a significant contribution to the work in telemedicine in the area of mental health. This dissertation provides generalisations that can impact the use of video conference for diagnosis across a range of specialities, with the ultimate goal of improving access to specialist advice for people living in rural areas.

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The overall aim of this thesis has been to study the implementation process concerning the use of video conferencing in discharge planning, during and after a development project in a region in southeast Sweden. The research approach has been developed within a new interdisciplinary research area, Applied Health Technology. The main focus of the research has been on how the new IT solution has affected everyday work, and in what ways management supported staff during the implementation process. The study design has a qualitative approach. Phenomenological hermeneutics, content analysis and Participatory Action Research (PAR) have been used in the analysis process. Study I aimed to describe  primary healthcare nursing staff’s experiences of discharge planning, along with their concerns about using video conferencing in discharge planning sessions. It was found that there is need for improvement in communication and understanding between nursing staff working in hospitals and in primary healthcare, and need for nursing staff to obtain more information about how IT solutions could support their work. The aim of Study II was to examine the implementation process of using video conferencing in discharge planning, according to a theoretical framework composed from theories about implementation processes. It was found that implementation frameworks can be useful, and that framing the implementation process supports the exposure of factors and highlights relationships and states of dependency between those factors which may affect implementation. Study III set out to describe managers’ reflections about leading the implementation process of using video conferencing in the discharge planning session. The results indicate that managers experienced two leadership perspectives when they reflected on the implementation process. On one hand, they described a desired way of leading implementation, on the other hand they described an actual way of leading implementation. The aim of Study IV was to describe the reflections of professionals about what is needed in order to create what should become a new best practice using videoconferencing in the discharge planning sessions. The results indicate that the professionals experienced lack of knowledge and understanding about each other’s everyday work and that the absence of well-functioning common routines obstructed the process. The results also indicate that there is a lack of common arenas to enable discussions, negotiations and agreements about adopting new routines as the discharge planning process changes over time. This thesis contributes to the much-needed discussions about how to manage the many ongoing IT implementation processes in Swedish healthcare organizations, by highlighting challenges and difficulties that both healthcare professionals and managers have experienced during an implementation process. The results indicate that implementation frameworks can be useful when new IT solutions are introduced in healthcare, and that there is a need for dedicating time, space and support for involved professionals in designing their everyday work.

While inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) for the downlink and uplink of multi-cell systems (in general) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks (in particular) have been extensively studied, the study of the impact caused by inter-cell interference with video conferencing traffic has received less attention. The consideration of video conferencing traffic is essential for analyzing the overall performance analysis of inter-cell interference in LTE networks, and in particular for the evaluation of the video conferencing traffic. In LTE networks, the same frequencies can be used in several adjacent cells. This means that in practice every cell may have other cell nearby whose radio transmissions may interfere with the own signal. In this paper, we report a comprehensive analysis on the performance of video traffic considering the inter-cell interference impact in LTE network. The interference patterns are configured by using the OPNET simulator for a given set of parameters, such as cell configuration, user configurations, and traffic models. The interference pattern is used to study the performance of video conferencing traffic in LTE network for realistic deployments. We, present a detailed description of the way to model the network in OPNET platform considering the inter-cell interference. In order to use the suggested network model in OPNET platform three network scenarios are configured. They are fully overlapped, half overlapped and no frequency overlapping. These scenarios are configured in such a way to show how the video traffic is impacted when the network load increases. The thesis shows that the video conferencing traffic experiences more delay and loss when fully overlapped frequency is used in the adjacent cell on LTE network. / Moammed Nazmul Haider Chowdhury C/o,Huq M A Visattravagen 30 LGH 1010 Huddinge 14150 Mobile:+46760996255 Mob:

This report deals with the possibilities of creating a system for a point-to-point audio- and video communication link, using cheap and simple hardware. The system will be using a local area network based on Ethernet and IP. This work was focused around the Raspberry Pi and its possibilities and limitations, regarding this type of application. The usage of a Raspberry Pi was also compared to using a conventional mini-PC for the same purpose. The overall goal was to achieve a system for point to point audio- and video communication of a very high quality, preferrably HD quality. The users of the system are supposed to get a feeling of live communication. To achieve this a very large monitor was used at each node. The monitor, microphone, camera and speaker are to be integrated into a frame that is hung on a wall in order to resemble a window. When you want to talk to somebody at the other node, you just walk up to this window and call upon the person you want to speak to, since the communications link is always active. This system could be used for distance meetings, distance lectures and in other similar situations. The results indicated that the Raspberry Pi was very capable of handling either transmission or reception of HD quality signals, but for full duplex communication a setup using two separate Raspberry Pis per node is recommended – one for transmission and one for reception. Another solution would be to choose a more powerful hardware platform,for instance a mini-PC, instead of the Raspberry Pi.