Human Computer Interface for Wheelchair Movement

This paper aims to develop a technique for helping disabled people elderly with physical disability, such as those who are unable to move hands and cannot speak howover, by using a computer vision; real time video and interaction between human and computer where these combinations provide a promising solution to assist the disabled people. The main objective of the work is to design a project as a wheelchair which contains two wheel drives. This project is based on real time video for detecting and tracking human face. The proposed design is multi speed based on pulse width modulation(PWM), technique. This project is a fast response to detect and track face direction with four operations movement (left, right, forward and stop). These operations are based on a code written in MATLAB environment and Arduino IDE environment. The proposed system uses an ATmega328microcontroller (Arduino UNO board)

Multimodal Control of a Robotic Wheelchair: Using Contextual Information for Usability Improvement

International audienceIn this paper, a method to perform semi-autonomous navigation on a wheelchair is presented. The wheelchair could be controlled in semi-autonomous mode estimating the user's intention by using a face pose recognition system or in manual mode. The estimator was performed within a Bayesian network approach. To switch these two modes, a speech interface was used. The user's intention was modeled as a set of typical destinations visited by the user. The algorithm was implemented to one experimental wheelchair robot. The new application of the wheelchair system with more natural and easy-to-use human machine interfaces was one of the main contributions. as user's habits and points of interest are employed to infer the user's desired destination in a map. Erroneous steering signals coming from the user- machine interface input are filtered out, improving the overall performance of the system. Human aware navigation, path planning and obstacle avoidance are performed by the robotic wheelchair while the user is just concerned with "looking where he wants to go"

Improving Pathways to Transit for Persons with Disabilities

Persons with disabilities can achieve a greater degree of freedom when they have full access to a variety of transit modes, but this can only be achieved when the pathways to transit – the infrastructure and conditions in the built environment – allow full access to transit stops, stations, and vehicles. Since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, many transit agencies and governmental jurisdictions have made significant progress in this area. Policy initiatives, incremental enhancements, modifications, and other measures undertaken by transit agencies and their partners have significantly improved access to transit for persons with disabilities, others who rely on public transportation, and individuals who chose to utilize these services. This research study explores, through case study work, efforts that have been effective in improving pathways to transit. Interviews and site visits were conducted with five transit agencies, along with their partners, that are actively engaged in improving pathways to connect transit consumers – particularly people with disabilities – with transit stations and stops. These agencies are: Broward County Transit (Broward County, FL), Memphis Area Transit Authority (Memphis, TN), NJ TRANSIT (Newark and New Brunswick, NJ), Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Portland, OR), and Link Transit (Wenatchee, WA). Promising practices and/or lessons were identified through the case study analysis; these should be considered by any transit agency seeking to create improved access to its services for persons with disabilities

Fire and Life Safety Analysis- UW Medicine Lake Union Phase 3.1

This report provides a summary of the fire protection and life safety features for UW Medicine Lake Union, a research and laboratory building, in accordance with Seattle Building Code (SBC), International Building Code (IBC), and Life Safety Code (NFPA 101). The objective of this report is to identify if UW Medicine Lake Union meets both the prescriptive and performance based code. The primary fire safety goal is to provide life safety system that reduced the risk of fire-related injuries and loss of life due to fire. The prescriptive analysis is used to identify the building integrity per code. This evaluates the egress capacity, fire detection, fire suppression and structural fire protection. The UW Medicine Lake Union includes numerous laboratories that regularly utilize various hazardous materials. According to the literature in the Architectural drawings, the design team worked with the university does that the chemical quantities in these areas would not exceed the limits set forth in the code. With these limits in place, portions of the facility did not need to be classified as hazardous occupancy, and the special provisions associated with a hazardous occupancy. Although its spaces are used in various ways, the building was able to be classified as business occupancy. Hazardous occupancy areas were not required because hazardous materials were limited to the code-defined exempt quantities. These details helped simplify the overall life safety and egress system, while providing appropriated levels of life safety. UW Medicine Lake Union Building is high rise building with seven story research and development laboratory and two levels of below grade parking garages. It includes testing and research laboratories, laboratory support, offices and conference room. It is approximately 317,382 square feet in gross area and a building height of 109 feet. It is classified as B occupancy classification. The facility is protected throughout by automatic sprinkler and fire alarm systems. The building was constructed in 2011 in accordance with the 2009 Seattle Building Code with a Type 1A construction. See 2.6 Type and Description of Construction. The total occupant load is 2797 occupants. See Table 4: Summary of Occupant Loads. The UW Medicine Lake Union building has six (6) exit discharge. The Main and Back Entrance exit door have 72” doors; P1 (Stair 1), Retail and South exit (stair 3) door have 36” doors, and the garage exit door (stair 4) have 44” door that leads to the public way. See Figure 19: Egress Capacity, Travel Distance & Wall Rating - Level 1 for location of exit discharge. Stair 1, 3 and 4 have 44” stairs with 36” door. Stair 2 have 62” stairs with 4 doors around it namely (2) 36”,(1) 42” and (1) 48”doors. Stair 15 has 36” stairs with 36” door. The basic requirement for all exit access path is that direct and unobstructed paths to exits are provided through easily identifiable routes. The Fire Alarm System is comprised of a Notifier NFS2-3030D Fire Alarm Control Panel, smoke detectors, manual pull stations, addressable interface modules, addressable interface relays, Fire Alarm Horn/Strobes (Clear Strobes), Smoke detection are located in transformer, electrical and communication rooms that do not have sprinkler protection, elevator machine rooms and elevator lobbies, within 5 feet of doors leading to pressurized stairways (except at Parking areas) and duct smoke detection. Refer to Chapter 3 Fire Alarm and Detection. Emergency voice alarm/communication system is provided in accordance with SBC 907.5.2.2. Notification devices are activated by smoke or heat detectors, sprinkler waterflow, or manual pull stations. Audible alarms are provided per SBC 907.5.1 and visible alarms per SBC 907.5.3. A code alternate is provided for Vivarium and BSL3 areas. See 3.2.2.3 Code Alternate for Vivarium and BSL3. Fire Protection standpipe and automatic fire sprinkler systems are supplied by an electric fire pump with automatic transfer switch to emergency generator power. The fire pump will draw water from an on-site storage tank (secondary water supply) located next to the fire pump room on Basement Level 3. The capacity of the water storage tank is 44,300 gallons with a net usable water capacity of 33,000 gallons. The water storage tank fill will be a 6” diameter water line supplied by a dedicated fire water service connection to the city water control valves and a 6” manual by pass valve. The fire pump room is constructed with 2-hour fire rated construction. Refer to Chapter 4 Fire Suppression Systems. The performance based design is used to determine how the building will perform under a fire condition. The tenability criteria are: temperature less than 60°C, carbon monoxide less than 1400 ppm, visibility greater than 10 meters and a smoke layer height to be greater than 2 meters off the floor. See Chapter 8 Performance Based Analysis for analysis

