Team

The strategic partnership formed, ensures the envisaged high quality of the final system and a realistic commercial exploitation plan.

• FORTH, as a world-class research organization has the know-how and the working experience to implement the system.
• ANIMUS is a rehabilitation center, carrying great experience in the integration of innovative services in the contemporary healthcare practice. Many ANIMUS patients, including people suffering from traumatic brain injury, stroke or multiple sclerosis, can be the direct end-users of the BCI for the navigation of a robotic car / wheelchair. Consequently, ANIMUS will effectively contribute to the system evaluation and its further improvement.
• WHEEL, as a leader in the autonomy and independent living by importing wheelchairs that retain exclusive worldwide partnerships, has the resources to build and promote the products and, additionally, to calibrate and personalize the solution to each individual patient.

 

The Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), established in 1983, is one of the largest research centers in Greece with well organized facilities, highly qualified personnel and a reputation as a top-level research foundation worldwide. The research and technological directions of FORTH focus on areas of major scientific, social, and economic interest. The Foundation, with headquarters in Heraklion, includes six Research Institutes in different parts of the country.

The Institute of Computer Science (ICS-FORTH) will participate in this consortium and it is located in Heraklion, Crete. The Institute of Computer Science has had a relatively long history and recognised tradition, since its establishment in 1983, in conducting basic and applied research, developing applications and products, providing services, and playing a leading role in Greece and internationally, in the fields of Information and Communication Technologies. Activities of ICS cover important research and development areas, encompassing new perspectives, emerging fields of research and technological challenges worldwide. In its continuing efforts to exploit its research activities and results, the Institute contributes significantly to the diffusion of modern Information and Communications Technologies in the public and private sectors. Thus, ICS acts as a catalyst for the development of the Information and Communication Technologies sector in Greece, and the creation of favourable conditions for the emergence of an Information Society acceptable by all citizens.

The group that will be involved with the implementation of this project is part of the Computational Bio-Medicine Laboratory (CBML, http://www.ics.forth.gr/cbml), whose mission is to develop novel ICT technologies in the wider context of personalized, predictive and preventive medicine. Several EC and national grants as well as a number of strategic clinical collaborations have ensured that the research output is driven from the actual clinical requirements and translated to the clinical setting. Research within CBML focuses on the development of innovative computational algorithms and methods, in the fields of medical informatics, bioinformatics, eHealth, biosignal analysis and computational medicine.

ANIMUS Recovery and Rehabilitation Center started its operation in May 2008. It is built on a really beautiful area (about 170.000 m2) in the 8th km of the Road Larissa – with overall facilities size about 13.500 m2. The personnel of the Centre include 200 people who take care for the physical, sentimental and social recovery of patients. We address to people who, after accidents or diseases, either need an outpatient treatment or a hospitalization for their recovery and rehabilitation.

ANIMUS currently employs a variety of medical-related professional, such as physicians specializing in rehabilitation, neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic, rheumatologist, pneumologists, gastroenterologists, cardiologists and ENT.

The goal of ANIMUS Recovery Centre is the improvement of physical, sentimental, psychological and mental condition of people who need the recovery of their health condition after a disease, accident, etc. Additionally, ANIMUS also aims to the improvement of their everyday life, but also to their social and professional reintegration and activation. Focusing on the patients and their needs, the people of ANIΜUS Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre, aim to provide high quality health services.

Wheel was founded in 2001 by Mr. Dimitrios Gaidatzis in Thessaloniki, with the ambition of importing wheelchairs and orthopedic and rehabilitation products, maintaining exclusive partnerships with top companies of this field in four different continents.

The technological expertise of WHEEL encompasses the technological facilities, equipment, tools and programs, as well as the electronic drives for all types of wheelchairs. Thus, it has undertaken research projects for the development of a body measurement recording system, a necessary tool for the adjustment and personalization of wheelchairs, in order to provide excellent support and body posture.

Since its foundation, WHEEL has been in the core of the developments of the field of rehabilitation and never ceased evolving and investing in new technologies. The key elements that summarize the mindset of the WHEEL team include responsibility, specialization, innovation, persistent training, team spirit, and meaningful communication with partners and customers. Human is the only reference point.