The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of 3 brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigms in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) population (n = 11). Using a repeated-measures design, participants completed 3 BCI conditions: row/column (RCW), checkerboard (CBW), and gray-to-color (CBC). Based on previous studies, it is hypothesized that the CBC and CBW conditions will result in higher accuracy, information transfer rate, waveform amplitude, and user preference over the RCW condition. An offline dynamic stopping simulation will also increase information transfer rate. Higher mean accuracy was observed in the CBC condition (89.7%), followed by the CBW (84.3%) condition, and lowest in the RCW condition (78.7%); however, these differences did not reach statistical significance (P =.062). Eight of the eleven participants preferred the CBC and the remaining three preferred the CBW conditions. The offline dynamic stopping simulation significantly increased information transfer rate (P =.005) and decreased accuracy (P <.000). The findings of this study suggest that color stimuli provide a modest improvement in performance and that participants prefer color stimuli over monochromatic stimuli. Given these findings, BCI paradigms that use color stimuli should be considered for individuals who have ALS.

Objective Current Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems typically flash an array of items from grey to white (GW). The objective of this study was to evaluate BCI performance using uniquely colored stimuli. Methods In addition to the GW stimuli, the current study tested two types of color stimuli (grey to color [GC] and color intensification [CI]). The main hypotheses were that in a checkboard paradigm, unique color stimuli will: (1) increase BCI performance over the standard GW paradigm; (2) elicit larger event-related potentials (ERPs); and, (3) improve offline performance with an electrode selection algorithm (i.e., Jumpwise). Results Online results (n = 36) showed that GC provides higher accuracy and information transfer rate than the CI and GW conditions. Waveform analysis showed that GC produced higher amplitude ERPs than CI and GW. Information transfer rate was improved by the Jumpwise-selected channel locations in all conditions. Conclusions Unique color stimuli (GC) improved BCI performance and enhanced ERPs. Jumpwise-selected electrode locations improved offline performance. Significance These results show that in a checkerboard paradigm, unique color stimuli increase BCI performance, are preferred by participants, and are important to the design of end-user applications; thus, could lead to an increase in end-user performance and acceptance of BCI technology.

This qualitative study investigates teachers' perspective on the use of assistive technology (AT) in their daily teaching and interaction with children with special needs. Previous research has investigated this subject from many different angles but has mostly focused on the effects of AT, whereas this study wants to understand  other complexities such as challenges teachers face and their perspective on the effects of AT. The study was carried out in Sweden and the data was collected from both private and public schools through interviews with teachers based on the aim to investigate the role assisitive technology plays in the education of children with special needs in Swedish schools from the perspective of the teachers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with thematic analysis with the knowledge from previous research in mind to increase the research focus based on previous experiences abd existing gaps. This study had several important finding. Most importantly, the teachers expressed that assistive technology encouraged and motivated the children and made it easier for the teachers to present information to the children. At the same time, the teachers expressed that too much use of AT could create an unnecessary dependency for the students, that AT has a risk of being emotionally harmful for the children, and they expressed a lack of training to use these devices properly. From this, it was concluded that there is a need for more collaboration among teachers to echange experiences and ideas and a need for creating an environment that is more conductive to testing, learning, and evaluating technology use. For the future, this will be beneficial for the children using these devices as this will allow us to enhance our knowledge on the subject and improve the experience of the chidren while using these devices in their education.

This study ́ s main purpose is to examine how digital tools can help students with dyslexia in science education. The two questions this study aims to answer are: (I) During what elements of science education do the students feel that they need digital tools? (II) What opportunities and obstacles do students see with digital tools in the science education? This survey used a qualitative method, where students diagnosed with dyslexia were observed and interviewed during a normal school week. The data was analyzed using socio-cultural theories on speaking, learning and writing. The results from the interviews showed that the majority of the students felt the need for digital tools in science education when they were doing independent work or group assignments like laboratory work. The students find obstacles like social media small in comparison to what they learn from using the digital tools. All of the students see the digital tools as motivational tools. For further studies, it would be interesting to measure students' results before and after using digital tools for a period in science class including control groups with dyslexic students and non dyslexic students who did not have access to digital tools, to see if there is any difference between their results. Another aspect that would be relevant, is to test and evaluate what apps are available in science education for students with dyslexia, to work on concepts. These results could then be shared with other schools science educators.

