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Abstract Objective The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the impact of assistive devices on the life satisfaction of (Research Question 1), and informal caregiving hours received by (Research Question 2), community-dwelling older adults (≥ 65 years). Methods We searched CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Scopus from database inception to March 2022. For each question, two reviewers independently screened citations, extracted and narratively synthesized the data, and assessed article quality and strength of evidence. Results Of the 1391 citations screened, we found two articles pertaining to each question, for a total of four articles. In general, assistive device use was not associated with life satisfaction, while it was positively associated with informal caregiving hours. However, the risk of bias was serious across the two studies for Research Question 1, and the overall quality of evidence was “very low”. The risk of bias was not serious across the two studies included in Research Question 2 and the overall quality of evidence was “moderate”. Conclusion Due to the scarcity of studies, the limitations of existing studies (i.e., risk of bias), and the evidence being moderate or very low quality, we could not draw firm conclusions about the associations of interest. Additional research will produce a better understanding of the two relationships and provide further evidence to inform policy decisions regarding the provision and funding of assistive devices for community-dwelling older adults. Trial registration This systematic review was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database of systematic reviews (identification number: CRD42021248929 ).

Introduction: The rise of soft robotics has driven the development of devices for assistance in activities of daily living (ADL). Likewise, different types of actuation have been developed for safer human interaction. Recently, textile-based pneumatic actuation has been introduced in hand exoskeletons for features such as biocompatibility, flexibility, and durability. These devices have demonstrated their potential use in assisting ADLs, such as the degrees of freedom assisted, the force exerted, or the inclusion of sensors. However, performing ADLs requires the use of different objects, so exoskeletons must provide the ability to grasp andmaintain stable contact with a variety of objects to lead to the successful development of ADLs. Although textile-based exoskeletons have demonstrated significant advancements, the ability of these devices to maintain stable contact with a variety of objects commonly used in ADLs has yet to be fully evaluated. Materials and methods: This paper presents the development and experimental validation in healthy users of a fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton through a grasping performance test using The Anthropomorphic Hand Assessment Protocol (AHAP), which assesses eight types of grasping with 24 objects of different shapes, sizes, textures, weights, and rigidities, and two standardized tests used in the rehabilitation processes of post-stroke patients. Results and discussion: A total of 10 healthy users (45.50 ± 14.93 years old) participated in this study. The results indicate that the device can assist in developing ADLs by evaluating the eight types of grasps of the AHAP. A score of 95.76 ± 2.90% out of 100% was obtained for the Maintaining Score, indicating that the ExHand Exoskeleton can maintain stable contact with various daily living objects. In addition, the results of the user satisfaction questionnaire indicated a positive mean score of 4.27 ± 0.34 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several assistive technology solutions, targeting the group of Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI), have been proposed in the literature utilizing multi-sensor data fusion techniques. Furthermore, several commercial systems are currently being used in real-life scenarios by BVI individuals. However, given the rate by which new publications are made, the available review studies become quickly outdated. Moreover, there is no comparative study regarding the multi-sensor data fusion techniques between those found in the research literature and those being used in the commercial applications that many BVI individuals trust to complete their everyday activities. The objective of this study is to classify the available multi-sensor data fusion solutions found in the research literature and the commercial applications, conduct a comparative study between the most popular commercial applications (Blindsquare, Lazarillo, Ariadne GPS, Nav by ViaOpta, Seeing Assistant Move) regarding the supported features as well as compare the two most popular ones (Blindsquare and Lazarillo) with the BlindRouteVision application, developed by the authors, from the standpoint of Usability and User Experience (UX) through field testing. The literature review of sensor-fusion solutions highlights the trends of utilizing computer vision and deep learning techniques, the comparison of the commercial applications reveals their features, strengths, and weaknesses while Usability and UX demonstrate that BVI individuals are willing to sacrifice a wealth of features for more reliable navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed the TechArm system as a novel technological tool intended for visual rehabilitation settings. The system is designed to provide a quantitative assessment of the stage of development of perceptual and functional skills that are normally vision-dependent, and to be integrated in customized training protocols. Indeed, the system can provide uni- and multisensory stimulation, allowing visually impaired people to train their capability of correctly interpreting non-visual cues from the environment. Importantly, the TechArm is suitable to be used by very young children, when the rehabilitative potential is maximal. In the present work, we validated the TechArm system on a pediatric population of low-vision, blind, and sighted children. In particular, four TechArm units were used to deliver uni- (audio or tactile) or multi-sensory stimulation (audio-tactile) on the participant's arm, and subject was asked to evaluate the number of active units. Results showed no significant difference among groups (normal or impaired vision). Overall, we observed the best performance in tactile condition, while auditory accuracy was around chance level. Also, we found that the audio-tactile condition is better than the audio condition alone, suggesting that multisensory stimulation is beneficial when perceptual accuracy and precision are low. Interestingly, we observed that for low-vision children the accuracy in audio condition improved proportionally to the severity of the visual impairment. Our findings confirmed the TechArm system's effectiveness in assessing perceptual competencies in sighted and visually impaired children, and its potential to be used to develop personalized rehabilitation programs for people with visual and sensory impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In severe conditions of limited motor