Thursday, March 26, 2009
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools
Today I came across the ElderGadget Blog when I was searching for technology that might be helpful to my father, who recently spent the last few weeks in an intensive care unit.
Here are a few things I found on the blog, including what I found when I followed a link to the bindependent website:
Smart Table: A Broadband Communication System for the Elderly
ID Studiolab, Delft University of Technology, NL
"The smart system is aimed to prevent possible social isolation between elderly people and their social contacts. It consists of the Smart Table and the Smart Messenger, which provide easy and intuitive way for elderly people to benefit from the advantage of communication technology and improve the satisfaction of their social activities."
"During the design research, a working prototype is made and evaluated by a user test. The Smart Table offers people a way to use broadband communication without the need for a computer. The television will be used for video communication (web-cam) and the table as user-interface. On the table contact persons can be selected and images and video can be shared. The elderly person can capture images that will be shared instantly. The contact person can select images from his or her computer, which will be projected on the table of the elderly person". (TU Delft - Faculty Industrial Design Engineering - Master Design for Interaction - Project Interactive Technology Design - Vincent Steurs & Juin-Yi Huang) 
Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Reader
Photo Watch
Clarity-C900: Amplified Big Button Cell Phone 
911 Guardian: "Tiny wearable speakerphone"
Extra Large TV Remote Control
SmartShopper: Electronic grocery-list maker
Bierley's ColorMouse Video Magnifier
RELATED
Live from CES - Dakim's Brain Fitness Keeps Seniors Sharp
Previous post: Ubiquitous Computing - Grandpa and grandkids use a webcam and Skype across the miles
YouTube Vlogger: Geriatric1927
Geriatric Gripes and Grumbles
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Web of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks, Embedded Systems, and (Everyware) Health Care
What is the Web of Things?
I just came across the blog of the same name. The concept is similar to the "Internet of Things", but in my opinion, Vlad and Dominique, the guys behind the blog, have wrapped the concept into a more "user-friendly" package. They have found a way to articulate this concept far better than my feeble attempts, and for this, I am very thankful.
Web of Things: Architecting the Web of Things, for techies and thinkers!
Here is what I lifted from the "About" Section of this blog, plus a few other quotes:
"What is WebofThings.com?
It is a web page founded by Vlad Trifa and Dominique Guinard, two researchers/geeks working at ETH Zurich and SAP Research Zurich. It is more a scrap book that is here to dump our thoughts ideas on our research and work topic, which is the Web of Things. Unlike most Web 2.0 sites that are about advanced powerpoint engineering, we talk about real things that’s under the hood.
There are three main topics in here. First technologies, this section is only for geeks, simply put. It’s about coding, developing toys, plugging kettles on the web (and we actually did that!). The second part is about new ideas, new technologies that are in the lab. It’s about research papers, and software philosophy, and about researchers worldwide. The third part is about end-users and products. You, me, but especially my grand-ma. It’s about products that exist, or at least should exist (or should not!). It’s about marketing and new ideas out there.
Thanks, but it doesn’t help. What is the Web of Things then?
It is an alternative vision to what the Web of tomorrow will look like. It’s about taking the Web as we know it and extending it so that anyone can plug devices to it. It’s basically about giving eyes, ears, and all kinds of sensory appendixes located worldwide to it. It’s about seamlessly connecting the physical world with the virtual.
Why do you want to change the Internet? What’s wrong with it?
Not much really. It’s just a little boring. It only contains data published by other humans, but it’s not enough linked with our physical reality, not real time / real world enough for our taste!
Why should I read this blog?
Well depends how much you care about technology. It’s both for geeks/hackers who need a playground to develop and try ideas. But it’s also for the security expert who wants to take part to make the Web a safer place to hang out. It’s also for people who want to find new ideas.
Cool! SAP has a blog!
Actually, not really. All what we write here is only our own opinions and thoughts, and doesn’t reflect the views of any of our employers. "
"One things that I don’t understand, is that most people in our field do not really like our approach, or maybe they simply don’t get it. Indeed, we’re kind of stuck between several worlds: wireless sensor networks (WSN) people that find our approach too esoteric, and HCI people that find it not enough sexy. It is a bit annoying, as people don’t take us very seriously, especially not WSN researcher. I overheard comments like “What? You want to use the Web to connect devices? hahaha! I can’t stop laughing, haha it hurts me! Come on, be serious dude! Using the Web for that!! Man, you’re great, I gotta call my colleagues to tell them your idea, they’re gonna *love* it“. Jeez! -Vlad Trifa"
"Let’s do something concrete with WSN, that works, and that’s usable, and that people will really need."
