The FCT project DSAIPA/AI/0122/2020 AIMHealth – AI-based Mobile Applications for Public Health Response, is being promoted by the Information Sciences, Technologies and Architecture Research Center (ISTAR-Iscte), in collaboration with the Center for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-Iscte), both from Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, and as well with the Institute of Telecommunications (IT), the Association for Research and Development of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (AIDFM) and the Cardiovascular Center of the University of Lisbon (CCUL). This project is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), according to the FCT contract DSAIPA/AI/0122/2020 under the contest “AI 4 COVID-19: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Public Administration to strengthen the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics – 2020″. Framework Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, personal contacts were limited, and new solutions had to be developed to prevent the spread of the virus. Some of the technological solutions presented were contact tracing applications, which inform users and authorities about the potential or current risk of spreading the virus. However, among its users, this approach has raised concerns about security and privacy. Objective Encompassing such concerns, this project proposes the creation and availability of a smartphone application and a safe and reliable service distribution platform based on Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence technologies, to identify symptomatic and asymptomatic patients as well as the risk exposure, providing a preventive approach to Public Health strategies.

The overall goal of IRIS is to provide a natural interaction communication platform accessible and adapted for all users, particularly for people with speech impairments and elderly in indoor scenarios. Human-Computer interaction with this platform will adopt the principles of universal design and natural user interfaces such as speech, silent speech, gestures, tactile and haptic devices, pictograms, animated characters and personalized synthetic voices.   The platform will provide a set of services that allow easy access to social networks, friends and remote family members, fighting social-exclusion of people with special needs or impairments. Application of these features will be performed in the context of serious games, virtual reality environments and assisted living scenarios. We will also explore the use of personalized avatars (that resemble with the user) in asynchronous human-human and human-machine communications, in situations where the user has lost his/her voice and in scenarios where it is not possible to have a video signal transmission due to low bandwidth or privacy reasons. Biometrics will complement the platform, in the sense that authentication and authorization are fundamental aspects for assuring access security to personal information in a natural way.