abilities, frequent position changes for work or passive and active rest are essential bedside activities to prevent further health complications. We aimed to develop a system using eye movements for bed positioning and to verify its functionality in a control group and a group of patients with significant motor limitation caused by multiple sclerosis. Methods: The eye-tracking system utilized an innovative digital-to-analog converter module to control the positioning bed via a novel graphical user interface. We verified the ergonomics and usability of the system by performing a fixed sequence of positioning tasks, in which the leg and head support was repeatedly raised and then lowered. Fifteen women and eleven men aged 42.7 ± 15.9 years in the control group and nine women and eight men aged 60.3 ± 9.14 years in the patient group participated in the experiment. The degree of disability, according to the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), ranged from 7 to 9.5 points in the patients. We assessed the speed and efficiency of the bed control and the improvement during testing. In a questionnaire, we evaluated satisfaction with the system. Results: The control group mastered the task in 40.2 s (median) with an interquartile interval from 34.5 to 45.5 s, and patients mastered the task in in 56.5 (median) with an interquartile interval from 46.5 to 64.9 s. The efficiency of solving the task (100% corresponds to an optimal performance) was 86.3 (81.6; 91.0) % for the control group and 72.1 (63.0; 75.2) % for the patient group. Throughout testing, the patients learned to communicate with the system, and their efficiency and task time improved. A correlation analysis showed a negative relationship (rho = − 0.587) between efficiency improvement and the degree of impairment (EDSS). In the control group, the learning was not significant. On the questionnaire survey, sixteen patients reported gaining confidence in bed control. Seven patients preferred the offered form of bed control, and in six cases, they would choose another form of interface. Conclusions: The proposed system and communication through eye movements are reliable for positioning the bed in people affected by advanced multiple sclerosis. Seven of 17 patients indicated that they would choose this system for bed control and wished to extend it for another application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies are necessary for ensuring independent living and equal participation in an information-based society for people living with disabilities (PLWD). This study investigated the assistive technology preference of students with visual disabilities, and the approach academic libraries should adopt in procuring assistive technologies. The study adopted a quantitative research method, with a survey as the research design. The study was conducted among visually disabled students in four public universities in Nigeria. Using the total enumeration method, an online questionnaire was used to obtain information from 151 students who voluntarily agreed to partake in the survey. The study found that access to electronic resources, scanning/conversion of print resources to electronic formats and access to information on the Web were among the technology-based services provided to visually disabled students. COBRA, ZoomText, Supernova and Dragon Naturally Speaking are the most preferred assistive technologies (software). At the same time, handheld scanners (x2 =4.40) and braille keyboards (x2 =4.60) are the most preferred assistive technologies in the hardware category by visually challenged students. The study further revealed that the library management should consult with students living with a visual disability before procuring assistive technology. Findings from this study thus provide further evidence of the need for librarians to fulfil their moral and legal obligation in advocating the provision of assistive technologies. Library administrators and university stakeholders should expedite actions on meeting the assistive technology needs of people living with visual disabilities. These actions should transcend mere policy formulation on the provision of assistive technologies to restructuring their services and spaces to accommodate assistive technologies as information service delivery tools for people with visual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social integration is an essential part of the life of every human being, but for people with disabilities, there are many situations in which it is still very low. For instance, in sports and outdoor gaming, there is a barrier between players with and without disabilities. Individuals with disabilities play sports almost exclusively with disabled players, not only during official events such as Paralympic games but also in occasional sports groups, while the mixing of people with and without disabilities in sports activities is a key factor of social inclusion. In order to allow a person with motor-skill impairments to play on the same ground as their non-disabled peers, we developed a novel piece of Assistive Technology that lets a person with motor-skill impairments to control a system acting as a goalkeeper during a non-professional football match, with approximately the same performances as a goalkeeper without motor-skill impairments. This electro-mechanical system is composed of a three-meter-long metal guideline and a human-shaped dummy sliding along it. The system is equipped with a high-torque battery-powered direct-current motor and it is controlled by means of electronic boards and sensors to ensure safety and good usability also for players with severe mobility impairments. The results of a pilot testing demonstrated the robustness and high degree of usability of the system, enabling people with motor-skill impairments to competitively participate in matches with non-disabled peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction While there is growing evidence of the benefits of assistive technologies little is known about their adoption under real circumstances and prevalence for everyday use. Objective The aim of this analysis therefore was (i) to investigate the adoption rates in the real world and (ii) to identify potential determinants of their adoption by care-dependant persons and family caregivers. Methods The present study is a secondary analysis based on the data set of the VdK study on home care arrangements (n=53,678). The analysis of the adoption rates included 22,666 care-dependant persons and caregivers, the identification of potential determinants via binary logistic regressions included 5,275 persons. Results Emergency call systems and technical (smart) aids reached an adoption rate of 40.4% (care-dependant persons) and 55.3% (family caregivers). Fall detectors, orientations aids, nursing apps and monitoring systems were used in less than 5% of the cases. Care degree and the use of an ambulatory nursing service increased the likelihood of using technical aids. Conclusion It can be concluded that innovative and sophisticated types of assistive technologies are still rather scarcely used for home care arrangements in the real world despite large research efforts in the last twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies are frequently used by special education teachers working with students affected by disability. The effective use of assistive technologies by teachers depends on their attitudes towards technology. Classroom management is one of the most important elements of effective teaching. One of the main purposes of classroom management is to create an orderly and safe classroom environment that will increase the motivation and responsibility of children and enable them to learn. In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between special education teachers' attitudes towards assistive technologies and their classroom management skills. Relational survey model was used in the research. 