Wearable Computers for Persons with Disabilities

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Wearable Computers for Persons with Disabilities

• Maribeth Gandy
• Interactive Media Technology Center
• Georgia Tech
• maribeth_at_imtc.gatech.edu

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Table of Contents

• Accessiblity
• Universal Design
• Wireless RERC
• Previous/Current research
• Case Study
• Discussion and Questions

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Introduction

• Research Scientist with Interactive Media
  Technology Center, Georgia Tech
• Wearables, Augmented Reality, HCI, Computer Audio
• Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research
  Center
• Research in wireless and mobile devices for
  people with disabilities

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Goals

• How can wearable computers be made usable by
  people of all abilities?
• How can wearable technologies be used to help
  those with disabilities?
• Which of these applications would be useful to
  everyone?
• Why should we care about disabled users?

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Accessibility

• Removing barriers that prevent people with
  disabilities from participating in substantial
  life activities, including the use of services,
  products, and information
• Direct Access
• Add-on Access

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Assistive Technology

• Devices or other solutions that assist people
  with deficits in physical, mental or emotional
  function

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Universal Design

• An approach to the design of all products and
  environments to be as usable as possible by as
  many people as possible regardless of age,
  ability or situation.

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Universal Design

• Becoming much more relevant
• According to Census 54 million people with
  disabilities in the United States
• Aging population
• 70 percent of all Americans will experience some
  kind of disability before they reach age 75
• Average lifespan 76
• Temporary disability

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Universal Design

• Myth of the Average User
• Products designed for the apex of the bellcurve
• Analyze your particular system, how it will be
  used, where it will be used, and by whom

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Universal Design Examples

• Curb Cuts

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Universal Design Examples

• Closed Captioning

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Universal Design Examples

• Books on Tape
• Telephone
• Predictive Dictionaries

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Case Study Pacific Bell

• Financial Incentive
• Volume Control Feature
• Cost effective to design access in the beginning
• Quality of access is better when incorporated
  from the beginning

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Universal Design Pitfalls

• Hard to create system that is perfect for
  everyone
• Hypothetical ATM machine that is usable by 100
  of population
• Cacophony of sounds
• Flashing screens
• Closed captioning
• Privacy and Security

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Seven Principles of Universal Design

• Developed by a team of experts
• Set of principles to keep in mind when designing
  any type of system
• Principles and images from the Center for
  Universal Design, North Carolina State University

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Equitable Use

• The design is useful and marketable to people
  with diverse abilities

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Flexibility in Use

• The design accommodates a wide range of
  individual preferences and abilities.

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Simple and Intuitive

• Use of the design is easy to understand,
  regardless of the user's experience, knowledge,
  language skills, or current concentration level.

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Perceptible Information

• The design communicates necessary information
  effectively to the user, regardless of ambient
  conditions or the user's sensory abilities.

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Tolerance for Error

• The design minimizes hazards and the adverse
  consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
  

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Low Physical Effort

• The design can be used efficiently and
  comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.

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Size and Space for Approach and Use

• Appropriate size and space is provided for
  approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless
  of user's body size, posture, or mobility.

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Accessibility is also the Law

• Section 508
• Requires that Federal agencies electronic and
  information technology is accessible to people
  with disabilities.

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Accessibility is also the Law

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• Prohibits discrimination and ensures equal
  opportunity for persons with disabilities in
  employment, state and local government services,
  public accommodations, commercial facilities, and
  transportation.
• Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
• requires manufacturers of telecommunications
  equipment and providers of telecommunications
  services to ensure that such equipment and
  services are accessible to persons with
  disabilities

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Accessibility is also the Law

• 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act
  
• ADA and Automatic Teller Machines
• ADA and MARTA

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Types of Disabilities

• Hearing Loss
• Conductive
• Sensorineural
• Central Auditory Processing Disorders
• Degree of loss
• Minimal to profound

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Types of Disabilities

• 1 in 3 will have by age 65
• Vision Loss
• Central Vision
• Side Vision
• Blurred Vision
• Generalized Haze
• Extreme Light Sensitivity
• Night Blindness
• Color Blindness

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Types of Disabilities

• Movement / Dexterity
• Cerebral Palsy
• Spinal Cord
• Missing Limbs
• Arthritis
• Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI)

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Types of Disabilities

• Cognitive Impairments
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Alzheimers Disease
• Senility
• Mental Retardation

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Types of Disabilities

• Aging into disability
• Baby Boomers
• People gradually become disabled as they age
• Do not like to think of themselves as disabled
• Large potential market

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Current Accessibility Aids

• Hearing Impaired
• TDD
• Closed Captioning
• ShowSounds
• Cell phone text messaging
• Rear Window Captioning

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Current Accessibility Aids

• Vision Impaired
• Screen Readers
• Screen Magnification
• Braille Display
• Text to Speech

