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Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Support Aging-in-Place for People with Long-Term Disabilities

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 35
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    Multidimensional Capacitive Sensing for Robot-Assisted Dressing and Bathing
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05-24) Erickson, Zackory ; Clever, Henry M. ; Gangaram, Vamsee ; Turk, Greg ; Liu, C. Karen ; Kemp, Charles C.
    Robotic assistance presents an opportunity to benefit the lives of many people with physical disabilities, yet accurately sensing the human body and tracking human motion remain difficult for robots. We present a multidimensional capacitive sensing technique that estimates the local pose of a human limb in real time. A key benefit of this sensing method is that it can sense the limb through opaque materials, including fabrics and wet cloth. Our method uses a multielectrode capacitive sensor mounted to a robot’s end effector. A neural network model estimates the position of the closest point on a person’s limb and the orientation of the limb’s central axis relative to the sensor’s frame of reference. These pose estimates enable the robot to move its end effector with respect to the limb using feedback control. We demonstrate that a PR2 robot can use this approach with a custom six electrode capacitive sensor to assist with two activities of daily living— dressing and bathing. The robot pulled the sleeve of a hospital gown onto able-bodied participants’ right arms, while tracking human motion. When assisting with bathing, the robot moved a soft wet washcloth to follow the contours of able-bodied participants’ limbs, cleaning their surfaces. Overall, we found that multidimensional capacitive sensing presents a promising approach for robots to sense and track the human body during assistive tasks that require physical human-robot interaction.
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    In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits
    (PLOS One, 2019-03) Grice, Phillip M. ; Kemp, Charles C.
    By controlling robots comparable to the human body, people with profound motor deficits could potentially perform a variety of physical tasks for themselves, improving their quality of life. The extent to which this is achievable has been unclear due to the lack of suitable interfaces by which to control robotic body surrogates and a dearth of studies involving substantial numbers of people with profound motor deficits. We developed a novel, web-based augmented reality interface that enables people with profound motor deficits to remotely control a PR2 mobile manipulator from Willow Garage, which is a human-scale, wheeled robot with two arms. We then conducted two studies to investigate the use of robotic body surrogates. In the first study, 15 novice users with profound motor deficits from across the United States controlled a PR2 in Atlanta, GA to perform a modified Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) and a simulated self-care task. Participants achieved clinically meaningful improvements on the ARAT and 12 of 15 participants (80%) successfully completed the simulated self-care task. Participants agreed that the robotic system was easy to use, was useful, and would provide a meaningful improvement in their lives. In the second study, one expert user with profound motor deficits had free use of a PR2 in his home for seven days. He performed a variety of self-care and household tasks, and also used the robot in novel ways. Taking both studies together, our results suggest that people with profound motor deficits can improve their quality of life using robotic body surrogates, and that they can gain benefit with only low-level robot autonomy and without invasive interfaces. However, methods to reduce the rate of errors and increase operational speed merit further
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    Sound-Based Technologies and Strategies Used for Community Mobility by Adults with Vision Disability
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019) Bruce, Carrie M. ; Echt, Katherine
    This investigation specifically examined adults’ self-reported use and usefulness of technologies (personal and public) and compensatory strategies for community mobility. The first study consisted of interviews with older adults to establish an awareness of reported sound-based technology and strategy practices, and observe mobility behaviors in context. These interviews helped inform a survey that was sent to a broader audience of younger and older adults to get further details about technologies and strategies used, problems experienced during community mobility, and suggestions for technology improvements. Our third study was a set of interviews focused on understanding the concept of confidence as it relates to community mobility and the supporting role that technologies and strategies play.
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    Universally Designed mHealth App for Individuals Aging with Multiple Sclerosis
    (IARIA, 2018) Ruzic, Ljilja ; Mahajan, Harshal P. ; Sanford, Jon
    Multiple Sclerosis (MS) presents with chronic symptoms that share many of the functional limitations associated with aging. Additionally, following the period of five years post-diagnosis a large number of individuals diagnosed with MS experience a major decline in their abilities due to the progression of MS. Consequently, they need to learn how to cope with the functional limitations caused by the disease and in addition to those caused by aging. These individuals have to manage the effects of the disease on their lives every day. mHealth apps provide potential support for disease self-management. However, the number of mobile apps design specifically for individuals with MS is inadequate. Additionally, there is no evidence that utility and usability of these current consumer mobile apps were tested with their target population. This research paper describes the design of the mHealth app MS Assistant, an evidence-based app that provides the daily support and self-management of the disease to individuals aging with MS. It was developed based on the Universal Design Mobile Interface Guidelines, UDMIG v.2.1 and the results of the two previous studies that assessed the health and wellness self-management needs in individuals with MS and tested the usability of current mHealth apps. The paper presents an app refinement based on the suggestions of the expert reviewers who tested the effectiveness of the implementation of the UDMIG v.2.1 in the app design and provided possible recommendations for its redesign.
