Exploring Former & Modern Views: A Catch-All to Assistive Technology Applications

In life, everyone faces personalized conditions such as ageing, disease, and impairments in hearing, vision, or mobility. In addition, some individuals are born with disabilities that can limit their participation in various areas of life, including work, education, and daily activities. Assistive technology (AT) is a field that aims to provide tools and resources to facilitate the needs of individuals with disabilities or impairments. This article reviews the latest advances in AT, focusing on using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to provide innovative solutions. The article discusses the deployment of assistive devices in various areas, such as building access, information access, and work and education participation. The goal of this research is to highlight the potential of AT to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities and to provide an overview of the current state of the field. The article also discusses the use of IoT-based solutions in assistive technology and identifies promising areas for future development and deployment. By providing a comprehensive review of the latest advancements in AT, this research aims to contribute to the ongoing efforts to enhance functional capacities and improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities

Development of a Wireless Mobile Computing Platform for Fall Risk Prediction

Falls are a major health risk with which the elderly and disabled must contend. Scientific research on smartphone-based gait detection systems using the Internet of Things (IoT) has recently become an important component in monitoring injuries due to these falls. Analysis of human gait for detecting falls is the subject of many research projects. Progress in these systems, the capabilities of smartphones, and the IoT are enabling the advancement of sophisticated mobile computing applications that detect falls after they have occurred. This detection has been the focus of most fall-related research; however, ensuring preventive measures that predict a fall is the goal of this health monitoring system. By performing a thorough investigation of existing systems and using predictive analytics, we built a novel mobile application/system that uses smartphone and smart-shoe sensors to predict and alert the user of a fall before it happens. The major focus of this dissertation has been to develop and implement this unique system to help predict the risk of falls. We used built-in sensors --accelerometer and gyroscope-- in smartphones and a sensor embedded smart-shoe. The smart-shoe contains four pressure sensors with a Wi-Fi communication module to unobtrusively collect data. The interactions between these sensors and the user resulted in distinct challenges for this research while also creating new performance goals based on the unique characteristics of this system. In addition to providing an exciting new tool for fall prediction, this work makes several contributions to current and future generation mobile computing research

Jeeves : a blocks-based approach to end-user development of experience sampling apps

Professional programmers are significantly outnumbered by end-users of software, and cannot possibly predict the diverse and dynamic needs of user groups in advance. This thesis is concerned with the provision of an end-user development (EUD) approach, allowing end-users to independently create and modify their own software. EUD activities are particularly applicable to the work practices of psychology researchers and clinicians, who are increasingly dependent on software for assessment of participants and patients, but must also depend on developers to realise their requirements. This thesis targets these professionals, with an EUD solution to creating assessment software. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is one such means of assessment that takes place in participants’ everyday lives. Through regular completion of subjective self-reports, participants provide rich detail of their ongoing physical and emotional well-being. However, lack of engagement with such studies remains a prevalent issue. This thesis investigates features for maximising engagement with experience sampling smartphone apps. Such apps are becoming accepted as standard practice for remote assessment, but researchers are stifled by the complexity and cost of implementation. Moreover, existing EUD tools are insufficient for development of ESM apps that include engaging features. This thesis presents the development of Jeeves, an EUD tool with a blocks-based programming paradigm that empowers non-programmers to rapidly develop tailored, context-sensitive ESM apps. The adoption of Jeeves is contingent on a number of factors, including its ease-of-use, real-world utility, and organisational conditions. Failure to incorporate the necessary functionality pertaining to these factors into Jeeves will lead to abandonment. This thesis is concerned with establishing the usability, utility, and external factors necessary for adoption of Jeeves. Further, Jeeves is evaluated with respect to these factors through a series of rigorous studies from a range of application domains."This work was supported by a University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary PhD Scholarship (School of Computer Science)." -- Fundin

Software Platform for Poverty Elimination

This report covers the research and implementation of a poverty elimination software platform. First, social service workers from multiple countries were determine how technology could aid antipoverty efforts. Based on those findings, we designed and developed a mobile application on behalf of a nonprofit named Fundación Paraguaya. The application that we developed helps social service workers track a family’s status and works both offline and online to support fieldwork in rural regions. Social workers are now using this tablet application in countries throughout the world, including Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia, Sierra Leone, and the United Kingdom. The project has since been open-sourced to attract contributors and to keep the platform on the cutting edge of poverty elimination

Software Platform for Poverty Elimination

This report covers the research and implementation of a poverty elimination software platform. First, social service workers from multiple countries were determine how technology could aid antipoverty efforts. Based on those findings, we designed and developed a mobile application on behalf of a nonprofit named Fundación Paraguaya. The application that we developed helps social service workers track a family’s status and works both offline and online to support fieldwork in rural regions. Social workers are now using this tablet application in countries throughout the world, including Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia, Sierra Leone, and the United Kingdom. The project has since been open-sourced to attract contributors and to keep the platform on the cutting edge of poverty elimination

Creación de una aplicación para dispositivos con Android para facilitar la realización de ejercicios y gestión de resultados para terapeutas ocupacionales