170 special education teachers working in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus participated in the research. Attitude towards Assistive Technologies Scale and Classroom Management Skills Scale were used as data collection tools. Data analyzes were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0 program. It was concluded that there was a positive correlation between special education teachers' general attitude scores towards assistive technology and behavioral, affective and cognitive components sub-dimensions and classroom management skills scores. As a result of the research, the research results were discussed within the framework of the literature and recommendations for further research and practices were included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in developing Computer-Based Assistive Technology (CAT) systems able to help the Visually Impaired (VI) in their daily needs and integrate well within society. One aspect that has not been well addressed is helping the visually impaired is the identification of colors for daily activities. Color recognition and perception is very important in interacting with the society and the surrounding environment. This paper presents a proof-of-concept design of a real-time embedded system that can help the visually impaired recognize colors, interact, and take decisions based on their perception of colors. Our approach is based on conveying color information, from the full color space, using a unique set of synthesized sound signals. The hardware part of the system is a pen-like device, which can detect color and generate a language-independent auditory signal representing the HSV values of the identified color. Numerous experiments have been performed using the new system with both the visually impaired and some blindfolded (BLD) participants. The system was proven to be very efficient in relation to training time and leads to high accuracy in color detection, classification, and matching tests. These experiments confirmed that the developed sonification scheme is effective yet simple in achieving color perception for the visually impaired. The proof-of-concept achieves about 93 % recognition accuracy using off-the-shelf components, it is cheap to implement, robust, and requires a much shorter time for training when compared to existing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motor disability includes the lack of sensation, movement, or coordination, and Assistive Technologies (AT) can help overcome these challenges. Motordisabled students need different ATs and configurations depending on courses and individual needs, and some solutions can be expensive. Some affordable AT has roots in gaming but can also be used for other purposes. However, there is little research on how they can be combined to define a personalized setting. Therefore, we performed a literature review to identify challenges and solutions to support students with motor disabilities in using information systems. The result defines a framework for identifying personalized settings. The usability of the result was demonstrated by performing a self-experimentation study of the first author, who has a motor disability. The results show its utility while learning process mining using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and code-based tools. We identified challenges in using different User Interface (UI) elements, which can be used as a guideline for designers of process mining tools as well as other information systems to support diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful adoption of assistive technologies for older adults requires considering and evaluating many different factors and dimensions such as effectiveness, usability, cost and equity of access, to name some of the most relevant. In line with this, the energy requirements to power such assistive technologies remains a hidden factor that might to some extent influence the success in their adoption and the user experience in a wider sense. Very often energy availability is taken for granted and its associated costs and operational requirements are mostly neglected. In this paper, the energy-related requirements of assistive technologies are analysed from a general perspective. This analysis is subsequently particularised for a use case within the SHAPES project, in the context of active and healthy ageing. This use case includes a wide variety of assistive technologies, namely: wearable devices, home sensors and a smart mirror, which provides connectivity and a set of software services. The energy requirements of all these technologies are evaluated and analysed to investigate their impact and relevance on the overall cost and user experience, following the proposed protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to identify the degree of availability of assistive technologies for students with intellectual disabilities in the intellectual education institutes in the city of buraydah in the qassim region. As well as the detection of differences in the average degree of the availability of assistive technologies for students with intellectual disabilities in the intellectual education institutes in buraydah, which is attributed to the educational qualification, years of experience and grade level, and the descriptive analytical approach was used. Their number is (66) teachers of intellectual education, and as a result of the small number of community members, the study adopted the entire community as a representative of its sample, and (54) teachers responded, and the researcher used the questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The study found the availability of assistive technologies for students with intellectual disabilities in the intellectual education institutes in buraydah to some extent in general, as the general arithmetic mean for all technologies was (2.76 out of 5). The study also found that there were no statistically significant differences in the average availability of assistive technologies for students with intellectual disabilities in intellectual education institutes in buraydah, due to the study variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Technology-driven assistive devices provide numerous benefits to people with severe visual impairments, yet device take-up rates are often low. OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine the strengths of connections between transportation