Adaptive manuals as assistive technology to support and train people with acquired brain injury in their daily life activities

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-012-0560-zAssistive technologies and ubiquitous computing can be related since both try to help people in their lives. This common objective motivated us to develop and evaluate a system that puts ubiquitous computing technologies into the rehabilitation process of people with acquired brain injury. Thus, in this paper, we present and evaluate a system that shows adaptive manuals for daily-life activities for people with acquired brain injury. This first evaluation allowed us to validate our approach and also to extract valuable information about these systems as well as environmental factors that may affect the patients.This work was partially funded by ASIES (Adapting Social & Intelligent Environments to Support people with special needs), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación - TIN2010-17344, and e-Madrid (Investigación y desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid) S2009/TIC-1650

aQRdate: assessing how ubiquitous computing can help people with acquired brain injury in their rehabilitation process

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the International Symposium on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence, held in Riviera Maya on 2011In this paper we present our ideas about how Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) could help people with acquired brain injury. Since these people have problems to engage in daily life activities (e.g. how to do the laundry or prepare breakfast), we propose a system based on mobile devices and QR codes to help them to remember these tasks. The environment will be tagged with QR Codes that will provide mobile devices with personal and interactive manuals for routine tasks. This work has been tested with one user with acquired brain injury as a proof-of-concept.This work was partially funded by ASIES (Adapting Social \& Intelligent Environments to Support people with special needs), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación - TIN2010-17344, and e-Madrid (Investigación y desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid) S2009/TIC-1650

User study and integration of assistive technologies for people with cognitive disabilities in their daily life activities

Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 7, no. 3, Gomez, Javier; Montoro, Germán, Evaluating Ambient Assisted Living Components and Systems, pp. 389-390, Copyright (2015), with permission from IOS PressThe present article summarizes the doctoral dissertation of Javier Gomez

Integration of Assistive Technologies into 3D Simulations: Exploratory Studies

Virtual worlds and environments have many purposes, ranging from games to scientific research. However, universal accessibility features in such virtual environments are limited. As the impairment prevalence rate increases yearly, so does the research interests in the field of assistive technologies. This work introduces research in assistive technologies and presents three software developments that explore the integration of assistive technologies within virtual environments, with a strong focus on Brain-Computer Interfaces. An accessible gaming system, a hands-free navigation software system, and a Brain-Computer Interaction plugin have been developed to study the capabilities of accessibility features within virtual 3D environments. Details of the specification, design, and implementation of these software applications are presented in the thesis. Observations and preliminary results as well as directions of future work are also included

Use of quick response coding to create interactive patient and provider resources.

BACKGROUND: Since their creation more than 20 years ago, the proliferation of Quick Response (QR) codes has expanded tremendously. Little was found in the literature to support the innovative use of QR coding in the classroom or in health care provision. Thus, the authors created a doctoral-level practicum experience using QR coding to create interactive, individualized patient or provider resource guides. METHOD: Short, descriptive surveys were used before and after implementation of the practicum experience to determine students\u27 comfort level using QR technology, their knowledge base, ease of use, and overall satisfaction with the practicum. RESULTS: Students reported high levels of satisfaction with this exercise, and all agreed that use of QR coding could have important implications in the clinical environment. CONCLUSION: This practicum experience was a creative, practical, and valuable example of integrating emerging technology into individualized patient care. [J Nurs Educ. 2015;54(4):224-227.]

Supporting people with acquired brain injury to use a reminding app; narrow-deep vs. broad-shallow user interfaces

People with memory impairments following an acquired brain injury stand to benefit from smartphone apps as memory aids. Due, in part, to usability issues they use smartphone-based reminding less than the general population. Evidence suggests this group may benefit from user interface (UI) designs with more screens with less information per screen (narrow-deep UI) rather than fewer screens with more information per screen (broad-shallow UI). This study compared the difference in speed, accuracy, guidance needed, and task load for 32 people with acquired brain injury when setting reminders using narrow-deep and broad-shallow UI. They were also given cognitive assessments (measuring selective attention, executive functioning, and overall executive and memory ability) and interviewed about their UI preference. There was a significant difference in accuracy; participants were less accurate (they made two more errors on average for every three reminders set) using a broad-shallow compared to narrow-deep UI. The reason for this difference was that participants omitted more information when using broad-shallow UI. There were no differences in speed, guidance required, and overall task-load. Participants with better selective attention and more experience with smartphones benefited the most from narrow-deep UI compared to broad-shallow UI. Most participants preferred one UI over the other. Those who preferred narrow-deep found it easier to use, that they missed less information and liked having one piece of information at a time. Those who preferred broad-shallow found it easier to review the information and felt less likely to lose track. The findings can inform that implementation of UI choices to make apps more accessible for those with cognitive impairments

Suggested approach for establishing a rehabilitation engineering information service for the state of California

An ever expanding body of rehabilitation engineering technology is developing in this country, but it rarely reaches the people for whom it is intended. The increasing concern of state and federal departments of rehabilitation for this technology lag was the stimulus for a series of problem-solving workshops held in California during 1977. As a result of the workshops, the recommendation emerged that the California Department of Rehabilitation take the lead in the development of a coordinated delivery system that would eventually serve the entire state and be a model for similar systems across the nation

Assistive Technology in Occupational Therapy

In this chapter, occupational therapists from leading specialists exploring ways they can collaborate with assistive technology (AT) users to help them get the most out of these devices. By gratefully acknowledging the advances in technology of the last century, people with disabilities can live independent lives, contribute to their communities, attend regular schools, and work in a career. This technological development means medically switching to a social model of technology presentation, where users are as much focused on social reintegration as their physical abilities. This change means that field workers will not be able to focus on delivering technology on their own but will have to go one step further and partner with consumers and communities to ensure that the aids are used in the best possible way

AmICog - Tecnologías móviles para la asistencia global a personas con discapacidad cognitiva en el entorno laboral

Versión electrónica de la ponencia presentada en IV Congreso Español de Informática, celebrado en Madrid en 2013En este artículo se presenta el sistema AmICog, diseñado específicamente para asistir a personas con discapacidad cognitiva en el entorno laboral. Para ello se emplean teléfonos móviles para mostrar guías interactivas adaptadas al usuario, tarea y contexto, así como un mecanismo de localización y guiado en entornos interiores.Este proyecto se ha desarrollado bajo la Cátedra UAM-Indra de Inteligencia Ambiental para la Discapacidad Cognitiva

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program