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Current Accessibility Aids

• Dexterity Impairment
• Alternative pointing devices
• Head pointers
• Eye trackers
• Sip n Puff
• Tongue Interface
• Speech Recognition
• Neural Signals

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Current Accessibility Aids

• Dexterity Impairment
• Screen Keyboard/Keyboard Extensions
• Predictive Dictionaries
• Augmentative Communication Devices

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The Wireless RERC

• National Institute for Disability and
  Rehabilitation Research (NIDDR), Rehabilitation
  Engineering Research Center (RERC)
• 5mil dollars, 5 years, wireless/mobile devices
• Research devices and user needs
• Develop new devices
• Collaborate with Industry
• Community outreach
• Policy
• Educate tomorrows developers and researchers

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The Wireless RERC

• Research
• What obstacles are there to independence?
• What are the problems with current mobile
  devices?
• Survey sent to 2,000 subjects, available on web
• Focus groups
• Wizard of Oz user studies

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The Wireless RERC

• Development
• Universal Control
• Wearable Captioning
• Augmented Communications
• Telehealth, Telerehabilitation
• Cognitive Prosthetics

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Universal Control

• Develop and test a universal control device using
  a gesturing interface and an auditory interface
• Multi-modal interface to a wireless PDA
• V2s Alternative Interface Access Protocol
• Allows for independent user control devices to
  control devices in the environment

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Wearable Captioning

• To create a universal wireless, wearable personal
  captioning device to assist hearing-impaired
  individuals in interacting in a speech-centric
  setting

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Augmented Communications

• Combine wireless with augmentative communication

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Telehealth

• Develop and evaluate new wireless applications
  for mobile health monitoring

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Cognitive Prosthetics

• Develop an assessment protocol for prescribing
  cognitive prostheses
• Develop cognitive prosthetic applications for
  mobile wireless platforms
• Personal organization system
• Wayfinding system
• Prompting and cueing system

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Wearables and the Disabled

• Why are wearables appropriate?

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Wearables and the Disabled

• How can wearables improve quality of life?

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Previous Research

• A Brief History of Wearable Computing
• Bradley Rhodes
• 1268 first recorded mention of eyeglasses
• 1665 call for augmented senses, Robert Hooke
• 1945 augmented memory proposed, memex, Vannevar
  Bush
• 1967 augmented vision, Bell Helicopter

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Previous Research

• 1967 wearable for lip reading, Hubert Upton
• 1977 tactile vest for the blind, C.C. Collins
• 1993 KARMA, Steve Feiner

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Previous and Current Research

• Remote Interfaces
• Sonification for low vision
• Wayfinding
• Vision Enhancement
• Audio-Only
• Telemedicine
• Communication
• Movement Analysis
• Cognitive Aids

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Remote Interfaces

• Systems that allow the user to control their
  environment
• Wearable can serve as single usable interface for
  many types of products and devices
• Personal Freedom, Ross96
• Universal interface that mediates interaction.
• Started with voice

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Remote Interfaces

• Gesture Pendant, Starner2000
• Universal Control via gestures

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Sonification

• Translating visual information into sound
• Large body of work
• Artificial Synesthesia, Foner97
• Augmentation of normal vision via spectrometer
• Sonic Torch 1960, SonicVision, Leslie Kay
• Ultrasound used to create sonic picture of
  surroundings
• Sonic Path Finder, Tony Heyes
• Ultrasonic information on important objects

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KASPA
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KASPA
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KASPA
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Sonification

• The Guide Cane
• Robotic cane
• The Laser Cane
• Tones and vibration for obstacles
• The Videotact
• Video images translated to tactile feedback
• The People Sensor, Ram98
• Helps avoid cane contact and talking to someone
  that is not there

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Sonification

• The VOICE, Peter Meijer
• Video images translated to music

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Wayfinding

• Using a wearable device to help people navigate
  in their environment
• IR beacons for street crossing, Ross99
• Audio and tactile cues
• Augmented Reality for Navigation, Piekarski99
• Visual cues from GPS and compass overlaid on
  world

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Wayfinding

• Spatial Language as Navigation Aid, Loomis2002

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Wayfinding

• Non-speech based navigation aid, Bruce Walker

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Audio-Only Wearables

• Nomadic Radio, Sawhney99
• Audio based wearable that provides email, news,
  voice mail etc.
• Contextually aware
• Differing levels of notification
• Learning from prior interactions
• Can be used when focus is elsewhere

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Audio-Only Wearables

• Guided by Voices, Lyons2000
• Lightweight audio-only augmented reality
• RF transmitters used for position
• Internal state machine for playback

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Telemedicine/Telehealth

• Many non-mobile solutions for the home
• Teleconferencing
• Measurements
• Information resources
• Mobile systems appearing
• Doctor and patient