self-efficacy, technophobia, personal inertia, innovation resistance, and willingness to adopt high-tech transportation assistive devices among visually impaired individuals. It also examined certain potential barriers to device acceptance; namely the perceived safety and complexity of assistive devices and the effects on a person's self-image of using a device. METHODS: A model was developed and tested via a questionnaire survey of 319 people with visual disabilities, each of whom was presented with five examples of hypothetical high-tech mobility and transportation assistive devices. RESULTS: Technophobia exerted a powerful negative impact on innovation resistance and was itself significantly determined in part by transportation self-efficacy. Personal inertia and the effects of device use on self-image failed to impact significantly on the participants' levels of innovation resistance. CONCLUSIONS: The results have implications for the promotional activities of manufacturers of mobility and transportation assistive devices and for visual disability support organisations that wish to secure acceptance of new assistive devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis accelerated the adoption of technologies. Technological advancement is also expected in robotics applied to any sector, including in healthcare. The aim is to assess the professional perception of care robotics facing COVID-19. This study aimed to (1) select a tool for assessing different aspects of healthcare, (2) analyse the professional perception about the development, usefulness and helpfulness of technologies and robotics in the field of healthcare and (3) evaluate the correlation between the perceived helpfulness of care robotics and the selected tool. We implement five validated clinical tests which integrate 80 items about a person and their clinical situation. From the sample of 46 professionals, 95.65% affirmed that technology was moderately to completely useful for professional performance in the context of the pandemic, lowering to 67.39% when asked only about robotics; 93.48% stated that the inclusion of robotics in at least one health area affected by COVID-19 would have helped them. Finally, the variables extracted from clinical tests corresponded to the most relevant health areas as identified by the professionals. This research shows the potential of care robotics oriented towards healthcare from a care paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assistive technologies (ATs) enable persons with visual impairment (PwVI) to equitably benefit from public library resources and services as their sighted counterparts. However, the extent to which this facility is available and used at public libraries in less-developed countries remains largely unknown. Objectives: This study reports on the investigation done on the availability and use of ATs by PwVI at public libraries in the cities of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg in South Africa. Method: The study used a multimethod and explanatory sequential design in which data were collected through questionnaires administered with 131 librarians and interviews held with 10 PwVI. Results: The findings of the study point towards inadequate availability of computers with internet services, audiotapes, screen magnifying and reading software, and these were used for, among others, leisure, research, job searching and communication. Conclusion: The study concludes that certain ATs were inadequately available and used by PwVI at some libraries in the cities of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg. The study recommends training for PwVI on how to use ATs, marketing of available ATs, training of staff on how to render AT-based services as well as management availing adequate budget for the development of AT-based collection. Contribution: The study contributes to the understanding of the types of ATs available and used by PwVI in public libraries.

Here, we present an effective application of adaptive cooperative networks, namely assisting disables in navigating in a crowd in a pandemic or emergency situation. To achieve this, we model crowd movement and introduce a cooperative learning approach to enable cooperation and self-organization of the crowd members with impaired health or on wheelchairs to ensure their safe movement in the crowd. Here, it is assumed that the movement path and the varying locations of the other crowd members can be estimated by each agent. Therefore, the network nodes (agents) should continuously reorganize themselves by varying their speeds and distances from each other, from the surrounding walls, and from obstacles within a predefined limit. It is also demonstrated how the available wireless trackers such as AirTags can be used for this purpose. The model effectiveness is examined with respect to the real-time changes in environmental parameters and its efficacy is verified.

The lack of accessible information conveyed by descriptions of art images presents significant barriers for people with blindness and low vision (BLV) to engage with visual artwork. Most museums are not able to easily provide accessible image descriptions for BLV visitors to build a mental representation of artwork due to vastness of collections, limitations of curator training, and current measures for what constitutes effective automated captions. This paper reports on the results of two studies investigating the types of information that should be included to provide high-quality accessible artwork descriptions based on input from BLV description evaluators. We report on: (1) a qualitative study asking BLV participants for their preferences for layered description characteristics; and (2) an evaluation of several current models for image captioning as applied to an artwork image dataset. We then provide recommendations for researchers working on accessible image captioning and museum engagement applications through a focus on spatial information access strategies.

People with hearing disabilities often face communication barriers when interacting with hearing individuals. To address this issue, this paper proposes a bidirectional Sign Language Translation System that aims to bridge the communication gap. Deep learning models such as recurrent neural networks (RNN), bidirectional RNN (BRNN), LSTM, GRU, and Transformers are compared to find the most accurate model for sign language recognition and translation. Keypoint detection using MediaPipe is employed to track and understand sign language gestures. The system features a user-friendly graphical interface with modes for translating between Mexican Sign Language (MSL) and Spanish in both directions. Users can input signs or text and obtain corresponding translations. Performance evaluation demonstrates high accuracy, with the BRNN model achieving 98.8% accuracy. The research emphasizes the importance of hand features in sign language recognition. Future developments could focus on enhancing accessibility and expanding the system to support other sign languages. This Sign Language Translation System offers a promising solution to improve communication accessibility and foster inclusivity for individuals with hearing disabilities.

