Covid19 has brought up physical and mental challenges for all of us. However, this is even more pronounced for those who suffer from psychological pathologies, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One of the main challenges that parents of children with ASD faced during the pandemic was to plan and structure a daily routine for their kids. The disruption of the routine, together with the difficulty of combining work and the care of the child has resulted in behavioral problems and stress and anxiety for both, parents and children.    This project focused on developing an adaptive robot that helps children with autism to plan and self-manage their day, with the end goal of becoming more independent. With adaptability, agencies, senses, and playfulness at the core of the design, Pepe is meant as a support tool for these children to use along the way. By collecting information from the performance of the kid, it is able to adapt its behavior to the child´s (and parent´s) needs and desires, and therefore progress with the child. It builds upon the principles of Positive Behavioral Support to prevent emotional crises by embracing a long-run negotiation process, by which the child gets gradually closer to the end goal of self-autonomy. Intending to be adapted to the accentuated needs of these children, it combines traditional and computational elements to make the most out of the experience. This project included in-depth user research together with parents and experts, an interdisciplinary design approach, and a prototyping phase in which a prototype was tested with children with ASD.

By 2030, the Government of Canada predicts that over 9.5 million (23%) Canadians will be 65 years of age or older. For this growing demographic of older adults, intelligent home health technologies have been proposed as one beneficial avenue to support and maintain health and wellness as they begin experiencing ageing-related health effects. However, many ethical concerns have been raised regarding the design and deployment of these technologies in ageing-in-place settings such as long-term care and nursing homes. This thesis aims to better understand the ethical concerns that long-term care stakeholders have with a subset of intelligent home health technologies known as Ambient Assistive Living (AAL) technology. To obtain this understanding, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted to gather the different ethical concerns that long-term care stakeholders have with AAL technology and to observe the various ethical design and engineering frameworks used to develop AAL technology for aging-in-place settings. 41 publications were analyzed to identify various ethical concerns held by ageing-in-place stakeholders and the different ethical design and engineering frameworks used to address these concerns. The findings from the SLR identified 17 ethical concerns that influenced how the research was conducted with long-term care facility stakeholders. Following the SLR, a Participatory Design methodology in the form of workshops and interviews was developed and implemented with 30 long-term care facility stakeholders to understand their ethical concerns with two AAL devices: the Hexoskin ProShirtTM - a wearable device used to monitor and collect vital signs, and the AWS DeepLensTM camera - a machine-learning enabled video camera used to make predictions. Through data analysis, 35 topics were identified and grouped into 12 main ethical concerns for both devices. Once a better understanding of long-term care stakeholders' ethical concerns with the two devices was gained, a prototype of an ethical design tool - the Ethical DataSheet - was proposed. An Ethical DataSheet is meant to support researchers, engineers, designers, and others in developing a better understanding of the ethical concerns they must consider when designing and developing AAL technology for ageing-in-place applications. To create the Ethical DataSheet prototype, a snowball sampling literature review was conducted. By conducting the second literature review, inspiration from different ethical design tools was used to develop the prototype. The Ethical DataSheet prototype was then used to create Ethical DataSheets for the Hexoskin ProShirt™ and AWS DeepLens™, which present the top ethical concerns that were identified through the workshops and interviews with long-term care facility stakeholders. The findings of this research will be shared with the PATH research community, who are dedicated to providing nationwide testing and services for home health technologies that will accelerate the availability of appropriate smart systems (i.e. AAL technologies) for seniors' and patients' home healthcare.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires all students; regardless of poverty level, learning disability, limited English proficiency, or racial/ethnic origins; to be in general education classrooms meeting high standards of proficiency in reading/language arts and mathematics by 2013-14. Meeting high standards of proficiency in a general education classroom is particularly challenging for students diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders, such as Asperger's syndrome. Limited interests, inflexible language, and social skills deficits without a history of cognitive or language delays before the age of three characterize the disorder. Other symptoms, such as clumsiness, unusual sensory reactions, and talk in unusual ways or with an odd tone of voice are present early in life, Asperger's syndrome is typically not diagnosed until school age and on average the age is 11 years old. Various teaching strategies and assistive technologies encourage positive learning environments allowing for students with Asperger's to be productive in a general education classroom. A quantitative survey research design was the guiding methodology. Utilizing SurveyMonkey, two cross-sectional surveys were created and sent to Tennessee's 150 special education district supervisors with a request to forward to both special education and general education teachers. The surveys had three distinct components based on students with Asperger's syndrome; teaching strategies implemented, current assistive technologies being used, and how eReaders, tablets, and mobile applications are being utilized as assistive technologies. The results were tallied and evaluated. A comprehensive set of teaching strategies and assistive technologies used in the general education classroom to improve reading/language arts for secondary students diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome was compiled.

The rollator is a mobility aid commonly used to facilitate balance and mobility for individuals with cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, or neurological deficits. Despite its popularity, there are also reports of adverse effects related to walker use linked to increased fall risks. Studies examining the effectiveness and consequences of rollator use have employed standard laboratory-based measurement methods that rely on performing specific tasks within a short time period and under controlled conditions, potentially limiting generalization to mobility in the everyday context. An instrumented rolling walker (iWalker) was developed as an ambulatory measurement tool applicable to the assessment of balance outside of the lab or clinic for assistive device users. The iWalker autonomously collects measurements of the upper and lower limb behaviour related to balance, walker kinematics, and video of the immediate spatial environment. The design and development of the iWalker is first described, followed by two studies characterizing the involvement of the upper limbs for balance in standing and walking that served to address gaps in the literature and evaluate the utility of the upper limb measures. Overall, the upper limbs can become the primary effectors of balancing forces when lower limb capabilities are compromised. When lower limb involvement was experimentally constrained, the upper limbs became the primary effectors of balance control in healthy, young adults. In older adults, individuals demonstrating the highest upper limb usage during walking were associated with the largest reduction in frontal plane stepping parameters (i.e., step width). A third study evaluated the applicability of the iWalker to assess everyday mobility in a series of in-patients recovering from neurological injury (i.e., stroke, traumatic brain injury). Patients demonstrated significantly different upper limb balancing behaviour in everyday situations compared to in-laboratory assessments. Furthermore, the iWalker captured behaviours that may be precursors to falling, such as collisions, stumbling and lifting the assistive device. The implications of these studies on assessing the effectiveness of rollators and feasibility of using the iWalker in follow-up efforts are discussed.