Assistive technology is an important field that has gained a lot of attention and has developed rapidly in recent years. This thesis identified what kind of assistive technologies are currently used within elderly care and further examined the professionals’ attitude towards the assistive technology. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted with a total of four professionals and the empirical findings were analyzed with the use of Technology Acceptance Model. The empirical findings showed that professionals have generally positive attitudes towards the assistive technology, however, the study showed that different types or versions of the same assistive technology affected the perception of using it. Additionally, the study examined the barriers and opportunities of using the technologies. There were concerns identified and potential improvements that could be made; however, the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Bakgrund: Diagnosen demens förekommer världen över och i framtiden förutses antalet drabbade stiga i takt med att livslängden ökar. Demens är en diagnos som innefattar olika symptom. Symptom uppkommer i samband med sjukdomar eller skador i olika delar av hjärnan och den drabbade kan uppleva problem med att hantera sin tillvaro. Några av symptomen vid demenssjukdom kan vara glömska, svårigheter med fysiken och motoriken, svårigheter att orientera sig samt rastlöshet och irritabilitet. Sjuksköterskan skall kunna arbeta ensam eller tillsammans med andra för att bedöma, diagnostisera, planera, genomföra, och utvärdera omvårdnadsarbetet. Utvecklingen av teknik inom vården ställer sjuksköterskor inför nya krav och uppgifter. Syfte: Litteraturstudiens syfte var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av tekniska hjälpmedel inom demenssjukvården. Metod: Beskrivande litteraturstudie där kvalitativa artiklar användes. Totalt inkluderades 11 artiklar. Databasen MEDLINE via PubMed användes för att söka upp samtliga artiklar. Resultat: Sjuksköterskor hade både positiva och negativa erfarenheter. Det ansågs vara viktigt med ett gott samarbete tillsammans med rutiner för implementering och användning av tekniska hjälpmedel. Kunskap om teknologin och ett personcentrerat förhållningssätt var en grundläggande del av omvårdnaden med tekniska hjälpmedel. Sjuksköterskornas erfarenheter visade även att etiken var ett viktigt område att ha i åtanke vid arbetet med tekniska hjälpmedel. Slutsats: Rutiner, teamarbete, kunskap och utbildning är grunden för att arbeta kvalitetssäkert med tekniska hjälpmedel. Den tekniska utvecklingen går hela tiden framåt och teknik i vården är något alla sjuksköterskor någon gång kommer att möta. Det är viktigt att vi tar vara på de erfarenheter som redan finns för att sjuksköterskeyrket och omvårdnadsarbetet skall kunna växa i takt med tekniken. / Background: The diagnosis dementia exists all over the world and the occurrence is expected to rise in the future, as the life span increases. Dementia is a diagnosis that includes different symptoms. Symptoms occurrences is associated with diseases or damages in different parts of the brain and the affected can experience difficulties with handling their existence. Some of the symptoms of dementia can be forgetfulness, difficulties with physics and motor skills, difficulties in finding their way, restlessness and irritability. Nurses shall be able to work alone or with others to assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate the nursing work. The development of technology in health care settings introduces nurses to new demands and tasks. Aim: The aim of the literature study was to describe nurses’ experiences with assistive technology when caring for people with dementia. Method: Descriptive literature study using qualitative articles. A total of 11 articles was included. The database MEDLINE through PubMed was used when searching for articles. Main results: Nurses experiences with assistive technology was both positive and negative. It was crucial that all the professions were working together with routines for the implementation and application of assistive technology. Knowledge of the technology and a person-centered approach was a key-point in the work with assistive technology. The nurses experiences showed that the ethics was an important subject to consider when talking about and using the technology. Conclusion: Routines, teamwork, knowledge and education is the foundation of quality assured care with assistive technology. The technical development is constantly moving forward and technology in health care is something every nurse is eventually going to face. That is why it is important to take care of the existing experiences so that the nursing profession and work can grow alongside the technology.

The purpose of this design project is to propose qualities in communication that could be considered when developing an assistive communication device for infants with Deafblindness in order to make the infant feel connected to the context and for the caregiver to feel connected to the infant, without having physical contact.In order to investigate the problem definition, What qualities could a device have that supports remote interpersonal non-verbal communication? and the two sub-questions: How can the device instill a sense of security, safety and support? and: How can an infant with Deafblindness sense communication?, human-centred design methods were used through a double diamond process.The design process resulted in six qualities, Direct, Spatially informative, Fluent, Individual, Turn-taking, Feedback and a final concept supporting these qualities.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are the only currently viable means of communication for many individuals suffering from locked-in syndrome (LIS) – profound paralysis that results in severely limited or total loss of voluntary motor control. By inferring user intent from task-modulated neurological signals and then translating those intentions into actions, BMIs can enable LIS patients increased autonomy. Significant effort has been devoted to developing BMIs over the last three decades, but only recently have the combined advances in hardware, software, and methodology provided a setting to realize the translation of this research from the lab into practical, real-world applications. Non-invasive methods, such as those based on the electroencephalogram (EEG), offer the only feasible solution for practical use at the moment, but suffer from limited communication rates and susceptibility to environmental noise. Maximization of the efficacy of each decoded intention, therefore, is critical. This thesis addresses the challenge of implementing a BMI intended for practical use with a focus on an autonomous assistive robot application. First an adaptive EEG- based BMI strategy is developed that relies upon code-modulated visual evoked potentials (c-VEPs) to infer user intent. As voluntary gaze control is typically not available to LIS patients, c-VEP decoding methods under both gaze-dependent and gaze- independent scenarios are explored. Adaptive decoding strategies in both offline and online task conditions are evaluated, and a novel approach to assess ongoing online BMI performance is introduced. Next, an adaptive neural network-based system for assistive robot control is presented that employs exploratory learning to achieve the coordinated motor planning needed to navigate toward, reach for, and grasp distant objects. Exploratory learning, or “learning by doing,” is an unsupervised method in which the robot is able to build an internal model for motor planning and coordination based on real-time sensory inputs received during exploration. Finally, a software platform intended for practical BMI application use is developed and evaluated. Using online c-VEP methods, users control a simple 2D cursor control game, a basic augmentative and alternative communication tool, and an assistive robot, both manually and via high-level goal-oriented commands.

