Harm op den Akker's Homepage
About Me Thesis Publications

About Me

Figure 1: me.

I am currently a Researcher in the Telemedicine group of Roessingh Research and Development, a research and development SME with close relationships to the Roessingh rehabilitation centre and the University of Twente. My education and background lies with the University of Twente where I obtained my PhD Degree on "Smart Tailoring of Real-Time Physical Activity Coaching Systems" (see below). Before that I've obtained a Msc. degree in Human Media Interaction and a BSc. degree in Technical Computer Science. I am currently researching Human-Computer Interaction aspects in the area of Telemedicine. I am in the process of defining a research track titled "HCI for Personal Care".


Address
Roessingh Research and Development
Roessinghsbleekweg 33b
7522AH, Enschede
Room 13

E-mail
h.opdenakker@rrd.nl

H-index
8

Thesis

The lack of physical activity in the general population is recognized internationally as an important societal issue. For apparently healthy adults, inactivity leads to overweight, and increased risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, as well as breast and colon cancers.

This Thesis deals with the promotion of daily life physical activity — walking, cycling, gardening, or housework — all the activities regularly performed in everyday life that require a person to move his body. In recent years, researchers and policy makers have focused on technology as a tool to deliver coaching on physical activity. Technology in the form of web sites or smartphone applications can be used to reach many people at low costs in order to enable self-care for patients (eHealth) or to provide technology-mediated professional care in the home environment (Telemedicine).

Although the popularity of physical activity tracking and motivation is apparent in both research and commercial areas, the effectiveness of the coaching mechanism employed are far from perfect. It is widely believed that coaching strategies can be improved by catering to individual users' needs and preferences, a field of research known as tailoring or personalization. What tailoring is, and how it can be applied in the field of real-time coaching on everyday physical activity, are some of the issues addressed in this Thesis...

Download the full Thesis (PDF) | DOI


Publications
2016
“MyHealthFrame - Design and Evaluation of a Minimally Invasive Communication Platform for Telemedicine Services Aimed at Older Adults”
— Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker, Marian Bittner, Coen Kemerink, Bert-Jan van Beijnum, Hermie Hermens and Miriam Vollenbroek
Cite as:
Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker, Marian Bittner, Coen Kemerink, Bert-Jan van Beijnum, Hermie Hermens and Miriam Vollenbroek, "MyHealthFrame - Design and Evaluation of a Minimally Invasive Communication Platform for Telemedicine Services Aimed at Older Adults", in Lecture Notes in 9th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2016 - Volume 5: International Conference on Health Informatics, HEALTHINF, 21-23 February 2016, Rome, Italy (pp. 322-329).
Cited by:
-
Official links:
DOI

2015
“An Unobtrusive System to Monitor Physical Functioning of the Older Adults: Results of a Pilot Study”
— Miriam Cabrita, Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Hermie J. Hermens, and Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Miriam Cabrita, Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Hermie J. Hermens, and Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten, "An Unobtrusive System to Monitor Physical Functioning of the Older Adults: Results of a Pilot Study", in Posters, Demos, Late-breaking Results and Workshop Proceedings of the 23rd Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (UMAP 2015), Dublin, Ireland, June, 2015
Cited by:
[1] [2]
Official links:
CEUR-WS

“User Interaction Concepts in Smart Caring Homes for Elderly with Chronic Conditions”
— Cristian-Dan Bara, Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Cristian-Dan Bara, Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens, "User Interaction Concepts in Smart Caring Homes for Elderly with Chronic Conditions", in Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 9102, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics, ICOST 2015, Geneva, Switzerland, pages 38-49, June, 2015
Cited by:
-
Official links:
DOI, Mendeley

