VisionXAiRy

Research Areas & Projects

This page highlights the main research areas, applied projects, and collaborative lines of work associated with this group across ESTSetúbal-IPS, NOVA LINCS, CTS/UNINOVA, and related institutional contexts.

The portfolio brings together expertise in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Digital Health, Extended Reality (XR), Inclusive Technologies, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, Smart Agriculture, Industrial Digital Transformation, and Educational Technology.

Main Research Areas

🌿 Smart Agriculture, AI & Explainability

A strong recent line of work in the group focuses on smart agriculture, precision viticulture, multimodal systems, and Explainable AI (XAI). This includes intelligent decision-support systems, disease detection, yield prediction, and data-driven interfaces designed for different stakeholder profiles in agricultural ecosystems.

🥽 XR, Serious Games & Therapist-Guided Interactive Systems

Another major current research area is the use of Virtual Reality, Gamification, and Serious Games in therapeutic contexts. This includes immersive environments for exposure therapy, therapist-facing web interfaces, and adaptive interactive systems designed to improve engagement and intervention quality.

🏥 Digital Health, Rehabilitation & Inclusive Technologies

The group also has a strong and sustained research profile in Digital Health, especially in technology-supported self-management, accessibility, rehabilitation, conversational support, and inclusive interface design for people with disabilities or chronic conditions.

🧠 Digital Twins, Adaptive Therapy & Personalisation

Several members are involved in work on Digital Twins, adaptive therapeutic systems, and personalised intervention frameworks, especially in connection with serious games, rehabilitation, and predictive / simulation-based therapeutic support.

🏭 Industrial Digital Transformation, Mobility & Data Platforms

Some members of the group are also involved in research and innovation agendas around industrial digitalisation, future-factory transformation, transport and logistics digital transition, and data-driven operational platforms.

📚 Educational Technology & Digital Pedagogy

The broader portfolio also includes expertise in educational technology, e-Learning, Web 2.0 / Web 3.0 in higher education, e-assessment, and digitally supported pedagogical innovation.

Highlighted Projects & Research Lines

MULTISENSE & TWINSOR — AI-Driven Decision Support for Precision Vineyards

One of the most recent projects involving the group, nested within the E³UDRES² network, centres on MULTISENSE (Multi-Sensor Monitoring for Smart and Sustainable Farming) and the TWINSOR digital twin ecosystem proposals. Built around the VineSentinel platform, this initiative aims to improve vineyard management through a digital platform and mobile interface that support real-time monitoring. It combines Earth Observation data, weather and terrain data, advanced AI, and Explainable AI techniques to support disease detection, crop-yield prediction, and treatment coordination.

Gamified VR & Therapist-Guided Exposure Therapy

A very recent research line in the group focuses on XR-supported therapeutic systems for children, especially gamified VR environments and therapist-guided exposure-therapy tools. Recent outputs show work on sensory food aversion and second-screen web interfaces that allow therapists to configure sessions, monitor behaviour, and collect session data in real time.

Drivolution — Transition to the Factory of the Future

Drivolution is a major innovation agenda focused on the creation of a Factory of the Future model. It addresses the digital and energy transition of the automotive sector, with emphasis on industrial digitalisation, sustainability, new materials, improved production processes, and workforce upskilling.

NEXUS — Green and Digital Transition for Transport, Logistics and Mobility

NEXUS is an innovation pact dedicated to the green and digital transition of transport, logistics, and mobility. It includes work on IoT and sensorisation, blockchain, big data, open-data strategies, predictive algorithms, and resource-management solutions for modern transport and logistics ecosystems.

YanuX & FCT4U — Ubiquitous & Cross-Device Computing

Representing a core technical foundation in the group’s HCI research, YanuX is a novel architectural framework designed for pervasive multi-device applications, allowing user interfaces to be distributed simultaneously across co-located devices based on proximity and orientation. This builds on earlier initiatives like FCT4U, which explored the enhancement of user experience by merging private mobile displays with public situated displays.

SHIFT — Sustainability-oriented, Highly Interactive, and Innovation-based Framework for Tourism Marketing

SHIFT is an interdisciplinary project aimed at developing a collaborative framework for digital tourism marketing. It combines innovation, sustainability, and interaction in order to support new models of collaborative marketing and digital-platform development in tourism contexts.

b-Able2

b-Able2 is a blended-care project focused on self-management support after stroke. It combines rehabilitation, co-creation, and digital intervention design to support patients, families, and health professionals through tailored digital and hybrid-care approaches.

MoveONParkinson

MoveONParkinson is a major Digital Health line focused on motivational support for personalised exercise in Parkinson’s disease. It builds on the ONParkinson platform and includes a web platform, mobile app, and conversational-agent support for sustained exercise participation and disease self-management.

SEU — Services to Empower YOU

SEU focuses on the design of inclusive, multimodal, and adaptive digital interfaces for people with disabilities. The project explored personalised web-based access to services for users with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments, using participatory design and accessibility-focused evaluation.

Co-Care — Co-created ICT Solutions for Alzheimer’s Informal Caregiving

Co-Care extends the group’s Digital Health work into caregiving support, focusing on co-created ICT solutions for informal caregivers in Alzheimer’s-related contexts.

Selfie — Supported Self-Management of Fibromyalgia

The Selfie line focuses on supported self-management of fibromyalgia through co-designed eHealth interventions and hybrid exercise support. It complements the group’s wider Digital Health profile by addressing chronic pain, adherence, and remote / hybrid intervention models.

WISDom

WISDom is a project focused on digital tools for water-distribution operation and management. Its outputs support flow-data processing, sensor placement, detection of critical areas, and prioritisation of intervention in water-infrastructure systems.

DECIdE

DECIdE is a multicriteria decision-support platform for the asset management of urban water infrastructures. It supports data integration, infrastructure assessment, and operational decision-making in water-utility contexts.

TailorPhy — Smart Sensors and Tailored Environments for Physiotherapy

TailorPhy linked smart sensing and tailored environments to physiotherapy and rehabilitation. It forms an important earlier foundation for later work in Digital Health, therapy-oriented systems, and adaptive interactive rehabilitation technologies.

GLONET

GLONET belongs to the earlier collaborative-networks strand of the group’s broader research profile, especially in relation to service-enhanced products, value systems, and distributed collaborative environments.

New Possibilities for Print Media and Packaging – Combining Print with Digital

This project reflects the group’s broader engagement with digital transformation and media innovation, particularly in relation to print-digital integration and technology-enhanced communication contexts.

Crossing Borders

Crossing Borders is an earlier multidisciplinary project connected to information systems supporting research in historical and cultural contexts.

Art Treatises in Portugal

Art Treatises in Portugal is another earlier project involving information systems and digital support for historical and art-research activities.

VideoFlow

VideoFlow is one of the earlier technical projects associated with the group, focusing on extracting image and video features for classification, pattern recognition, and digital-video archive analysis.

Collaborative Synergies

Although the projects span different domains, several strong connections run across the group’s portfolio: