Design of a life support computer network system for aged people
Shuichi KATO
Shoichi TAKEDA
Koki TORIUMI
Teikyo Heisei Univ., 2289-23 Ichihara, Chiba, Japan
Tel: 0436-74-5783 Fax: 0436-74-5783
E-mail: sungaku@alles.or.jp
Masayoshi NOGUCHI
Nippon Electronics Development Co. Ltd.
5-37-18 Kamikitazawa,
Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
1. Introduction
The concept of barrier-free is to remove any barriers between equipment, facilities, and users [1]. Barrier-free techniques can help make personal computer communication for handicapped and aged people much easier. A computer system designed using barrier-free techniques can give these people easy access to medical checks and mental care. In other words, human-friendly computer communication offers them a high quality of life. Aged people who live alone are in particular need of a daily health check, medication, and warm communication with family and friends. Thus a human-friendly communication system is essential for the physical and mental care of aged people. To achieve human-friendly communication with a personal computer, we propose a prototype model of a life support system that has various types of multi modal interfaces and is capable of multimedia communication [2]~[4]. In this paper, we focus on the design of the human interface unit of this system. We also evaluate acceptability and describe proposal ideas and operation methods of the system.
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2. System design
The design of the life support system is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1- Life Support System
This human interface of this system adapts to the user's physical condition. For example, the size of an image on monitor can be adapted for the user's visual acuity. The input equipment of the multimodal interface includes a mouse, a touch-panel, a microphone, and a videocamera. The output information can be expressed as stationary images, animation, and voice. This system comprises a Windows GUI network with three terminals, one each for the user, the family, and the doctor. Our system can give optimum input/output modality, according to the user's physical condition such as visual acuity, by changing the size of the characters and figures on screen. Aged people can use their terminal to send to their doctor or family data including ECG, pulse (or heart rate), blood pressure, body weight, body temperature, and if necessary, any other medical data [coughing, eye movement, EEG, and evoked potential (ABR)]. Communication over the terminal also allows aged people to feel close to their family when they receive video images of their grandchildren or when they send video mail. Another extremely important function of the network is the communication between aged people and their doctor. The terminal sends medical data or mail for pills and receives doctor advice. The doctor's terminal receives the medical data from the aged people, their mail, and other real-time communication, and it sends the results of the examination and the schedule for the next consultation. All mail and examination results are entered into the medical data base, which is accessible from any terminal. The Windows95-driven main menu is shown in Figure 2. A mouse click on the health check button in Figure 2 brings up the health check menu shown in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows the screen brought up after a mouse click on Tel & Com. in Figure 2.
Figure2 - Main Menu
Figure 3 - Health Check Menu
Figure 4 - Communication Menu
Figure 5 - Opinion Test results
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3. Evaluation of acceptability
We conducted a five-step opinion test for ten subjects (two men and eight women)between 57 and 64 years old (average age 60.3 years). We investigated the acceptability of the system to aged people and the expectable functions of this system.
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4. Results and discussion
4.1 Biomedical data processing
(1) ECG: ECG waveforms were fed into the personal computer by an A/D converter with a sampling frequency of 77 Hz for numerical processing of R-R intervals, and for characterization of the waveforms. Heart rates were obtained from the ECG waveforms, recorded by the single polar chest induction method.
(2) Heart rates: This system can measure heart rates from 50 to 100 beats per minute with a precision of ü}3%. Re-measurement is required for heart beats out of this range.
(3) Body weight: The system can measure body weights from 37 to 76 Kg with a precision of ü}1 Kg. When the user's height is fed into the personal computer before measurement, the body fat ratio can be obtained.
(4) Blood pressure: This system can measure blood pressures from 20 to 300 mmHg with a precision of ü}4 mmHg.
(5) Coughing: Data (eye movement, EEG, and ABR) recorded into a portable data recorder were analyzed by autocorrelation and powerspectrum.
4.2 System evaluation
The results of the acceptability of each interface function of this system are shown in Figure 5. The health check, which interested the subjects greatly, had an average evaluation value of 4.2. Real-time communication with grandchildren and family averaged 4.6, and the entire system averaged 4.6. These results confirm that this system is a friendly useful communication system for aged people.
This system has the following features:
(1) An operating interface that can be easily operated by aged people (barrier-free interface).
(2) Computer-aided human communication for "worthwhile living" of aged people (high quality of life).
(3) Daily health check and medication check.
In terms of the first feature, the average evaluation value of "confidence for operation alone" had the lowest score. Before the test, we showed the subjects how to operate the system. It took the subjects, however, approximately ten minutes to complete a given operation. Almost all the subjects said that they believed they would become familiar with this system if an advisor were to help them for a while.
In terms of the second feature, the average value of "about real-time communication with grandchild" was 4.6. This clearly shows that subjects are very interested in this function.
In terms of the third feature, the value of "about health check by personal computer" was highest: 4.9. Moreover, 90% of the subjects evaluated it as a "very good function." Therefore, we confirmed that aged people want the life support system in order to keep their mental and physical condition healthy.
Similar systems for remote medical care are also being developed. But there is insufficient research on how to offer aged people a "high quality of life." We confirmed that aged people would benefit by research on a "friendly human communication" system that takes into account individual physical and mental characteristics.
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5. References
[1]M. Nomura (ed): Theories on Barrier Free Environment (in Japanese)., Ishiyaku Pub. Inc. 1992.
[2]S. Kato, S. Takeda, and K. Toriumi et al.,: A design of the medical data collecting system in daily life of aged people., Proc. 11th Aut. Conf. Jap. Soc. MEBE P163, 1997.
[3]S. Kato, S. Takeda, and K. Toriumi et al.,: Application of barrier-free engineering to a design of life support system for aged people., Proc. 27th Ann. Meet. Kanto-branch Jap. Eng. Res. Soc. P66-67, 1997.
[4]S. Kato, S. Takeda, and K. Toriumi et al.,: A design of the life support system for aged people., 10th Bioenging Conf. P41-42, 1998.
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