For our research on music-based interventions for healthy aging, the Empower Lab has been named as one of five awardees in the National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity 2022 QuickFire Challenge sponsored by Johnson & Johnson! 

Read the press release and more about the [here](https://jnjinnovation.com/news/press-releases/johnson--johnson-innovation-names-awardees-in-the-nam-healthy-longevity-2022-quickfire-challenge).

Lab is winner in 2022 Healthy Longevity Challenge

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This project captures a combination of wearable, environmental, and self-reported information to better understand the health impacts of extreme heat in low-income communities, with an eye to informing interventions that can be delivered at individual, building, and neighborhood-wide levels. 


Heat Interventions

Physical therapy (PT) is a crucial and highly beneficial activity that supports recovery from acute injury and generally promotes mobility and functioning throughout the lifespan. However, adherence to at-home PT is a major challenge given boredom, motivation, and difficulties tracking progress. Aiming to enhance people's PT experiences and outcomes, this project leverages the engaging, therapeutic power of music to provide intuitive, real-time feedback and adaptive guidance during exercises. Specifically, informed by the music therapy literature and a highly iterative user-centered design process, our system tracks and sonifies limb movements using state-of-the-art computer vision and music generation algorithms to capture motion data during rehabilitative exercises and convert that information into music and sounds that serve as acoustic guidance. Our lab-based evaluation shows this musical approach improves exercise performance and user engagement compared to traditional practices. Moving forward, we are working on deploying the system in-the-wild to evaluate its effects over time in real-world contexts.

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Songyun Tao

News

Lab is winner in 2022 Healthy Longevity Challenge

September 27, 2022

Projects

Heat Interventions

MusicalPT