Video capture virtual reality as a flexible and effective rehabilitation tool

Video capture virtual reality (VR) uses a video camera and software to track movement in a single plane without the need to place markers on specific bodily locations. The user's image is thereby embedded within a simulated environment such that it is possible to interact with animated graphics in a completely natural manner. Although this technology first became available more than 25 years ago, it is only within the past five years that it has been applied in rehabilitation. The objective of this article is to describe the way this technology works, to review its assets relative to other VR platforms, and to provide an overview of some of the major studies that have evaluated the use of video capture technologies for rehabilitation

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Adaptable videogame platform for interactive upper extremity rehabilitation

The primary objective of this work is to design a recreational rehabilitation videogame platform for customizing motivating games that interactively encourage purposeful upper extremity gross motor movements. Virtual reality (VR) technology is a popular application for rehabilitation therapies but there is a constant need for more accessible and affordable systems. We have developed a recreational VR game platform can be used as an independent therapy supplement without laboratory equipment and is inexpensive, motivating, and adaptable. The behaviors and interactive features can be easily modified and customized based on players\u27 limitations or progress. A real-time method of capturing hand movements using programmed color detection mechanisms to create the simulated virtual environments (VEs) is implemented. Color markers are tracked and simultaneously given coordinates in the VE where the player sees representations of their hands and other interacting objects whose behaviors can be customized and adapted to fit therapeutic objectives and players\u27 interests. After gross motor task repetition and involvement in the adaptable games, mobility of the upper extremities may improve. The videogame platform is expanded and optimized to allow modifications to base inputs and algorithms for object interactions through graphical user interfaces, thus providing the adaptable need in VR rehabilitation

On making disability in rural places more visible: challenges and opportunities [Introduction to a special issue]

This essay prefaces a special issue of the Journal of Rural Studies (JRS) concerned with a sub-field of inquiry that might be termed the rural geography of disability, addressing multiple dimensions of disability, physical and mental, associated with life in rural localities (as conventionally identified). Drawing on three vignettes where rurality and disability co-mingle, the authors explore both bad and good rurals with respect to disability: meaning properties of rural areas that can generate, exacerbate or stigmatise disability, on the one hand, and qualities of rural environments that may prevent, alleviate or mollify disability, on the other. Through a brief review of papers in JRS where disability has made an appearance, together with references across to relevant studies elsewhere, this essay lays the groundwork for a rural geography of disability as well as serving to introduce the papers that follow in the special issue

Kitchenware Development: Strategizing blind user-designer experience design activities

Concept Development from research, the blind relies heavily on sensory references like touch to make a spatial judgment – the lack of such often results in accidents. Thus, the solutions physicalize tactile cues, which they can rely on for the next step in the cooking process. Existing solutions in the market are often function-focused, with little attention paid to usability. Product utility is foreign and unnatural to the blind as it contrasts with their prior memory of performing a task. Therefore, this research study is to strategize the Blind User-Designer experience through design activities. Keywords: Blind-User; Kitchenware, User Experience; Design Activities eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7.378

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3