“Tailored motivational message generation: A model and practical framework for real-time physical activity coaching”
— Harm op den Akker, Miriam Cabrita, Rieks op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Miriam Cabrita, Rieks op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens, "Tailored motivational message generation: A model and practical framework for real-time physical activity coaching", in Journal of Biomedical Informatics, Vol. 55, pages 104-115, 2015.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2014
“Personalized Coaching Systems to support healthy behavior in people with chronic conditions”
— Hermie J. Hermens, Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Jacqueline Wijsman and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Hermie J. Hermens, Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Jacqueline Wijsman and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten, "Personalized Coaching Systems to support healthy behavior in people with chronic conditions", in Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, Vol. 24 (6), pages 815-826, 2014.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Tailoring real-time physical activity coaching systems: a literature survey and model”
— Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, and Hermie J. Hermens, "Tailoring real-time physical activity coaching systems: a literature survey and model", in User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, Vol. 24 (5), pages 351-392, 2014.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“An ontology-based recommender system to promote physical activity for pre-frail elderly”
— Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Mohammad Hossein Nassabi, Harm op den Akker and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten, "An ontology-based recommender system to promote physical activity for pre-frail elderly", in the 20th International Workshop on Adaptivity and User Modeling (Mensch & Computer 2014), Munich, Germany, pages 181-184, September 2014.
Cited by:
[1] [2]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Practical Secure Decision Tree Learning in a Teletreatment Application”
— Sebastiaan de Hoogh, Berry Schoenmakers, Ping Chen and Harm op den Akker
Cite as:
Sebastiaan de Hoogh, Berry Schoenmakers, Ping Chen and Harm op den Akker, "Practical Secure Decision Tree Learning in a Teletreatment Application", in Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Bridgetown, Barbados, pages 179-194, March 2014.
Cited by:
[1]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Privacy-Preserving Verification of Clinical Research”
— Eleftheria Makri, Maarten H. Everts, Sebastiaan de Hoogh, Andreas Peter, Harm op den Akker, Pieter H. Hartel and Willem Jonker
Cite as:
Eleftheria Makri, Maarten H. Everts, Sebastiaan de Hoogh, Andreas Peter, Harm op den Akker, Pieter H. Hartel and Willem Jonker, "Privacy-Preserving Verification of Clinical Research", in Sicherheit 2014: Sicherheit, Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit, Beiträge der 7. Jahrestagung des Fachbereichs Sicherheit der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Vienna, Austria, pages 481-500, March 2014.
Cited by:
-
Official links:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Automated Personalized Goal-Setting in an Activity Coaching Application”
— Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker, Reinoud Achterkamp, Hermie Hermens and Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker, Reinoud Achterkamp, Hermie Hermens and Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten, "Automated Personalized Goal-Setting in an Activity Coaching Application", in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Sensor Networks (SensorNets2014), Lisbon, Portugal, pages 389-396, January 2014.
Cited by:
[1] [2]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2013
“Motivational cues as real-time feedback for changing daily activity behavior of patients with COPD”
— Monique Tabak, Harm op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Monique Tabak, Harm op den Akker and Hermie Hermens, "Motivational cues as real-time feedback for changing daily activity behavior of patients with COPD", in Patient Education and Counseling, Vol. 94 (3), pages 372-378, 2013.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: Towards an Improved Personalized Feedback Approach”
— Reinoud Achterkamp, Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker, Hermie J. Hermens and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Reinoud Achterkamp, Miriam Cabrita, Harm op den Akker, Hermie J. Hermens and Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten, "Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle: Towards an Improved Personalized Feedback Approach", in Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom2013), Lisbon, Portugal, pages 677-679, October 2013.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Opportunities for Smart & Tailored Activity Coaching”
— Harm op den Akker, Randy Klaassen, Rieks op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Randy Klaassen, Rieks op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens, "Opportunities for Smart & Tailored Activity Coaching", in Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS2013), Porto, Portugal, pages 546-547, June 2013.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Elckerlyc Goes Mobile - Enabling Natural Interaction in Mobile User Interfaces”
— Randy Klaassen, Jordi Hendrix, Dennis Reidsma, Rieks op den Akker, Betsy van Dijk and Harm op den Akker
Cite as:
Randy Klaassen, Jordi Hendrix, Dennis Reidsma, Rieks op den Akker, Betsy van Dijk and Harm op den Akker, "Elckerlyc Goes Mobile - Enabling Natural Interaction in Mobile User Interfaces" in International Journal on Advances in Telecommunications, Vol. 6 (1 & 2), pages 45-56, 2013.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4]
Official links:
ThinkMind, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Feedback Presentation for Mobile Personalised Digital Physical Activity Coaching Platforms”
— Randy Klaassen, Rieks op den Akker and Harm op den Akker
Cite as:
Randy Klaassen, Rieks op den Akker and Harm op den Akker, "Feedback Presentation for Mobile Personalised Digital Physical Activity Coaching Platforms", in Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA2013), Rhodes Island, Greece, May 2013.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Official links:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Time-Related Feedback Messages for Changing Activity Behaviour of Patients with COPD”
— Monique Tabak, Harm op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Monique Tabak, Harm op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens, "Time-Related Feedback Messages for Changing Activity Behaviour of Patients with COPD", in Proceedings of the 4th Dutch Bio-Medical Engineering Conference (BME2013), Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands, pages 161-161, January 2013.
Cited by:
-
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley, Download the Poster

