Abstract
The increase in the complexity inherent to public administrative activities, including public procurement, has led ANO to develop a public e-procurement platform in order for Portuguese public entities to perform their contracts and acquisitions. Given the introduction of European PEPPOL standards and the requirement for all Portuguese e-procurement platforms to be WCAG 2.0 level A compliant, ANO company established a consortium with the UTAD University in order to improve their platform and develop the required features. By using a specially designed stage-based work methodology, the R&D project was carried out with success and all initial goals were achieved. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015.

Abstract
Disability from musculoskeletal diseases and co-morbidities may lead to the worsening of social and economic well-being through a multitude of paths. Moreover since in European Union (EU) Member States it is projected that those aged 65 and over will become a much larger share (rising from 17% to 30% of the population), and those aged 80 and over (rising from 5% to 12%) will almost become as numerous as the young population in 2060, there is a great potential for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions for addressing the present and future living arrangements in older people. The UPPERCARE system is meant to affect positively both the intergenerational and partners care since it contributes to decrease usability barriers and promote collaborative environments for informal and self-care. UPPERCARE is a new approach for integrated care supported by ICT systems and services, focusing on post-operative rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pathologies, having as a case study the knee post-operative scenarios of prosthetic care. This paper presents the UPPERCARE system, that provides an integrated care solution, supported ICT, for empowering self-care and adherence to rehabilitation plans through natural interfaces, gamification and cross-modal paths for community care collaboration. The system addresses current barriers from technological, clinical, social and organisational perspectives in a multidisciplinary environment. Special attention is given to the patients' needs and behaviours entailing the participation of a wide care community, including clinical and non-clinical people, associations, institutions and authorities) through an user driven interaction within the system.

Abstract
Social isolation and loneliness are among the important factors for the degradation of the life quality as the persons’ aging process advances. These factors can have a pronounced effect on the general health and are caused by the decrease in social interaction by the person with the friends, family and ex-coworkers groups. On the other hand, the software and hardware technologies has reached a maturation point were the electronic assistants can acquire information from the user through camera images, as well as to communicate with the user by means of natural voice language. In this context, a model for the adoption of electronic intelligent assistants by the elderlies has been proposed in previous work. In the current work, it is assessed the possibility of using the current consumer assistants to implement the proposed model. Several assistants are analyzed (Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple), assessing their functionalities and how they could be used to assist the elderly in strengthening their social bonds with the family, friends and ex-co-workers groups. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Abstract
A general concept on the use of computer vision in a way in which objects in the scene act as visual markers is presented, with special focus on its ability to increase the contextual awareness of a blind user with relation to its surroundings. A demonstration of the concept has been developed and is presented in this work. Having a rough estimation of user location and previous knowledge, from memory, of which visual features should be present in an environment, the recognition of visual elements in a scene validates and provides a trust indicator about the estimated spatial context of a blind user of an assistive orientation device, reducing the gap naturally imposed by his impairment. © 2016 ACM.

Abstract
This paper proposes a real-time system to provide location based guidance and obstacle avoidance of blind persons in indoor environments. The system integrates navigation features based on visual recognition of markers and the detection and classification of possible obstacles in front of the blind person. The system uses the Microsoft Kinect sensor to acquire RGB-D images of the scene. The RGB camera provides input for a real-time tracking algorithm which identifies a trained set of wall-mounted visual markers. The user's pose is estimated combining marker information with GIS data. Depth information is used to classify nearby obstacles. The results of experimental tests with two blind subjects are presented and discussed. © 2016 ACM.

Abstract
Wireless Sensor Networks, in particular Wireless Body Area Networks, is a technology suggested by the research community as allowing elderly people, or people with some kind of disability, to live in a safer, responsive and comfortable environment while at their homes. One of the most active threats to the autonomous life of blind people is the quantity and variety of obstacles they face while moving, whether they are obstacles in the footpath or obstacles coming out from the walls of buildings. Hence, it is necessary to develop a solution that helps or assists blind people while moving either in indoor or outdoor scenarios, simultaneously allowing the use of the use of white cane or the Seeing Eye dog. In this article, the authors propose the use of an ultra-sound based body area network for obstacle detection and warning as a complementary and effective solution for aiding blind people when moving from place to place. According to the cost estimates of the solution and to the negligible setup time, this could be a real effective complementary solution for blind people. (c) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.