Design an engaging interactive experience for people with dementia

The population of the world is increasing resulting in a higher number of people dealing with dementia–whether being diagnosed with it or taking care of someone that is diagnosed with it. This master thesis aims to investigate which types of multi-media technology-based experiences can improve the quality of life for people with dementia. To reach the goal of the thesis–investigation will be done through different iterations of a design method; divergence, transformation and convergence. These iterations will include observations, interviews and using personas as a tool to design. The results from the methods were used to create a high fidelity prototype which was evaluated by an expert in the field of dementia

FES-UPP: A Flexible Functional Electrical Stimulation System to Support Upper Limb Functional Activity Practice

There is good evidence supporting highly intensive, repetitive, activity-focused, voluntary-initiated practice as a key to driving recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) offers a potential mechanism to efficiently deliver this type of therapy, but current commercial devices are too inflexible and/or insufficiently automated, in some cases requiring engineering support. In this paper, we report a new, flexible upper limb FES system, FES-UPP, which addresses the issues above. The FES-UPP system consists of a 5-channel stimulator running a flexible FES finite state machine (FSM) controller, the associated setup software that guides therapists through the setup of FSM controllers via five setup stages, and finally the Session Manager used to guide the patient in repeated attempts at the activities(s) and provide feedback on their performance. The FSM controller represents a functional activity as a sequence of movement phases. The output for each phase implements the stimulations to one or more muscles. Progression between movement phases is governed by user-defined rules. As part of a clinical investigation of the system, nine therapists used the FES-UPP system to set up FES-supported activities with twenty two patient participants with impaired upper-limbs. Therapists with little or no FES experience and without any programming skills could use the system in their usual clinical settings, without engineering support. Different functional activities, tailored to suit the upper limb impairment levels of each participant were used, in up to 8 sessions of FES-supported therapy per participant. The efficiency of delivery of the therapy using FES-UPP was promising when compared with published data on traditional face-face therapy. The FES-UPP system described in this paper has been shown to allow therapists with little or no FES experience and without any programming skills to set up state-machine FES controllers bespoke to the patient’s impairment patterns and activity requirements, without engineering support. The clinical results demonstrated that the system can be used to efficiently deliver high intensity, activity-focused therapy. Nevertheless, further work to reduce setup time is still required

Encapsulating and representing the knowledge on the evaluation of an engineering system

This paper proposes a cross-disciplinary methodology for a fundamental question in product development: How can the innovation patterns during the evolution of an engineering system (ES) be encapsulated, so that it can later be mined through data mining analysis methods? Reverse engineering answers the question of which components a developed engineering system consists of, and how the components interact to make the working product. TRIZ answers the question of which problem-solving principles can be, or have been employed in developing that system, in comparison to its earlier versions, or with respect to similar systems. While these two methodologies have been very popular, to the best of our knowledge, there does not yet exist a methodology that reverseengineers and encapsulates and represents the information regarding the complete product development process in abstract terms. This paper suggests such a methodology, that consists of mathematical formalism, graph visualization, and database representation. The proposed approach is demonstrated by analyzing the design and development process for a prototype wrist-rehabilitation robot

Engagement Study of an Integrated Rehabilitation Robotic Tablet-Based Gaming System

© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.2014 IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO), 11-13 September 2014. Evanston, IL.DOI: 10.1109/ARSO.2014.7020973Physical therapy is a common treatment for the rehabilitation of hemiparesis, or the weakness of one side of the body. However, a significant issue in the therapy process is that patients may struggle with motivation to complete the required therapy sessions. For this purpose, a rehabilitation gaming system was created that combines a hand rehabilitation robot with a gaming application on a tablet to promote engagement and discourage boredom. A study was also conducted to compare engagement between the gaming system and traditional therapeutic exercises. The results of this study show that participants prefer playing rehabilitation games more than they do exercising with traditional rehabilitation methods. On average, participants spent approximately four times longer playing the rehabilitation game before becoming bored than they did with traditional exercises. From their responses to the retrospective survey, the participants experienced significantly more enjoyment and engagement when exercising with the tablet game. They also experienced significantly less boredom. The participants unanimously agreed that if they were required to exercise their wrists for an hour a day, as is a normal requirement for patients in stroke therapy, that they would prefer to do so by playing the tablet game

Upper limb-rehabilitation service system for chinese mild-stroke patients at home