We present a study with seven blind participants using three different mobile OCR apps to find text posted in various indoor environments. The first app considered was Microsoft SeeingAI in its Short Text mode, which reads any text in sight with a minimalistic interface. The second app was Spot+OCR, a custom application that separates the task of text detection from OCR proper. Upon detection of text in the image, Spot+OCR generates a short vibration; as soon as the user stabilizes the phone, a high-resolution snapshot is taken and OCR-processed. The third app, Guided OCR, was designed to guide the user in taking several pictures in a 360° span at the maximum resolution available by the camera, with minimum overlap between pictures. Quantitative results (in terms of true positive ratios and traversal speed) were recorded. Along with the qualitative observation and outcomes from an exit survey, these results allow us to identify and assess the different strategies used by our participants, as well as the challenges of operating these systems without sight.

We present a study with seven blind participants using three different mobile OCR apps to find text posted in various indoor environments. The first app considered was Microsoft SeeingAI in its Short Text mode, which reads any text in sight with a minimalistic interface. The second app was Spot+OCR, a custom application that separates the task of text detection from OCR proper. Upon detection of text in the image, Spot+OCR generates a short vibration; as soon as the user stabilizes the phone, a high-resolution snapshot is taken and OCR-processed. The third app, Guided OCR, was designed to guide the user in taking several pictures in a 360° span at the maximum resolution available by the camera, with minimum overlap between pictures. Quantitative results (in terms of true positive ratios and traversal speed) were recorded. Along with the qualitative observation and outcomes from an exit survey, these results allow us to identify and assess the different strategies used by our participants, as well as the challenges of operating these systems without sight.

Globally, the most popular upper-limb prostheses are powered by the human body. For body-powered (BP) upper-limb prostheses, control is provided by changing the tension of (Bowden) cables to open or close the terminal device. This technology has been around for centuries, and very few BP alternatives have been presented since. This paper introduces a new BP paradigm that can overcome certain limitations of the current cabled systems, such as a restricted operation space and user discomfort caused by the harness to which the cables are attached. A new breathing-powered system is introduced to give the user full control of the hand motion anywhere in space. Users can regulate their breathing, and this controllable airflow is then used to power a small Tesla turbine that can accurately control the prosthetic finger movements. The breathing-powered device provides a novel prosthetic option that can be used without limiting any of the user’s body movements. Here we prove that it is feasible to produce a functional breathing-powered prosthetic hand and show the models behind it along with a preliminary demonstration. This work creates a step-change in the potential BP options available to patients in the future.

Aphasia is an acquired disorder that affects the ability to communicate. The increasing availability of voice assistants (such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant) provides new opportunities to support people with aphasia in a variety of tasks, from everyday communication to speech and language therapy exercises. To ensure accessibility and acceptance, it is important to involve people with aphasia in the development process. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as a theoretical framework, this study examines their willingness to use voice assistants and explores which potential applications they consider useful for participation in social and cultural contexts. These questions were addressed through a survey. Eight people with aphasia took part in the study. Although the sample size does not allow for statistical analysis, the results provide valuable insights for further research. Most of the participants showed a general interest in using voice assistants, two of them were already users. The presence of physical limitations motivates the use of speech-based technology. Participants who already used voice assistants saw them as a practical support in everyday life, while non-users had lower expectations in this respect. Social influence was found to play an important role. Participants' perceptions of privacy and data security issues varied and do not allow for generalization. Finally, some participants showed a preference for communication support applications (e.g., word finding, sentence formation, grammar support) over applications used for therapy exercises such as word training.

IntroductionThe rise of soft robotics has driven the development of devices for assistance in activities of daily living (ADL). Likewise, different types of actuation have been developed for safer human interaction. Recently, textile-based pneumatic actuation has been introduced in hand exoskeletons for features such as biocompatibility, flexibility, and durability. These devices have demonstrated their potential use in assisting ADLs, such as the degrees of freedom assisted, the force exerted, or the inclusion of sensors. However, performing ADLs requires the use of different objects, so exoskeletons must provide the ability to grasp and maintain stable contact with a variety of objects to lead to the successful development of ADLs. Although textile-based exoskeletons have demonstrated significant advancements, the ability of these devices to maintain stable contact with a variety of objects commonly used in ADLs has yet to be fully evaluated.Materials and methodsThis paper presents the development and experimental validation in healthy users of a fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton through a grasping performance test using The Anthropomorphic Hand Assessment Protocol (AHAP), which assesses eight types of grasping with 24 objects of different shapes, sizes, textures, weights, and rigidities, and two standardized tests used in the rehabilitation processes of post- stroke patients.Results and discussionA total of 10 healthy users (45.50 ± 14.93 years old) participated in this study. The results indicate that the device can assist in developing ADLs by evaluating the eight types of grasps of the AHAP. A score of 95.76 ± 2.90% out of 100% was obtained for the Maintaining Score, indicating that the ExHand Exoskeleton can maintain stable contact with various daily living objects. In addition, the results of the user satisfaction questionnaire indicated a positive mean score of 4.27 ± 0.34 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5.

