Co-designed technology for elderly care : Mobile robots and passive RFID for nighttime safety

Ageing of the world's population is one of the significant challenges of the modern era. As the care resources are limited, new tools are needed for supporting elderly to live high quality life. Technology is identified as one of the potential tools. In this article, a combination of mobile robotics and RFID technology is used to provide a new tool for care homes, especially targeted for helping in night shifts. By combining passive RFID and mobile robots in a unique way, we create a system that can take actions in preventing potential accidents by identifying, alerting and helping a care home client at risk. The design process followed a co-design approach, where the use scenario and technical setup were created in a multidisciplinary collaboration. This was followed by building a laboratory version of the system, in which a mobile robot identifies and greets a person wandering in the care environment at night, and gently guides the person back to the room for a safe night. Although there are multiple technical details, which need to be developed further, the laboratory test results were very encouraging.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

A modifiable virtual reality game for neurological physiotherapy - Multiprofessional development and pilot testing

Serious games and virtual reality are promising tools for future rehabilitation. They represent solutions for promoting self-care and for motivating the rehabilitees. However, their wider adoption requires experience and research information from both the rehabilitators themselves and experts in the field. The aim of this study is to develop a prototype physiotherapy virtual reality game in multiprofessional collaboration and to learn about the best practises leading into positive user experience. This paper emphasizes the game development process, the Whac-A-Physio game prototype itself and the preliminary user experiences utilizing a co-design approach. It is a basis for future studies with higher number of participants. The physiotherapy professionals were interested in developing the game in a multidisciplinary group and motivated to adopt it. The developed Whac-A-Physio game prototype was subsequently piloted in two physiotherapy clinics. The feedback was obtained from the physiotherapists by semi-structured interviewing. The physiotherapists found the game suitable for upper limb therapy, balance, and coordination training. The game presented a valuable motivational tool for their clients, improving their sense of ability and inclusion, and was thus considered a good addition to the conventional therapy.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Serious games, education and inclusion for disabled people editorial

No abstract available

Mobile Robots and RFID Technology-Based Smart Care Environment for Minimizing Risks Related to Employee Turnover during Pandemics

During a pandemic, it is imperative that all staff members have up-to-date information on changing work practices in the healthcare environment. This article presents a way to implement work environment orientation amongst different groups in care facilities by utilizing mobile robots, radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, and data synthesis. We offer a scenario based on a co-design approach, in which a mobile robot works as an orientation guide for new employees, RFID tags are applied on objects around the premises and people's clothing. The mobile robot takes advantage of the information provided by its known location and each RFID tag read by the RFID reader integrated with the robot. We introduce the scenario here, along with the details of its practical test implementation. Further, the challenges met in the test implementation are discussed as well as the future potential of its application. In conclusion, our study indicates that repetitive training and orientation-related duties can be successfully transferred to a mobile robot. Through RFID, the mobile robot can deliver the relevant information to the right people and thus contribute to patient and personnel safety and the resource efficiency of the orientation process