Design for Accessibility: A Cultural Administrator's Handbook

Contains a guide for integrating older adults and people with disabilities into all aspects of an arts organization -- from planning and design to marketing and technical assistance

All Things Weird and Wonderful: A Creative Exploration of Disability Representation

My dissertation, All Things Weird and Wonderful: A Creative Exploration of Disability Representation, begins with a thorough review of the literature of disability representation in TV and film to set the stage for the one-hour supernatural drama pilot I wrote, which I also adapted into a complete Adult urban fantasy novel. Pitched as the supernatural drama version of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building meets Netflix’s Raising Dion, All Things Weird and Wonderful is a one-hour supernatural drama about an asexual college freshman with cerebral palsy named Genevieve Ross, who has supernatural powers, and an Egyptian American college senior with PTSD named Patrick Nasser, who runs a podcast dedicated to supernatural phenomenon. When Genevieve witnesses a supernatural attack at a nightclub near campus, she turns to Patrick for help. Together they team up to try and solve the supernatural mysteries happening on and around their university campus. All Things Weird and Wonderful explores what it is like to be disabled in an inaccessible and often ableist society tackling themes of ableism regarding both physical disability and mental health with a supernatural twist. There are very few supernatural, sci-fi, fantasy, or horror one-hour TV dramas with authentic disability representation as most authentic disability representation can be found in TV comedies, so this was written in hopes of being part of that change. Some of the major TV influences for this script and my writing in general include Nickelodeon’s The Secret World of Alex Mack, FOX’s Tru Calling, SyFy’s Haven, and Netflix’s Raising Dion. I have also adapted this script into an Adult urban fantasy novel, which I hope to begin querying in fall 2023 or winter 2024

Human Computer Interface for Wheelchair Movement

This paper aims to develop a technique for helping disabled people elderly with physical disability, such as those who are unable to move hands and cannot speak howover, by using a computer vision; real time video and interaction between human and computer where these combinations provide a promising solution to assist the disabled people. The main objective of the work is to design a project as a wheelchair which contains two wheel drives. This project is based on real time video for detecting and tracking human face. The proposed design is multi speed based on pulse width modulation(PWM), technique. This project is a fast response to detect and track face direction with four operations movement (left, right, forward and stop). These operations are based on a code written in MATLAB environment and Arduino IDE environment. The proposed system uses an ATmega328microcontroller (Arduino UNO board)

Multimodal interface for an intelligent wheelchair

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Culminating Project- U.S. Federal Courthouse

The purpose of this report is to select and evaluate a building for compliance with prescriptive and performance based requirements, that apply the concepts learned from previous courses taken as part of the master’s fire protection engineering degree curriculum at Cal Poly, San Luis Obisbo. The report discusses applicable code requirements for building construction, egress, fire alarm initiation and notification, and fire suppression and evaluates the building’s performance, including occupant movement, when subjected to two assumed fires. Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used to generate data used during the performance analysis. The performance analysis reveals that meeting prescriptive requirements doesn’t necessarily guarantee occupant safety. The report concludes with recommendations to improve occupant safety. Annex material contains protocols for final acceptance testing, post-occupancy operation and maintenance procedures, staff training and the occupant emergency plan. The subject of this report is a new federal courthouse. The building contains four courtroom, a jury assembly room, numerous offices, shops and an indoor parking garage. The building is four stories in height, with a basement. The building comprises an area of approximately 115,000 square feet (10,700 square meters), has a 71 foot (22 m) high roof and cost approximately $70,000,000 to construct. The building is a reinforced concrete frame structure with architectural recast and handset stone skin that is completely protected by a quick response sprinkler system