The work described in this thesis falls under the umbrella of the Aurora project (Aurora 2000). Aurora is a long-term research project which, through diverse studies, investigates the potential enhancement of the everyday lives of children with autism through the use of robots, and other interactive systems, in playful contexts. Autism is a lifelong pervasive disability which affects social interaction and communication. Importantly for this thesis, children with autism exhibit a deficit in narrative comprehension which adversely impacts their social world. The research agenda addressed by this thesis was to develop an interactive software system which promotes an understanding of narrative structure (and thus the social world) while addressing the needs of individual children. The conceptual approach developed was to break down narrative into proto-narrative components and address these components individually through the introduction of simple game-like tasks, called t-stories, presented in a human-computer interaction context. The overarching hypothesis addressed was that it is possible to help children with autism to improve their narrative skills by addressing proto-narrative components independently. An interactive software system called TouchStory was developed to present t-stories to children with autism. Following knowledge of the characteristics and preferences of this group of learners TouchStory maintained strong analogies with the concrete, physical world. The design approach was to keep things simple, introducing features only if necessary to provide a focussed and enjoyable game. TouchStory uses a touch-sensitive screen as the interaction device as it affords immediate direct manipulation of the t-story components. Socially mediated methods of requirements elicitation and software evaluation (such as focus groups, thinking aloud protocols, or intergenerational design teams) are not appropriate for use with children with autism who are not socially oriented and, in the case of children with ‗lower functioning‘ autism, may have very few words or no productive language. Therefore a new strategy was developed to achieve an inclusive, child-centred design; this was to interleave prototype development with evaluation over several long-term trials. The trials were carried out in the participants‘ own school environments to provide an ecologically valid contextual enquiry. In the first trial 18 participants were each seen individually once. The second and third trials were extended studies of 12 and 20 school visits with 12 and 6 participants respectively; each participant was seen individually on each school visit, provided that the participant was at school on the day of the visit. Evaluation was carried out on the basis of video recordings of the sessions and software logs of the on-screen interactions. Individual learning needs were addressed by adapting the set of t-stories presented to the participant on the basis of success during recent sessions. No ordering of difficulty among the proto-narrative categories could be known a priori for any individual child, and may vary from child to child. Therefore the intention was to gradually, over multiple sessions, increase the proportion of t-stories from proto-narrative categories which the individual participant found challenging, while retaining sufficient scope for the expression of skills already mastered for the session to be enjoyable and rewarding. The adaptation of the software was achieved by introducing a simple adaptive formula, evaluating it over successive long terms trials, and increasing the complexity of the formula only where necessary. Results indicate that individual participants found the interactive presentation of the simple game-like tasks engaging, even after repeated exposures on as many as 20 occasions. The adaptive formula developed in this study did, for engaged participants, focus on the proto-narrative categories which the participant needed to practice but was likely to succeed; that is it did target an effective learning zone. While little evidence was seen of learning with respect to the fully developed narratives encountered in everyday life, results strongly suggest that some participants were actively engaged in self-directed, curiosity-driven activity that functioned as learning in that they were able to transfer knowledge about the appropriateness of particular responses to previously unseen t-stories. This thesis was driven by the needs of children with autism; contributions are made in a number of cognate areas. A conceptual contribution was made by the introduction of the proto-narrative concept which was shown to identify narrative deficits in children with autism and to form a basis for learning. A contribution was made to computational adaptation by the development of a novel adaptive formula which was shown to present a challenging experience while maintaining sufficient predictability and opportunities for the expression of skills already mastered to provide a comfortable experience for children with autism. A contribution was made to software development by showing that children with autism may be included in the design process through iterative development combined with long term trials. A contribution was made to assistive technology by demonstrating that simplicity together with evaluation over long term trials engages children with autism and is a route to inclusion. We cannot expect any magic fixes for children with autism, progress will be made by small steps; this thesis forms a small but significant contribution.

The levels of income and employment rates of people with disabilities are often lower than those without them. An effective way to free disabled people from these circumstances would be to design proper job accommodation for them. Ordinarily, physical conditions severely restrict their ability to carry out their work efficiently unless they have are provided with appropriately designed assistive technology (AT). However, due to the physical conditions unique to each disabled person, understanding the requirements of a disabled person is often a challenge to an AT designer. The aims of this research were to develop a design model for an empathy tool that would assist in the process of designing AT for job accommodation, and to explore the relationship between the use of empathy tools and the improvement of design elements in job accommodation AT. The design models employed were developed by analysing interviews with AT users and examining the results of observations and a literature review. The model was then used to build an empathy tool to be used in designing job accommodation AT for a selected subject; the empathy tools were used in a series of assessments of designer users. The results show that, when compared with tools used in traditional design briefs, empathy tools can successfully help designers to improve design elements in terms, respectively, of their understanding of users' physical abilities (22 per cent), work requirements (26.6 per cent), ergonomic requirements (22.8 per cent), and environment characteristics (21.4 per cent). Meanwhile, it is difficult for the tool to improve upon other design elements, about which one must learn by gaining design experience.

En años recientes, el uso de tabletas y teléfonos o dispositivos inteligentes ha incrementado continuamente gracias a la facilidad y disponibilidad de acceso a la información, entretenimiento y comunicación que ofrecen con su creciente variedad de aplicativos y especialmente su acceso a internet. A diferencia de computadoras o notebooks, estos dispositivos tienen tecnologías para mejorar la usabilidad para personas con dificultades visuales que también pueden ser utilizadas para crear nuevos aplicativos de asistencia sin la necesidad de aparatos externos. Esto genera oportunidades para un desarrollo inclusivo que mantiene la misma portabilidad. Sin embargo, estos dispositivos principalmente usan una pantalla táctil y aún entre sus tecnologías incorporadas, no tienen medios para ingresar datos que sean permitan que personas con ceguera ingresen información por otros medios que no sean su voz o un complejo teclado QWERTY. En este artículo, proponemos el uso de una solución adaptativa que permite al usuario usar la misma pantalla táctil como una alternativa para ingresar datos al simular un teclado Braille y demostramos su uso, además de tecnologías de lector de texto, con una aplicación que permite que una persona ciega chatee mediante mensajes instantáneos.

