A location-based ubiquitous crowdsourcing approach for the emergency supply of oxygen cylinders

• Published in: Personal and ubiquitous computing Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 109 - 120
• Main Authors: El Barachi, May, Kamoun, Faouzi, Hachani, Abderrazek, Belqasmi, Fatna, Ben Said, Amir, Amri, Imed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01.02.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Computer Science; Computer vision; Crowdsourcing; Cylinders; Emergency medical services; Image processing; Mobile Computing; Organs; Original Article; Oxygen; Personal Computing; Social factors; Social interaction; User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction; Crowdsourcing; Crisis management; Computer vision; Ambient social interaction; Ubiquitous mobile sensing; Human-computer interaction; Healthcare information systems
• ISSN: 1617-4909; 1617-4917
• DOI: 10.1007/s00779-020-01469-1

Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are subjected to emergencies triggered by breathing difficulties. Oxygen therapy, administered from medical oxygen cylinders, can be used to relieve respiratory airways, and restore the supply of oxygen to the body’s vital organs. In this paper, we present a location-based ubiquitous crowdsourcing solution to enable COPD patients to request an emergency supply of oxygen cylinders. At the heart of the solution is a trusted platform that acts as a mediator for the ambient social interaction among a virtual and socially engaged community of requestors and suppliers. The geo-temporal data generated by this social interaction can be analyzed to uncover meaningful ambient environmental patterns. Our approach also uses image processing and computer vision techniques to help validate crowd responses. We discuss the details of the human-centric computer interaction design and its key features. We also elaborate on the challenges faced in the design and development of the solution and summarize the actions taken to address them.