2012
“A Context-Aware Adaptive Feedback Agent for Activity Monitoring and Coaching”
— Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, Laura S. Moualed and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, Laura S. Moualed and Hermie J. Hermens, "A Context-Aware Adaptive Feedback Agent for Activity Monitoring and Coaching", in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research (Measuring Behavior 2012), Utrecht, the Netherlands, pages 192-132, August 2012.
Cited by:
-
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Development and Evaluation of a Sensor-Based System for Remote Monitoring and Treatment of Chronic Diseases - the Continuous Care & Coaching Platform”
— Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Mihai Marin-Perianu, Rianne Huis in't Veld, Valerie M. Jones, Dennis Hofs, Thijs M. Tönis, Boris W. van Schooten, Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten and Hermie J.Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Monique Tabak, Mihai Marin-Perianu, Rianne Huis in't Veld, Valerie M. Jones, Dennis Hofs, Thijs M. Tönis, Boris W. van Schooten, Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten and Hermie J.Hermens, "Development and Evaluation of a Sensor-Based System for Remote Monitoring and Treatment of Chronic Diseases - the Continuous Care & Coaching Platform", in Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on eHealth Services and Technologies (EHST2012), Geneva, Switzerland, July 2012.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2011
“A Self-Learning Personalized Feedback Agent for Motivating Physical Activity”
— Harm op den Akker, Laura S. Moualed, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Laura S. Moualed, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens, "A Self-Learning Personalized Feedback Agent for Motivating Physical Activity", in Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies (ISABEL2011), Barcelona, Spain, October 2011.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Sources:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Exploring Patterns of Activities of Daily Living in the Home Environment”
— Thijs M. Tönis, Harm op den Akker, Simone T. Boerema, Freek van Polen and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Thijs M. Tönis, Harm op den Akker, Simone T. Boerema, Freek van Polen and Hermie J. Hermens, "Exploring Patterns of Activities of Daily Living in the Home Environment", in Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on the Pervasive Application of Wireless Technologies (W32011), Enschede, The Netherlands, September 2011.
Cited by:
-
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Ontology-Based Generation of Dynamic Feedback on Physical Activity”
— Wilko Wieringa, Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, Rieks op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Wilko Wieringa, Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones, Rieks op den Akker and Hermie J. Hermens, "Ontology-Based Generation of Dynamic Feedback on Physical Activity", in Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIME2011), Bled, Slovenia, July 2011.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Sources:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Interpreting streaming biosignals: in search of best approaches to augmenting mobile health monitoring with machine learning for adaptive clinical decision support”
— Valerie M. Jones, Ricardo Batista, Richard Bults, Harm op den Akker, Ing Widya, Hermie J. Hermens, Rianne Huis in't Veld, Thijs M. Tönis, Miriam M.R. Vollenbroek-Hutten
Cite as:
Val Jones, Ricardo Batista, Richard Bults, Harm op den Akker, Ing Widya, Hermie Hermens, Rianne Huis in't Veld, Thijs M. Tönis, Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten, "Interpreting streaming biosignals: in search of best approaches to augmenting mobile health monitoring with machine learning for adaptive clinical decision support", in Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Learning from Medical Data Streams (LEMEDS2011), Bled, Slovenia, July 2011.
Cited by:
[1] [2]
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“A Context-Aware Adaptive Feedback System for Activity Monitoring”
— Harm op den Akker, Hermie J. Hermens and Valerie M. Jones
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Hermie Hermens and Val Jones, "A Context-Aware Adaptive Feedback System for Activity Monitoring", in Book of Abstracts of the 2nd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement (ICAMPAM2011), Glasgow, United Kingdom, May 2011.
Cited by:
[1]
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2010
“Predicting Feedback Compliance in a Teletreatment Application”
— Harm op den Akker, Valerie M. Jones and Hermie J. Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Val Jones and Hermie Hermens, "Predicting Feedback Compliance in a Teletreatment Application", in Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies (ISABEL2010), Rome, Italy, November 2010.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Sources:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2009
“Are You Being Addressed? - real-time addressee detection to support remote participants in hybrid meetings”
— Harm op den Akker and Rieks op den Akker
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker and Rieks op den Akker, "Are You Being Addressed? - real-time addressee detection to support remote participants in hybrid meetings", in Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of the Special Interest Group in Discourse and Dialogue (SIGDIAL2009), London, United Kingdom, pages 21-28, September 2009.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3]
Sources:
ACM Digital Library, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Personalized Feedback based on Automatic Activity Recognition from Mixed-Source Raw Sensor Data”
— Harm op den Akker, Val Jones and Hermie Hermens
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker, Val Jones and Hermie Hermens, "Personalized Feedback based on Automatic Activity Recognition from Mixed-Source Raw Sensor Data", in Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Intelligent Data Analysis in bioMedicine and Pharmacology (IDAMAP2009), Verona, Italy, pages 65-66, July 2009.
Cited by:
[1]
Sources:
University of Twente Library, Mendeley

2008
“Supporting Engagement and Floor Control in Hybrid Meetings”
— Rieks op den Akker, Dennis Hofs, Hendri Hondorp, Harm op den Akker, Job Zwiers and Anton Nijholt
Cite as:
Rieks op den Akker, Dennis Hofs, Hendri Hondorp, Harm op den Akker, Job Zwiers and Anton Nijholt, "Supporting Engagement and Floor Control in Hybrid Meetings", in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence - Proceedings of Cross-Modal Analysis of Speech, Gestures, Gaze and Facial Expressions, COST Action 2102 International Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, pages 276-290, October 2008.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Sources:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley

“Exploring Features and Classifiers for Dialogue Act Segmentation”
— Harm op den Akker and Christian Schulz
Cite as:
Harm op den Akker and Christian Schulz, "Exploring Features and Classifiers for Dialogue Act Segmentation", in Lecture Notes in Computer Science - Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Machine Learning for Multimodal Interaction (MLMI2008), Utrecht, the Netherlands, pages 196-207, September 2008.
Cited by:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Sources:
DOI, University of Twente Library, Mendeley
Copyright 2016, Harm op den Akker.