A escassez de equipamentos e soluções à disposição das pessoas portadoras de necessidades especiais é evidente e, na maioria dos casos, não está entre as prioridades primárias dos governos, tanto nos países desenvolvidos como, e principalmente, nos subdesenvolvidos. O desenvolvimento de dispositivos a preços acessíveis é, desta forma, uma carência real. O alto custo de fabricação de dispositivos assistivos é oriundo da necessidade de se construí-los de forma personalizada o que geralmente utiliza o estado da arte de determinada tecnologia. Aglutinando então, tecnologias já difundidas com novas abordagens e ferramentas, foi implementado um dispositivo assistivo com um índice de \"personalização\" extremamente baixo e com custo acessível. O método GRAFCET como ferramenta de desenvolvimento, aliado a tecnologia FPGA, nas fases de prototipação e produção, mostram-se eficazes e de fácil aplicabilidade. Para essa finalidade foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta de conversão GRAFCET - Circuito Digital que facilita e torna possível não só na elaboração do esquema GRAFCET, mas principalmente possibilita antever semelhança com outras aplicações que não são facilmente visualizadas num primeiro momento, permitindo a sua simplificação. O dispositivo concebido, mostrou que, com pequenas modificações, é possível desenvolvê-los de forma que atenda não apenas um, mas vários portadores de necessidades especiais, viabilizando assim a diminuição dos custos de projeto, desenvolvimento e construção dos equipamentos que venham a atender estas pessoas, permitindo assim melhora significativa em sua qualidade de vida. / In all countries, particularly in underdeveloped ones, there are few equipment and solutions available to people with physical disabilities, whose needs hardly rank among the government\'s top priorities. Therefore, there is a real need to develop low cost equipment to people with disabilities. The high cost of production of assistive devices results from the necessity of building them in a customized way, generally employing some state-of-the-art technology. This work proposes using well known technologies as tools, in such a way to allow the design of assistive devices with a low degree of customization and, consequently, at low cost. Using GRAFCET as a development tool and FPGA technology have shown to be an effective and easily applicable approach during the phases of prototyping and production. We developed a tool that converts GRAFCET designs into a digital circuit. The tool makes it easier to develop GRAFCET schemes and highlights the similarities among different applications, which otherwise could pass unnoticed, resulting in simplified designs. With small modifications, the proposed device can meet the needs of several people with disabilities, resulting in lower design, development and building costs of equipment that can significantly improve their quality of life.

Individuals with upper limb motor deficits due to neurological conditions, such as stroke and traumatic brain injury, may exhibit hypertonia and spasticity, which makes it difficult for these individuals to open their hand. The Hand Orthosis with Powered Extension (HOPE) Hand was created in 2018. The performance of the HOPE Hand was evaluated by conducting a Box and Blocks test with an impaired subject. Improvements were identified and the HOPE Hand was mechanically redesigned to increase the functionality in performing grasps. The original motor configuration was reorganized to include active thumb flexion and extension, as well as thumb abduction/adduction. An Electromyography (EMG) study was conducted on 19 individuals (10 healthy, 9 impaired) to evaluate the viability of EMG device control for the specified user group. EMG control, voice control, and manual control were implemented with the HOPE Hand 2.0 and the exoskeleton system was tested for usability during a second Box and Blocks test.

The ZigBee standard is a wireless networking standard created and maintained by the ZigBee Alliance. The standard aims to provide an inexpensive, reliable, and efficient solution for wirelessly networked sensing and control products. The ZigBee Alliance is composed of over 300 member companies making use of the standard in different ways, ranging from energy management and efficiency, to RF remote controls, to health care products. Home automation is one market that greatly benefits from the use of ZigBee. With a focus on conserving home electricity use, a sample design is created to test a home automation network using Freescale's ZigBee platform. Multiple electrical designs are tested utilizing sensors ranging from proximity sensors to current sense transformers. Software is fashioned as well, creating a PC application that interacts with two ZigBee transceiver boards performing different home automation functions such as air conditioner and automatic lighting control. / by Michael G. DiBenedetto. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.