Publication
Mobility Assistance in the Bremen Ambient Assisted Living Lab
Bernd Krieg-Brückner; Thomas Röfer; Hui Shi; Bernd Gersdorf
In: GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, Vol. 23, No. 2, Pages 121-130, Verlag Hans Huber; http://www.verlag-hanshuber.com, 2010.
Abstract
Various mobility assistants have been developed to enable the Rolland wheelchair and the iWalker walker to behave intelligently in order to compensate for diminishing physical and cognitive faculties: a safety assistant ensures the brakes are applied in due time; a driving assistant avoids any potential obstacles and assists the user when going through doors; the navigation assistant guides along a set route or can drive the user around in an autonomous manner. At the Bremen Ambient Assisted Living Lab, a specially-designed research apartment, users are able to interact with these mobility assistants as well as with the smart environment installed there (which includes home automation and intelligent furniture control) with the goal of evaluating new AAL-technologies in terms of their everyday usability. Various modes for interaction are investigated, such as a head-joystick for giving directions, a touch-screen for pointing gestures on a map, and spoken natural language dialogue with the system in order to adapt to impairments the user might have.