Technology for Long-Term Care: Scaling Elder Care to the Next Billion
by Matthai PhiliposeIntel Research, USA |
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Abstract. Long-term care helps the elderly perform key day-to-day tasks such as eating, personal care and medication. Without dramatic breakthroughs in the cost of such care, over half of all elders worldwide are expected to be without adequate care within a generation.
In this talk, I will describe a series of studies performed at Intel Research over the past six years towards understanding how technology may substantially reduce the manual burden of care. I argue that the heart of long-term care is monitoring and assisting in daily human activity, tasks that have traditionally been beyond the reach of computing systems. I will describe recent striking advances in the scale of activity monitoring capabilities based on fundamental improvements in high-density wireless sensing, statistical reasoning, massive knowledge mining and user-centered interaction design. Systems based on this basic technology need to satisfy several further requirements in order to support a business. I will outline these requirements and discuss successive generations of practical systems that come quite close to fulfilling them.
The combination of technological advances and societal need make this a particularly exciting time to conceive and build environments that care. I will close with three challenge problems that, if solved, will make a billion people sit up and pay attention to smart homes.
Short biography. Matthai Philipose builds sensor-based systems that allow computers to understand and act on human state. He leads the Everyday Sensing and Perception (ESP) project at Intel Research, which has the goal of understanding 90% of a person's life at 90% accuracy using mobile sensing. He has a strong interest in applying such systems to the long-term care of the elderly. To this end, he has collaborated with Intel product groups, universities and government organizations to build and field-test novel telecare systems. Matthai has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and a B.S. from Cornell University.
Ubiquitous Computing and Health-monitoring System for Wheelchair Users and Remote Accessibility Assessment System
by Jongbae KimNational Rehabilitation CenterResearch Institute, Korea |
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Abstract. Wheelchair users are much more limited in access to conventional IT resources such as home computers and Internet, compared with their non-disabled counterparts. Moreover, no computer systems specifically designed and optimized for wheelchair users exist today that match the powerful desktop PC systems found in the market. The lack of such computer systems may lead to not only severely deteriorated quality of life for the wheelchair users, but also much reduced opportunities for them to be successful in various occupations. We envision a wheelchair-worn computing system that is as effectively usable by wheelchair users as other conventional high-performance PC systems are usable for general users. Telehealth seems particularly appropriate for vulnerable populations. People using power wheelchairs are a subgroup of that kind of vulnerable population which is often required to pay more attention to their health care. A telehealthcare system can be realized best through the wheelchair-based wearable computer. For a person who requires a wheelchair for mobility, the wheelchair becomes an extension of the person’s body. We are developing a Ubiquitous Computing and Health-monitoring System for Wheelchair Users (u-CHS).
A Remote Accessibility Assessment System (RAAS) was developed by using three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction technology, which enables clinicians to assess the wheelchair accessibility of users’ built environments from a remote location. We have developed ‘Tele-imaging System’ that uses a high-end IP camera and a high-speed internet connection that allow the specialist take the high resolution images of the remote built environment while seeing the environment at distance. We enhanced the system by developing a Virtual Reality Simulation and Measurement algorithm. This technology publishes the 3D models with an embedded cyber wheelchair of customer’s real wheelchair dimension on the website via the DMDSS, and it then enables the evaluator as well as project members to try to drive the wheelchair in the virtualized reality environment in their locations.
Biography. Jongbae Kim, Ph.D. works for National Rehabilitation Center Research Institute, Seoul, Korea as Vice-Director. He received a BA in the Applied Statistics from Yonsei University of Korea and completed his MS program in the Industrial Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He received Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, all in Rehabilitation Science. Dr. Kim worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology. Within rehabilitation science he specializes in telerehabilitation, virtual reality application, adaptive computer input/output device, and rehabilitation robotics. Mr. Kim led two research tasks and working for another task of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on TeleRehabilitation. He worked as a research faculty of the NSF Quality of Life Technology ERC with robotics and computer science scientists in the Carnegie Mellon University. He also co-worked with the Georgia Tech research team for RERC on Workplace Accommodation and worked as an education coordinator and state-of-science conference coordinator for RERC on Spinal Cord Injury. He is leading a project with University of Hawaii that is applying his developed Remote Accessibility Assessment System to the Hawaiian islanders. While he was studying the MS program, he became spinal chord injured as the result of fall and became quadriplegic. After suffering several challenges, he has been serving Korean people with SCI for 7 years. He has also educated many people with SCI in Information Technologies and worked to find jobs for educated people with SCI. He has also taught college students the rehabilitation engineering via IT technology in the Nazarene University, ChonAhn, Korea. It is his sincere hope that his experiences with SCI for 23 years can be used to help develop solutions for improving educational, vocational and quality of life aids and services for future generations of people with SCI and other disabilities.