Note: When you visit the Web of Things blog, make sure you visit their links!
Why do I think this is important?
First of all, I'm someone who would love to take a class about embedded systems and wireless sensor networks. I got a taste of some of this in a ubiquitous computing class I took a couple of years ago, and I'm still fascinated with these concepts. Imagine a web-browser that could support all sorts of data streaming in from all sorts of things and places, an intelligent web browser that could make perfect sense of he wealth of information that is potentially "out in the wild".
I think that the Web of Things is a concept that will have numerous applications in the very near future. The arena that is foremost in my mind is health care.
Why? I've spent hours hanging around hospitals and health care facilities since my father's health took a down-turn a couple of years ago. If you've been in my shoes, you know what I mean.
I'm writing this from the family waiting room of the cardiac ICU at the Cleveland Clinic, where I've spent the better part of the week with my father, who had surgery and a few complications. I've had plenty of time to spend listening and observing.
Earlier today, as I was visiting my father in the ICU, I had a chance to chat with a nurse who was an IT guy in his previous life. I rarely have a chance to engage in "geek speak" in my day job as a school psychologist, so I welcomed the chance to talk about the concept technology and health care.
I asked the guy if he'd heard of the "Internet of Things", and we discussed how a cross platform web browser, linked to all of the various devices and patient monitors in the ICU could potentially solve many of the problems faced by nurses and related health professionals in their day-to-day tasks. The nurse pointed out that wireless technologies would eliminate the need for a number of the wires connected to my dad's body. That was a good point!
We had a good discussion about how software needs to be user-focused and user-friendly. In health care, as in many domains, it is not. Usable, intuitive software, at least in the health care setting, would decrease medical errors, increase efficiency, save time, save lives, and in the mid-to-long run, save lots of money.
Somewhat Related
(Previous post)
Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface, website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games.....
Wireless Sensor Networks for In-Home Healthcare: Potential and Challenges (pdf)
ALARM-Net: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted Living and Residential Monitoring
(Crossbow Blog, 9/28/08)
"Wireless Nodes Dynamically Link to Build Intelligent Sensing Networks"
John Suh, RTC 6/2005
Wireless sensor and data transmission needs and technologies for patient monitoring in the operating room and intensive care unit Paksuniemi, M., Sorvaja, H,; Alasaarela, E.' Mylyla, R. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005, IEEE-EMBS 2005
Healthcare Service with Ubiquitous Sensor Networks for the Disabled and Elderly People
Yung Bok Kim & Daeyoung Kim, Computers Helping People with Special Needs 7/2006
Conferences:
Malignant Spaghetti: A Symposium on Wireless Technologies in Hospital Health Care
(A must-read if this topic is of interest)
S-CUBE 2009
The first international conference on Sensor System and Software
"The widespread acceptance of these new services can be improved by the definition of frameworks and architectures that have the potential to radically simplify software development for wireless sensor network based applications. The aim of these new architectures is to support flexible, scalable programming of applications based on adaptive middleware. As a consequence, WSNs require novel programming paradigms and technologies. Moreover the design of new complex systems, characterized by the interaction of different and heterogeneous resources, will allow the development of innovative applications that meet high performance goals. Hence, WSNs require contributions from many fields such as embedded systems, distributed systems, data management, system security and applications. The conference places emphasis on layers well above the traditional MAC and routing, and transport layer protocols."
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Top 15 Blog Posts: Technology Supported Human World Interaction
As of 5/31/08:
Multitouch LaserTouch from Microsoft, Andy Wilson, Innovation...
More of Microsoft's Andy Wilson: Video of Surface Multi-Touch Computing
Urban Screens, Urban Interfaces, Digital Media, and the Arts in Public Spaces
Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games...
