Mobility and substitutive interfaces for elderly people and persons with disabilities

Abstract

Many elderly people and persons with disabilities are dependent on powered wheelchairs. These persons have the same desire to use powered mobility as persons with minor disabilities, but they cannot cope with most current powered wheelchair systems because of their disabilities. Therefore, other approaches have to be adopted to overcome this. There is evidence to suggest that increasing the degrees-of-freedom of human-machine interaction can improve interaction rates when implemented carefully. Haptic devices are now commercially available and have become a potentially realistic solution to a variety of interaction design challenges. This present thesis describes an approach to support users of wheelchairs in driving their wheelchair with haptic feedback. A commercial joystick with force-feedback function is analysed and programmed to create adequate force signals concerning the environment of the wheelchair. The factor used to determine the feedback force of the joystick is taken from the displacement of distance sensors to the nearest obstacles. Preliminary tests on persons without disability have shown that there are fewer collisions when the force feedback is activated compared to their performance when the feedback is not activated.