EPSILON

Post-Covid patients suffer from up to 200 different symptoms, which represents a social and economic burden on society, especially in the case of prolonged post-COVID syndrome (PCS).

The objective of EPSILON is to use interactive virtual reality (VR) and sensors worn on the body to record the symptoms of post-Covid reliably, objectively and efficiently. The focus is on the distinction of the frequently occurring cognitive and fatigue-associated late effects. EPSILON is intended to relieve POST-Covid drop-in centers, provide patients with reliable information and select targeted therapies based on the well-founded data.

EPSILON addresses the central question of diagnosing clinical post-COVID subtypes via a multimodal data profile that is captured using hybrid, interactive technologies. Fraunhofer HHI is developing VR-based acquisition methods and user-friendly interaction with the system for this purpose. The main goal is an unbiased and precise differentiation of cognitive and fatigue-associated late effects.

In EPSILON, Fraunhofer HHI (HHI) will develop VR evaluation environments and detection of body movement and gesture for the everyday recording of behavioral health data and user-friendly interaction with the system and combine them with psychometric and vegetative parameters recorded in everyday life in a hybrid toolbox.

The second application focus of the sub-project is the interactive data room for integrating, saving, evaluating and visualizing the data and results. This allows physical and psychological parameters to be processed statistically and graphically.

The main focus of the HHI's work is to

• Adapt the VR tools to post-COVID diagnostics, in particular the hybrid and multimodal acquisition and interaction technologies (gaze, gesture, body, speech, middleware).
• Develop AI and computer vision algorithms for recording motor and behavioral parameters
• Build the interactive data space with the multimodal analysis model to characterize the post-Covid subtypes.

Furthermore, Fraunhofer HHI coordinates the project consortium.

• Cognitive Neurology Working Group at the Department of Neurology at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Day Clinic for Cognitive Neurology at the Medical Faculty of Leipzig University Hospital,
• Mind-Body-Emotion Group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
• Interactive and Cognitive Systems Group at Fraunhofer HHI