Easy Smart-Home Environment to Assist Patients with Mobility Impairment
Elena de la Guía, Vicente López, Teresa Olivares, María Dolores Lozano, Víctor M. R. Penichet, Luis Orozco · 2015
Nowadays, advances in technology enable us to easily assist patients with mobility impairment, so they may remain safe and comfortable at home. However, not everyone has experience using new technology. Their human-machine interfaces may become difficult to use, especially for people with motor limitations and little experience with the technology. In this paper we present an easy smart-home environment prototype to assist people with reduced mobility. This allows them to do daily household activities (turn on/off light, heat, TV, and so on), in addition to communicating with family, friends, and doctors. In order to overcome the technological barrier, we have proposed an interaction mechanism based on physical objects (combining mobile devices and NFC Technology) and sensors (Bluetooth LE technology) to adapt the task (depending on the user's location) and provide non-intrusive interaction. That is, the task adapts to user depending on the room. Then, the user can control the system by interacting with smart objects (bringing the objects closer the mobile device). We present the results of pilot interface usability testing in order to obtain preliminary data with the user feedback system.