Object detection, one of the most significant contributions of computer vision and machine learning, plays an immense role in identifying and locating objects in an image or a video. We recognize distinct objects and precisely get their information through object detection, such as their size, shape, and location. This paper developed a low-cost assistive system of obstacle detection and the surrounding environment depiction to help blind people using deep learning techniques. TensorFlow object detection API and SSDLite MobileNetV2 have been used to create the proposed object detection model. The pre-trained SSDLite MobileNetV2 model is trained on the COCO dataset, with almost 328,000 images of 90 different objects. The gradient particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique has been used in this work to optimize the final layers and their corresponding hyperparameters of the MobileNetV2 model. Next, we used the Google text-to-speech module, PyAudio, playsound, and speech recognition to generate the audio feedback of the detected objects. A Raspberry Pi camera captures real-time video where real-time object detection is done frame by frame with Raspberry Pi 4B microcontroller. The proposed device is integrated into a head cap, which will help visually impaired people to detect obstacles in their path, as it is more efficient than a traditional white cane. Apart from this detection model, we trained a secondary computer vision model and named it the “ambiance mode.” In this mode, the last three convolutional layers of SSDLite MobileNetV2 are trained through transfer learning on a weather dataset. The dataset comprises around 500 images from four classes: cloudy, rainy, foggy, and sunrise. In this mode, the proposed system will narrate the surrounding scene elaborately, almost like a human describing a landscape or a beautiful sunset to a visually impaired person. The performance of the object detection and ambiance description modes are tested and evaluated in a desktop computer and Raspberry Pi embedded system. Detection accuracy and mean average precision, frame rate, confusion matrix, and ROC curve measure the model's accuracy on both setups. This low-cost proposed system is believed to help visually impaired people in their day-to-day life.

IntroductionChildren’s behavior is indicative of adaptation to early-age development. Adaptive difficulties linked to behavioral difficulties are frequent among school-aged children having a multi-level impact. Five key approaches have been used therapeutically while systematic behavior monitoring has been used to evaluate the efficacy of different interventions. The inherent barriers of traditional monitoring tools have led to the need to design and implement new approaches.MethodsFour case study series (S1–S4) focused on vulnerable populations are described. Eight participants with different medical backgrounds underwent an intervention, either cognitive training (BrainHQ) (seven out of eight) or operant conditioning strategies. Targeted behaviors were monitored in six out of eight participants using the WHAAM application which could also measure the effectiveness of the intervention applied, while emotional fluctuations were evaluated in two out of eight participants using AffectLecture. Moreover, a 5th pilot study (S5) is included focusing on the early detection and management of ADHD using a serious game-based platform.ResultsIn S1, monitoring highlighted that BrainHQ training resulted in positive changes in all but one of the behaviors in Case 1. Studies that exploited the AffectLecture application indicated that emotional state was improved after training, and it was positively correlated with performance in cognitive exercises. The performance in cognitive training was positively correlated with the emotional state before training in S2 but not in S3. A positive correlation between the change in emotional state and performance was mentioned only in S3. Educational and social benefits as well as a positive correlation between the performance and the length of training were reported in both studies. Operant conditioning strategies in S4 resulted in positive behavioral effects in most participants. Preliminary analysis of S5 indicated that the platform has a considerable capacity to discriminate users based on their in-game patterns as ADHD or non-ADHD.DiscussionThe mixture of studies presented in this article incorporates different technological solutions for monitoring or intervening in developmental disorders and behavioral difficulties. Despite the inherent inhomogeneity of such an endeavor, they all highlight the positive prospects of using technology to enhance the educational arsenal of facing behavioral and learning difficulties.

We developed the TechArm system as a novel technological tool intended for visual rehabilitation settings. The system is designed to provide a quantitative assessment of the stage of development of perceptual and functional skills that are normally vision-dependent, and to be integrated in customized training protocols. Indeed, the system can provide uni- and multisensory stimulation, allowing visually impaired people to train their capability of correctly interpreting non-visual cues from the environment. Importantly, the TechArm is suitable to be used by very young children, when the rehabilitative potential is maximal. In the present work, we validated the TechArm system on a pediatric population of low-vision, blind, and sighted children. In particular, four TechArm units were used to deliver uni- (audio or tactile) or multi-sensory stimulation (audio-tactile) on the participant's arm, and subject was asked to evaluate the number of active units. Results showed no significant difference among groups (normal or impaired vision). Overall, we observed the best performance in tactile condition, while auditory accuracy was around chance level. Also, we found that the audio-tactile condition is better than the audio condition alone, suggesting that multisensory stimulation is beneficial when perceptual accuracy and precision are low. Interestingly, we observed that for low-vision children the accuracy in audio condition improved proportionally to the severity of the visual impairment. Our findings confirmed the TechArm system's effectiveness in assessing perceptual competencies in sighted and visually impaired children, and its potential to be used to develop personalized rehabilitation programs for people with visual and sensory impairments.