Despite the general public’s lack of knowledge of even the existence of the profession, occupational therapists (O.T.s) have existed now for almost a century, becoming essential for millions of people in the preservation of their physical and cognitive independence. Their job includes a varied array of tasks ranging from initial contact and evaluation of patients to development and implementation of activities for them to perform, going through constant evaluation and readjustment of therapeutic exercises. As with many other professions, occupational therapy can greatly benefit from the use of new technologies in many aspects and, in fact, already has: computers are used for communication purposes, data registration and management and activity development; projectors allow for easy presentation of information to a whole room of patients; video game consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii c , provide entertaining sessions of physical therapy; and, for the last few years, hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablets have the potential of extending many of the uses of traditional computers by offering similar capabilities in a more portable format. The objective of this project is the design, development and implementation of an application for Google’s Android OS that enables O.T.s to carry around an easy-to-use data-recollection and management system coupled with an activity editor that allows for more personalized exercises to be created and their results to be automatically recorded for later analysis. This, in turn, eliminates the disconnection there may be between the observation of particular results or data by the O.T. and its insertion into the database in use, where the passage of time from the former event to the latter may cause incorrect or incomplete information being filed. A user-centred approach was taken to facilitate the achievement of said goals while reducing as much as possible the user’s burden of learning how to work with a new system. Target users were observed and analysed to find out what their main needs were in their professional environment and to guide the design process that followed. Finally, a series of user evaluations were conducted to validate the system and confirm its usefulness as a tool for working as an O.T.A pesar del desconocimiento de la mayoría de la gente sobre la existencia de esta profesión, los terapeutas ocupacionales (T.O.s) han existido durante casi un siglo, haciéndose esenciales para millones de personas en la conservación de su independencia física y cognitiva. Su trabajo incluye una variada gama de tareas que van desde el contacto y la evaluación inicial de sus pacientes al desarrollo e implementación de actividades para llevar a cabo con ellos, pasando por constantes evaluaciones y reajustes de las actividades terapeúticas. Como muchas otras profesiones, la terapia ocupacional se puede beneficiar enormemente del uso de las nuevas tecnologías en mucho aspectos y, de hecho, ya lo ha hecho: los ordenadores son utilizados para la comunicación, el registro y administración de datos y el desarrollo de actividades; los proyectores permiten presentar información a una sala entera de pacientes de forma fácil ; las videoconsolas, como la Nintendo Wii c , proporcionan sesiones de terapia física entretenidas; y, durante los últimos años, los dispositivos portátiles como los teléfonos inteligentes y las tabletas tienen el potencial de extender muchos de los usos de los ordenadores tradicionales ofreciendo prestaciones similares en un formato más portable. El objetivo de este proyecto es el diseño, desarrollo e implementación de una aplicación para Android, el SO de Google, que permita a los T.O.s llevar encima un sistema fácil de usar que permita la recolección y administración de datos unida a un editor de actividades que permita la creación de ejercicios más personalizados y cuyos resultados sean guardados automáticamente para un posterior análisis. Esto, a su vez, elimina la desconexión que puede existir entre la observación de ciertos resultados u otra información por parte del T.O. y su inserción en la base de datos, donde el paso del tiempo del primero al segundo evento puede resultar en la inserción de información incorrecta o incompleta. Se utilizó un enfoque centrado en el usuario para alcanzar más fácilmente dichos objectivos a la vez que se le reducía al paciente la carga que conlleva el aprender a trabajar con un sistema nuevo. El público objetivo fue observado y analizado para averiguar cuáles eran sus principales necesidades en su entorno profesional y guiar el proceso de diseño. Finalmente, se llevaron a cabo una serie de evaluaciones con usuarios para validar el sistema y confirmar su utilidad como una herramienta de trabajo para un T.O

Technology-enhanced support for children with Down Syndrome: A systematic literature review

This paper presents a systematic literature review on technology-enhanced support for children with Down Syndrome and young people who match the mental age of children considered neurotypical (NT). The main aim is threefold: to (1) explore the field of digital technologies designed to support children with Down Syndrome, (2) identify technology types, contexts of use, profiles of individuals with Down Syndrome, methodological approaches, and the effectiveness of such supports, and (3) draw out opportunities for future research in this specific area. A systematic literature review was conducted on five search engines resulting in a set of 703 articles, which were screened and filtered in a systematic way until they were narrowed to a corpus of 65 articles for further analysis. The synthesis identify several key findings: (1) there is diversity of technology supports available for children with Down Syndrome targeting individual capabilities, (2) overlapping definitions of technology makes it difficult to place technology supports in individual categories rather than subsets of a broader term, (3) the average sample size remained small for participants in the studies, making it difficult to draw solid conclusions on the effectiveness of the related interventions, (4) the distribution of papers indicates that this is an emerging area of research and is starting to build body of knowledge, and (5) there are limited studies on newer emerging technologies which requires further investigation to explore their potential

Mobile Platform for Poverty Elimination

This report covers the research and implementation of a poverty elimination software platform. First, social service workers from multiple countries were interviewed to find new ways of applying technology to solve poverty. Based on those findings, we developed a mobile application for a nonprofit named Fundación Paraguaya. Our research showed that social service workers are welcoming to new technology that will improve their ability to perform their job. The application helps a social service worker track a family\u27s status, and works both offline and online to support fieldwork in rural regions

Smartphones: A Platform For Disaster Management

Bal, H.E. [Promotor]Kielmann, T. [Copromotor