Interdisciplinary Research in Computer Science and Information Technology: Revisiting the Equator Project
Human-Information Interaction, Usability, User Interface Design Patterns, Mobile Web Design: Random Links.
Positive examples of large-touch screen display interaction: Interactive touch wall at CeBIT: UBC's Shadow Reaching
NextWindow Demos a Multi-touch Display: A more affordable "Surface"
Design Considerations: Touch screen interaction, mobile computing, and Synaptics
Nokia's Morph Prototype and Concept
Ubiquitous interactive computing comes to the corner bank?!
Technology-Supported Shopping and Entertainment-User Experience at Ballantyne Village: "A" for concept, "D" for touch-screen usability
thirteen23's Touch Screen Information Kiosk: A GOOD Example of Touch-screen Interaction and Content
Link to article: Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electomyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces
I wish I could be Johnny Chung Lee for a Day! Tracking fingers with the Wii Remote
multi touch
world
Monday, May 12, 2008
Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games...
I've been concerned about the problems people encounter with health technology, especially over the past year or so as I witnessed my father's journey in and out of hospitals, the emergency room, and various medical offices.
Technology can support quality health care. Systems that incorporate user-friendly electronic medical records (EMR) can support effective communication and collaboration among the members of medical teams. Technology that is not user-friendly can lead to inefficiency among health care team members, and can also contribute to errors that affect patient safety, if not lives.
In my opinion, health care software systems should ensure that the applications used by the patient inter-operate with those used by practitioners and health care facilities. The system should also allow for interaction with family members, especially when the patient is elderly, has a serious illness, or is a minor. This would be a good way to provide guidance for family members caring for the patient at home, and also provide an effective means of monitoring the patient's progress.
Microsoft Health's Common User Interface website provides a design guidance document, examples of toolkits and samples, a toolkit download, a showcase, and a roadmap that offers more detailed information. This is a great move on the part of Microsoft.
Microsoft's Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) are used for toolkit controls, which I think is a good idea. I've played around with both, and also Expressions Blend, and have been surprised at how quickly I've been able to create prototypes for my various "experiments".
Microsoft Health's Common User Interface guidelines appear to be user-friendly for developers, which might ensure that user-friendly applications for healthcare eventually get into the hands of health workers and patients alike. This is important.
Related Thoughts:
Last year, I read an article in Pervasive Computing about new technologies that might prove to be useful to health care workers. Despite the efforts of researchers to incorporate user-centered design concepts and usability studies during the development of health care software, health care workers continue to be frustrated with technology.
Since I've found myself on the receiving end of user-unfriendly technology for most of my working life, I decided to write a letter to the editor of Pervasive Computing and offer a solution or two. Why not harness power of the 100,000+ nurses who've participated longitudinal studies about womens' health, and apply their knowledge by inviting them to play a role in user-centered development and usability testing of software for the health care industry?
More thoughts...
I was thinking about the Games for Health conference I attended last week and how developers could go about conducting usability studies for their games. Developers of health-oriented games and related applications should also consider tapping into this great resource. Nurses are represented in all facets of health care, and their hands-on experiences with patients could inform the development of user-friendly and useful health games.
Pervasive Health Care, Pervasive Games for Health:
I envision that in the near future, mini-health games, along with health-monitoring applications, will be widely available on mobile phones and other mobile devices. Wouldn't it be fun to play a health game on your mobile while waiting for your medical appointment?
I've noticed that many clinics and pharmacies now have large screens running health info-mercials. Wouldn't it be cool to harness the display for some serious health gaming?
One place to start might be at CVS minute-clinics. These clinics are led by nurse practitioners and supported by a medical doctor in another location, and offer care to a large number of people, close to where they live.
Audio about CVS Minute Clinics
Minute Clinic Website
American Well: The next generation of health communication
Related World Health Care Blog Posts:
The New Place for Health Care is Everywhere
EMR's Might Work for Physicians in PHM
EMR "The Movie"- Coming Soon (Maybe)
On the Coming "Everyware" Bubble in Health Care
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Skype in the Hospital: Link to post about communication across the miles and generations
More hospitals offer free WiFi for patients and their families. One hospital near Grand Rapids, Michigan, offers large-screen displays with Internet access as well as access to the patient's medical information. Any thoughts?
For more information and links, read the related post on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.