With the continuous growth in the popularity of stroke patients in China and the increasing demand for rehabilitation services, the existing traditional hospital rehabilitation model can no longer meet the patients’ needs. In recent years, the Chinese government has focused on promoting a new model of “Internet plus medical care” and home rehabilitation. Of all the symptoms of the stroke, upper limb motor dysfunction is the most common one that causes the decline of the patients’ self-care ability and quality of life. Therefore, continuous rehabilitation training plays a vital role in the recovery of limb motor function in stroke patients with hemiplegia and can also serve as a starting point for remote rehabilitation. This thesis first summarized the fundamental upper limb movements as well as theories, high technologies and assessment methods of upper limb rehabilitation. All the literature review assists designers in understanding the necessary medical knowledge of stroke and rehabilitation. Secondly, the existing products and services of upper limb rehabilitation in China and at abroad are compared and analyzed to explore more design opportunities. Furthermore, based on the observations and interviews, the author summarized the rehabilitation needs, information needs and emotional needs of stroke patients in Shanghai, investigated design pain points, and selected target users for remote rehabilitation. Finally, a support remote upper limb rehabilitation system concept was established by adopting service design approaches and tools. Furthermore, the concept of a home rehabilitation device and a digital platform, which were two main touchpoints in this system were designed in-depth and made into the prototype for user feedback. The home rehabilitation device integrated a variety of hand grasping exercises by modularization and integrated different upper limb movements through a point-to-line method to solve the problem of lacking multi-function and miniaturization in the home environment. The digital platform used visual interfaces to provide patients with clear instructions and incentive mechanisms which prevent them from giving up rehabilitation halfway. The findings of this thesis indicated the importance of service design approaches and tools on systemic thinking and creative ideas. The design results of this project can not only help stroke patients to perform active exercises at home and improve their upper limb motor function, but also provide new visions for the development of future remote rehabilitation service system in China

Design of a Mobile Game Application to Support Hand Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients in Indonesia

Stroke is a leading cause of death in Indonesia. A stroke can paralyze multiple parts of an individual’s body, including the hand. While therapy for stroke rehabilitation should be done repetitively over a long period of time, some stroke patients do not have adequate access to conduct therapy in a rehabilitation centre. Therefore, this research focuses on the design of a mobile game application as an alternative therapy to support hand rehabilitation for stroke patients. Our research applied the interaction design lifecycle model, which consists of the process of identifying the needs, designing the concept based on user needs, building a prototype based on the design concept, and evaluating the prototype with stroke patients, as the potential users, and a doctor who is an expert in stroke rehabilitation. The evaluation results show that stroke patients can interact well with the designed mobile game application, and they felt that the game was a good exercise tool for them to use as part of their stroke therapy

Design Innovation for Engaging and Accessible Digital Aphasia Therapies: Framework Analysis of the iReadMore App Co-Design Process

Background: iReadMore is a digital therapy for people with acquired reading impairments (known as alexia) caused by brain injury or neurodegeneration. A phase II clinical trial demonstrated the efficacy of the digital therapy research prototype for improving reading speed and accuracy in people with poststroke aphasia (acquired language impairment) and alexia. However, it also highlighted the complexities and barriers to delivering self-managed therapies at home. Therefore, in order to translate the positive study results into real-world benefits, iReadMore required subsequent design innovation. Here, we present qualitative findings from the co-design process as well as the methodology. / Objective: We aimed to present a methodology for inclusive co-design in the redesign of a digital therapy prototype, focusing on elements of accessibility and user engagement. We used framework analysis to explore the themes of the communications and interactions from the co-design process. / Methods: This study included 2 stages. In the first stage, 5 in-person co-design sessions were held with participants living with poststroke aphasia (n=22) and their carers (n=3), and in the second stage, remote one-to-one beta-testing sessions were held with participants with aphasia (n=20) and their carers (n=5) to test and refine the final design. Data collection included video recordings of the co-design sessions in addition to participants’ written notes and drawings. Framework analysis was used to identify themes within the data relevant to the design of digital aphasia therapies in general. / Results: From a qualitative framework analysis of the data generated in the co-design process, 7 key areas of consideration for digital aphasia therapies have been proposed and discussed in context. The themes generated were agency, intuitive design, motivation, personal trajectory, recognizable and relatable content, social and sharing, and widening participation. This study enabled the deployment of the iReadMore app in an accessible and engaging format. Conclusions: Co-design is a valuable strategy for innovating beyond traditional therapy designs to utilize what is achievable with technology-based therapies in user-centered design. The co-designed iReadMore app has been publicly released for use in the rehabilitation of acquired reading impairments. This paper details the co-design process for the iReadMore therapy app and provides a methodology for how inclusive co-design can be conducted with people with aphasia. The findings of the framework analysis offer insights into design considerations for digital therapies that are important to people living with aphasia