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    Utility of a Mobile Route Planning App for People Aging with Disability
    (IARIA, 2018) Sanford, Jon ; Melgen, Sarah ; Guhathakurta, Subhrajit ; Zhang, Ge
    Mobility is a key contributor to an individual’s community living and participation. As a result, outdoor environmental barriers, such as uneven sidewalks and no curb cuts, play a crucial role in the development of disability and loss of independence among individuals aging with mobility and vision limitations. To compensate, people with disabilities typically plan routes before going out. However, they often lack the appropriate street-level information about the environment to plan routes that meet their abilities and needs for safety and accessibility (e.g., the location of curb cuts and crosswalks). As a result, the real impediment to outdoor mobility is not the actual barriers, but the lack of information about those barriers for route planning. To provide the street-level information about barriers that would maximize the independent living and community participation of people with mobility disabilities, the project team developed a working prototype of the Application for Locational Intelligence and Geospatial Navigation (ALIGN) based on static graphical information systems (GIS) data (e.g., physical infrastructure, slope, crime rates and land uses). This study details the utility testing of the application with individuals aging with mobility and vision limitations by using direct observation, think-aloud and open-ended questionnaires. Findings indicate that participants found the application to be potentially useful, especially in unfamiliar locations. However, testing also indicated a number of refinements, including multimodal input and outputs that would enhance the utility of the initial prototype. Additional design criteria will inform the next prototype, including use of consistent audio/visual feedback, and simpler directions. These criteria will be applied to create a more usable application for the target population.
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    Closing the Capacity-Ability Gap: Using Technology to Support Aging With Disability
    (Gerontological Society of America, 2018) Mitzner, Tracy L. ; Sanford, Jon ; Rogers, Wendy A.
    There is a critical need to develop supports for older adults who have a wide range of abilities, including those aging with long-term impairments. Without appropriate support, many individuals will be functioning below optimal levels and will face participation barriers. Technology holds great promise to provide individualized support for a wide range of abilities and for a variety of domains. To ensure technology interventions are designed well and meet research-documented user requirements, we need more specific, actionable models to provide guidance for those developing and designing interventions. In this paper, we present the TechSAge Aging and Disability Model to bridge models from the aging and disability literatures and to disambiguate the population of individuals aging into disability from those aging with disability (i.e., pre-existing impairments). We also present the TechSAge Technology Intervention Model to support aging with pre-existing impairments, which provides direction and touch points for technology interventions. These models reflect the complex and dynamic interaction between age-related changes and an individual’s prior capabilities and limitations. We describe the need for these models with respect to filling a gap in the disability and aging literature by highlighting the importance of differentiating between age-related changes and long-term impairments when designing interventions. We also show the need for quantitative and qualitative data to refine the models given complexities of the current state of the literature and survey data. The TechSAge Technology Intervention Model can be used to drive and inform technology redesign and development.
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    A Qualitative Approach to Understanding User Needs for Aging with Disability
    ( 2018) Remillard, Elena T. ; Mitzner, Tracy L. ; Singleton, Jenny L. ; Rogers, Wendy A.
    There is a growing population of adults with long-term sensory and mobility impairments who are aging into older adulthood. Little is known about the everyday challenges and accessibility issues experienced by these individuals as they age and acquire age-related declines in addition to a pre-existing impairment. The present paper provides an overview of a large-scale interview study, currently in progress, exploring user needs of older adults with long-term vision, hearing, and mobility impairments. The structured interview is designed to elicit detailed information on task performance challenges across a wide range of daily activities, as well as strategies to manage those challenges. In this paper we provide case-study examples from each of the three impairment groups to convey the potential depth and breadth of insights about user needs among individuals aging with impairments that can be realized through this novel qualitative approach.
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    3D Human Pose Estimation on a Configurable Bed from a Pressure Image
    ( 2018) Clever, Henry M. ; Kapusta, Ariel ; Park, Daehyung ; Erickson, Zackory ; Chitalia, Yash ; Kemp, Charles C.
    Robots have the potential to assist people in bed, such as in healthcare settings, yet bedding materials like sheets and blankets can make observation of the human body difficult for robots. A pressure-sensing mat on a bed can provide pressure images that are relatively insensitive to bedding materials. However, prior work on estimating human pose from pressure images has been restricted to 2D pose estimates and flat beds. In this work, we present two convolutional neural networks to estimate the 3D joint positions of a person in a configurable bed from a single pressure image. The first network directly outputs 3D joint positions, while the second outputs a kinematic model that includes estimated joint angles and limb lengths. We evaluated our networks on data from 17 human participants with two bed configurations: supine and seated. Our networks achieved a mean joint position error of 77 mm when tested with data from people outside the training set, outperforming several baselines. We also present a simple mechanical model that provides insight into ambiguity associated with limbs raised off of the pressure mat, and demonstrate that Monte Carlo dropout can be used to estimate pose confidence in these situations. Finally, we provide a demonstration in which a mobile manipulator uses our network’s estimated kinematic model to reach a location on a person’s body in spite of the person being seated in a bed and covered by a blanket.
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    Older Adults’ Perceptions of Supporting Factors of Trust in a Robot Care Provider
    (Hindawi, 2018) Stuck, Rachel E. ; Rogers, Wendy A.
    The older adult population is increasing worldwide, leading to an increased need for care providers. An insufficient number of professional caregivers will lead to a demand for robot care providers to mitigate this need. Trust is an essential element for older adults and robot care providers to work effectively. Trust is context dependent.Therefore, we need to understand what older adults would need to trust robot care providers, in this specific home-care context. This mixed methods study explored what older adults, who currently receive assistance from caregivers, perceive as supporting trust in robot care providers within four common homecare tasks: bathing, transferring, medication assistance, and household tasks. Older adults reported three main dimensions that support trust: professional skills, personal traits, and communication. Each of these had subthemes including those identified in prior human-robot trust literature such as ability, reliability, and safety. In addition, new dimensions perceived to impact trust emerged such as the robot’s benevolence, the material of the robot, and the companionability of the robot. The results from this study demonstrate that the older adult-robot care provider context has unique dimensions related to trust that should be considered when designing robots for home-care tasks.
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    Aging and Technology: From the Laboratory to the Real-World
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-03-28) Sixsmith, Andrew
    Guests are leading researchers in personal and environmental technologies for older adults and people with disabilities.