The lack of physical exercise is among the most relevant factors in developing health issues, and strategies to incentivize active lifestyles are key to preventing these issues. The PLEINAIR project developed a framework for creating outdoor park equipment, exploiting the IoT paradigm to build "Outdoor Smart Objects" (OSO) for making physical activity more appealing and rewarding to a broad range of users, regardless of their age and fitness. This paper presents the design and implementation of a prominent demonstrator of the OSO concept, consisting of a smart, sensitive flooring, based on anti-trauma floors commonly found in kids playgrounds. The floor is equipped with pressure sensors (piezoresistors) and visual feedback (LED-strips), to offer an enhanced, interactive and personalized user experience. OSOs exploit distributed intelligence and are connected to the Cloud infrastructure by using a MQTT protocol; apps have then been developed for interacting with the PLEINAIR system. Although simple in its general concept, several challenges must be faced, related to the application range (which called for high pressure sensitivity) and the scalability of the approach (requiring to implement a hierarchical system architecture). Some prototypes were fabricated and tested in a public environment, providing positive feedback to both the technical design and the concept validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: A health monitoring system that combines commercially available products, such as sensing devices and apps, with a social robot to conduct health assessments and collect subjective and objective health data. The study conducted in this work suggests that the system has a high rating for usability and user experience and that it has the potential to be used for self-managing users' health. As the population ages, the demand for care for older adults is increasing. To maintain their independence and autonomy, even with declining health, assistive technologies such as connected medical devices or social robots can be useful. In previous work, we introduced a novel health monitoring system that combines commercially available products with apps designed specifically for older adults. The system is intended for the long-term collection of subjective and objective health data. In this work, we present an exploratory user experience (UX) and usability study we conducted with older adults as the target group of the system and with younger expert users who tested our system. All participants interacted with a social robot conducting a health assessment and tested sensing devices and an app for data visualization. The UX and usability of the individual components of the system were rated highly in questionnaires in all sessions. All participants also said they would use such a system in their everyday lives, demonstrating the potential of these systems for self-managing users' health. Finally, we found factors such as previous experience with social robots and technological expertise to have an influence on the reported UX of the users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important lifestyle risk factors for many chronic conditions in the older age, low physical activity has shown to have significant impact on the sustainability of national welfare in many developed countries. Technology-based assisted living solutions can effectively be used to enable older adults to optimise their health-related quality of life, as well as to promote an active and healthy longevity. This paper describes vINCI—an interdisciplinary research project to actively support assisted living for older adults via state-of-the-art assistive technologies—which seamlessly deploys an ambient intelligence environment to integrate wearable devices, networking, software, and personalised services. It entails clinical validation and feedback at home and residential care facilities via a cloud microservices platform. Underpinned by blockchain technologies, multiple wearable devices, apps, and cameras securely capture the anonymised facets of different life events, whilst machine learning models create individualised user profiles to analyse any decrease in the perceived health-related quality of life typically associated with old age. Two controlled pilots are being conducted with 80 participants at older adult facilities in Romania and Cyprus. By incorporating clinical validation and feedback from specialised practitioners, the vINCI technologies enable older adults not only to self-evaluate their physical activity level, but also to change their behaviours and lifestyle in the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a spinoff of a doctoral study that was completed at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) in 2018 on provision of information services to persons with visual and physical impairments in public university libraries in Kenya. The article examined how ICTs such as internet, e-resources and e-databases, word processing, websites and more were being used in public university libraries to provide access to information by visually and physically impaired persons. Data were collected from the visually and physically impaired students, University Librarians, Systems librarians, staff from disability departments and library staff who provided services to visually and physically impaired persons. The findings revealed that the visually and physically impaired persons in most of the libraries could not access information owing to lack of the necessary assistive and adaptive technologies and weak institutional support and framework. The study recommend that the libraries improve assistive technology infrastructure, embrace new assistive technologies such as telepresence robots, virtual realities and more, and put in place enabling policies and capacity building programmes for library staff to enable them to provide services to persons with impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good health and well-being for all, including those with disabilities, is one of the main sustainable development goals. Data on refugees and asylum seekers with disabilities are limited. Refugees have poor access to rehabilitation and assistive technologies, although laws and policies in Italy guarantee this type of healthcare. However, there are several limitations to the successful implementation of these services. First, the national health system is regionally based, and therefore healthcare facilities and services vary in terms of quality in different regions. A link between reception centers and the healthcare system is therefore highly recommended, because only 10 out of 20 regions have specific services for refugees and asylum seekers with disabilities. Second, only 2% of the total available posts for hosting refugees are reserved for people with disabilities. The lack of a standardized vulnerability assessment represents the main barrier to the organization of specific services for migrants within the community. National stakeholders urgently need to collaborate in order to remove barriers to rehabilitation and