Les systèmes de robotique sociale sont de plus en plus présents dans nos vies. Ce ne sont plus des entités isolées, mais on s'attend à ce qu'ils soient capables d'interagir et de communiquer avec les humains. Ils doivent respecter les normes comportementales attendues par les humains avec qui les systèmes robotiques sont en interaction.L'une des principales pistes de recherche dans le domaine de la robotique sociale est représentée par la conception d'une interaction naturelle entre un robot social et un individu. Plus spécifiquement, cette interaction devrait prendre en considération le profil de l'individu, l'état émotionnel, l'état physiologique et l'humeur, entre autres.Dans cette thèse, nous explorons la relation qui existe entre l'échelle de typologie circadienne, la performance cognitive et l'état physiologique au cours de différents scénarios d'interaction homme-robot. L'administration de différents questionnaires psychologiques permet de déterminer le profil d'un individu. En outre, à l’aide de différents capteurs (par exemple, GSR, caméra thermique), de multiples méthodologies ont été développées pour déterminer l’état physiologique d’un individu. Plus spécifiquement, la variation de la température faciale, le clignotement des yeux et la réponse galvanique de la peau ont été étudiés.Plusieurs scénarios d'interaction homme-robot ont été conçus afin de tester le système développé. L'impact de l'empathie a également été étudié. En outre, le système développé a été testé avec succès dans deux environnements réels, avec deux populations vulnérables. La première application d'assistance est représentée par le projet de recherche EU H2020 ENRICHME, dans lequel un robot a été développé pour les personnes âgées atteintes d'un trouble cognitif léger. La deuxième population vulnérable est constituée d'individus souffrant de différents troubles du sommeil.Nous pensons que cette thèse représente une étape importante dans la compréhension de l'état physiologique de l'individu et est liée à la performance cognitive. / Social robotic systems are more and more present in our everyday lives. They are no longer isolated entities, but instead, they are expected to be capable of interacting and communicating with humans. They have to follow the behavioral norms that are expected by the individuals the robotic systems are interacting with.One of the main research directions in the field of social robotics is represented by the design of a natural interaction between a social robot and an individual. More specifically, this interaction should take into consideration the profile of the individual, the emotional state, the physiological internal state, and the mood, among others.In this thesis it is explored the relationship that exists between morningness-eveningness, cognitive performance, and the internal physiological state during different human-robot interaction scenarios. By administering different psychological questionnaires, the profile of an individual can be determined. Moreover, with the help of different sensors (e.g., GSR, thermal camera), multiple methodologies were developed to determine the internal physiological state of an individual. More specifically, the facial temperature variation, the blinking, and the galvanic skin response were investigated.Several human-robot interaction scenarios have been designed in order to test the developed system. The impact of empathy was also investigated. Furthermore, the developed system was successfully tested in two real-world environments, with two vulnerable populations. The first assistive application is represented by the ENRICHME EU H2020 research project, where a personal robot was developed for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment. The second vulnerable population consists of individuals suffering from different sleep disorders.We believe that this thesis represents an important step in understanding how the physiological internal state of an individual is related to cognitive performance, and to the user profile of that individual.

December 2007" A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Occupational Therapy. Typescript Project Advisor : Max A. Ito The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004 requires individualized education program (IEP) teams to consider the intervention of assistive technology (AT); however, the Act allows IEP teams to provide or forego AT, without direction for implementation. Little evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of AT in a public school setting. This study investigated the effect of AT provided by a multidisciplinary AT team in a public school setting. Thirteen participant units each consisted of a special education case manager and student who had recently received AT to address unmet IEP goals and objectives. The students ranged from preschool to 8th grade, had varying special education classifications, and used AT for oral or written communication or computer or curriculum access. In a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest repeated-measures design, this study used the Student Performance Profile (SPP) and the School Function Assessment with the AT supplement (SFA-AT) to assess the effect of AT on performance and participation. Case managers completed both assessments soon after students received their AT and again 4 months later. The results of the SPP, which measures changes in ability on AT-relevant IEP goal-and-objectives, indicated significant improvement in performance, t(12) = 5.54, p = .00. The results of SFA-AT Part III (Activity Performance) were not significant for performance or participation over time, t(12) = 0.82, p = .21, and t(12) = 0.70, p = .50, respectively. AT provided by a multidisciplinary team may help students improve school performance in the form of improvement on goals and objectives; however, participation did not appear to be positively affected. Further study is needed for measuring performance and participation of larger populations of students who use AT and for improvement in instrumentation.