Wearable design requirements identification and evaluation

: Wearable electronics make it possible to monitor human activity and behavior. Most of these devices have not taken into account human factors and they have instead focused on technological issues. This fact could not only affect human–computer interaction and user experience but also the devices’ use cycle. Firstly, this paper presents a classification of wearable design requirements that have been carried out by combining a quantitative and a qualitative methodology. Secondly, we present some evaluation procedures based on design methodologies and human–computer interaction measurement tools. Thus, this contribution aims to provide a roadmap for wearable designers and researchers in order to help them to find more efficient processes by providing a classification of the design requirements and evaluation tools. These resources represent time and resource-saving contributions. Therefore designers and researchers do not have to review the literature. It will no be necessary to carry out exploratory studies for the purposes of identifying requirements or evaluation tools either

Rehabilitation Engineering

Population ageing has major consequences and implications in all areas of our daily life as well as other important aspects, such as economic growth, savings, investment and consumption, labour markets, pensions, property and care from one generation to another. Additionally, health and related care, family composition and life-style, housing and migration are also affected. Given the rapid increase in the aging of the population and the further increase that is expected in the coming years, an important problem that has to be faced is the corresponding increase in chronic illness, disabilities, and loss of functional independence endemic to the elderly (WHO 2008). For this reason, novel methods of rehabilitation and care management are urgently needed. This book covers many rehabilitation support systems and robots developed for upper limbs, lower limbs as well as visually impaired condition. Other than upper limbs, the lower limb research works are also discussed like motorized foot rest for electric powered wheelchair and standing assistance device

Towards Wearable Active Vision Platforms

This paper describes the design and construction of a wearable active vision platform which is able to achieve substantial decoupling of the camera motion from the wearer's motion. Design issues in sensor placement, robot kinematics and their relation to wearability are discussed and the prototype platform's performance is evaluated in a number of important visual tasks. The paper also considers potential application scenarios for this kind of wearable visual robot

Towards wearable active vision platforms

This paper describes the design and construction of a wearable active vision platform which is able to achieve substantial decoupling of the camera motion from the wearer's motion. Design issues in sensor placement, robot kinematics and their relation to wearability are discussed and the prototype platform's performance is evaluated in a number of important visual tasks. The paper also considers potential application scenarios for this kind of wearable visual robot