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Telemedicine/Telehealth

• Lots of past work in putting sensors on the body
  for data acquisition
• More data, during regular activities
• FitSense
• Networked devices monitor workouts

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Telemedicine/Telehealth

• Wearables allow processing and feedback of data
• Medical Monitoring (ECG), Martin2000
• Requires small size, little input, signal
  processing
• Privacy more important
• Sensors are an obstacle
• Responsibility
• Many possible uses

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Telemedicine/Telehealth

• Possible solution to some obstacles, smart
  clothing
• Smart Shirt, Jayaraman
• Vital signs and bullet wounds
• Smart Arctic Clothing, Rantanen2000
• For activities in harsh winter weather

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Telemedicine/Telehealth

• Gesture Pendant
• Also could be used for medical monitoring

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Gesture Pendant and Smart Shirt
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Communication

• Allowing people with disabilities to communicate
  independently
• Many augmentative communication devices
• Linking augcomm devices to wireless devices
• Makes cell phone type activities available to
  those who cannot speak

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Communication
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Communication
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Communication

• ASL recognition, Thad Starner

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Movement Analysis

• Measuring how people are moving to look for
  changes and detect emergencies
• Gait detection and analysis
• Activity Monitoring for Dementia, David Ross
• Monitoring exercise regimens
• Locating patient
• Digital Angel
• High level activity monitoring
• Cooking, medicating, rehabilitation

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Cognitive Aids

• Systems that can augment a users cognition
• Help with performance of everyday activities
• Remembrance Agent, Rhodes Starner

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Cognitive Aids

• Rehabilitation professionals often use off the
  shelf devices
• One-of-a-kind solutions often required
• Extensive setup by caregiver

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Case Study

• Cognitive Prosthetic for Car Location
• Jenna Bilotta, graphic designer
• Tim Nichols, psychologist
• Aideen Stronge, psychologist
• Yifan Shi, computer scientist

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Case Study

• Idea stage
• Generic wayfinding project
• Focused on traumatic brain injury patients (TBI)
• Interviewed clinician about problems of daily
  living
• Two subjects with different abilities, similar
  working memory problems

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Case Study

• Effects of TBI
• Brain location dependent
• Loss of working memory
• Left frontal lobe, visual to vocal problems
• Right frontal lobe, spatialization problems
• Alzheimers, stroke etc. result in dispersed
  problems
• TBI, specific lack of abilities
• How can we use unaffected abilities to
  compensate for affected?

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Case Study

• TBI statistics
• 80 men
• Early 20s to late 30s
• Blue collar or teens
• Sports, car accidents, guns, on the job injuries

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Case Study

• Locating subjects
• Jenna knew practitioners at the Shepherd Center
• Contact groups in your state
• National Brain Injury Association
• Peer groups
• Volunteering

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Case Study

• Needs Assessment
• Current GPS device in use, 57 steps
• Evaluated this device
• Similar functionality needed with drastically
  different interface

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Case Study
Press WHITE WHITE WHITE (the page button) three
times to get to the Menu screen. Press DOWN
DOWN DOWN (the down button) three time to
highlight tracks. Press BLUE (the Enter button)
to choose tracks.
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Case Study

• Needs Assessment
• Ignored hardware limitations
• Detailed task analysis
• Focused on reducing steps
• Designed process not device
• Unusual barriers due to condition
• Current solution was to make horn honk
• Users are not stupid

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Case Study

• Design Process
• Step one, modified PDA
• Why not make it do lots of things!
• Might as well remind them to take medication.
• Step two, users need individual devices that are
  very simple
• Worked with researchers, caregivers, then
  patients
• Seven levels of functioning

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Case Study

• Design Process
• Form factors?
• Wristwatch, keychain, belt buckle, beeper
• On person at all times
• They never forget to lock their car
• 1 or two buttons
• Physical interface mirroring function
• But not childish

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Case Study
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Case Study

• User Evaluation
• Clinicians, Caregivers, cognitive walkthrough
• Users, cooperative evaluation
• Not implemented enough for field test
• Problems
• Turning it on
• Audio Recording
• Picture
• Lack of linear path to car
• Technology

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Case Study

• Focus on Universal Design?
• Worked with two subjects with impairments
• Aimed for use by low level of functioning
• Would work for everyone
• Where can I get this!

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Case Study

• Security and Privacy
• Privacy very important
• Security huge problem
• Not only do I have your keys, but they lead me
  to your car! says thief
• PIN wont work
• Biometrics possible but increase size and
  technology issues
• Must not make situation worse

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Case Study

• Challenges of working with TBI users
• I had lots of good comments but I forgot them
  all
• Users had rigid schedules, difficult to work in
  evaluations
• Did not want users to feel exploited
• Evaluation with non-TBI users
• Useful
• Some comments negated findings from TBI users

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Discussion