assistive technology for refugees with disabilities. Initiatives should focus on health literacy and the empowerment of migrants, data collection on health, disability, and assistive technology, and the organization of community-based rehabilitation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotics with exoskeletons has opened a new era of research in the field of modern rehabilitation and assistive technologies. The technology promises to improve the functionality of the upper limbs, which are necessary for daily operations. Exoskeleton technology is developing rapidly but requires interdisciplinary research to solve technical problems such as kinematic compatibility and the development of effective human-robot interaction. This article presents a new design of a device that helps to rehabilitate the upper extremities. The proposed design is characterized by a lightweight structure with an adaptable geometry for various users with low cost and easy to wear characteristics. The CAD model is developed for design details and for modeling, the results of which provide data on the feasibility of the proposed design and its characteristics in the main operational characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Converging visual behavioural and attentional allocation studies within neuroscience have shown culture influences the processing of visual information obtained from the visual field. While attending (reviewing) a visual scene, individuals from a collectivist culture attend more to the context (background) compared to those from an individualist culture who view more the focal object. This highlights the effect of cultural conditioning in terms of holistic and analytical processing of visual information. This study aimed to demonstrate these principles in the context of an assistive product, a wheelchair, highlighting the key visual elements of the form; and, how a congruent background (hospital room) or incongruent (athletics track) influenced cultural bias during visual processing and assigned meaning. A combination of research methods (Semantic Differential Scale and eye-tracking) was used to triangulate the results. A total of 126 adult student participants, (Pakistani/collectivist, n = 57) and the (UK/individualist, n = 69), viewed a visual presentation of a wheelchair with semantically congruent and then an incongruent background and responded via an online questionnaire. A sub-sample completed the survey whilst monitored via eye-tracking. Pakistani respondents used shorter and less frequent fixations on the foreground compared to the responses of their counterparts (UK respondents). The wheel of the wheelchair was highlighted as the prominent form by both groups. Results demonstrate a culture-influenced pattern of visual processing even when the product was displayed against a semantically incongruent background. The findings from this study also validate and extend the outcomes of similar studies revealing a more specific, yet consistent, cultural effect on individuals' visual perception. Finally, the efficacy of triangulated research methods in their relationship to exploring the AT product's semantics was discussed. The knowledge of AT products' semantics will be significant to investigate, for their improved social acceptance, particularly when considered from a diverse cultural standpoint. A model of best practice, focussing on semantics manipulation, will provide AT product designers, practitioners, and those involved in their marketing, Internationally, with a suitable process/tool to positively reframe the perception of these devices. Finally, this research will help product and industrial designers to consider cultural cognitive styles in the design of products for the better adoption of products within the global marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection is an important computer vision technique that has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. The literature to date in the field has introduced a range of object detection models. However, these models have largely been English-language-based, and there is only a limited number of published studies that have addressed how object detection can be implemented for the Arabic language. As far as we are aware, the generation of an Arabic text-to-speech engine to utter objects' names and their positions in images to help Arabic-speaking visually impaired people has not been investigated previously. Therefore, in this study, we propose an object detection and segmentation model based on the Mask R-CNN algorithm that is capable of identifying and locating different objects in images, then uttering their names and positions in Arabic. The proposed model was trained on the Pascal VOC 2007 and 2012 datasets and evaluated on the Pascal VOC 2007 testing set. We believe that this is one of a few studies that uses these datasets to train and test the Mask R-CNN model. The performance of the proposed object detection model was evaluated and compared with previous object detection models in the literature, and the results demonstrated its superiority and ability to achieve an accuracy of 83.9%. Moreover, experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the incorporated translator and TTS engines, and the results showed that the proposed model could be effective in helping Arabic-speaking visually impaired people understand the content of digital images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Every day, wheelchair users face countless obstacles that make their social inclusion a real challenge. In this way, it is important that assistive technologies be constantly developed and improved. An example is the dynamometer, which helps in training to characterize the performance of the wheelchair user. In this work, we present a methodology for the dynamic calibration of an inertial dynamometer for wheelchair users, which aims to assist in the rehabilitation and to enable them to perform day-to-day activities independently. The dynamometer is placed on a structure elevated in relation to the ground, at a known height. At the upper end, a wire is attached to the dynamometer cylinder and at the lower end, a known weight is used to enforce acceleration on the cylinder. The wheelchair is placed on top of the cylinder with known different weights corresponding to the user's weight for each repetition of the experiment. The wire is then wrapped around the cylinder and the object is dropped freely, rotating the cylinder. The measurement of the system acceleration is given by an encoder. Data collected in the tests enable to get the system inertial characteristics for each applied weight, allowing to set calibration curve and to evaluate the performance when the propulsion in the dynamometer is imposed by the wheelchair user. This work describes the methodology proposed for calibrating the complete device allowing the quantification of measured values such as power, torque and speed imposed by the user. The calibration steps can be easily reproduced at a low cost and very good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]