Dementia is an umbrella term for several symptoms of impaired brain function. The person's behavior is affected when mental functions such as memory, attention, concentration and language are affected and the dementia patient can have difficulties to interpret sensory input. Communication is based a lot on body language. It is therefore important for the caregiver to seek eye contact with the patient in order to simplify communication and it can be of great help to show with the whole body what they mean and be able to point out things. Since people with dementia quickly can forget what happened just now it is common to say that they live in the present. This can lead to feelings of panic, if they can’t understand what is happening or how they got into the situation they now find themselves in. Since people with dementia are perceived to have a tendency to become anxious when transported by wheelchair the purpose of this project was to find a way to allow eye contact between caregivers and patients. By developing such a product the expectation is that their feeling of security will increase. Initial in the project a survey was fulfilled to investigate whether caregivers to dementia patients had experienced the problem that the patients could become worried when they couldn’t see who drove their wheelchairs. One part in the survey considered the nurses' view of a rear-facing wheelchair as a possible solution. With the help of various tools of product development the project resulted in a suggestion of a solution in which a removable push bar, if necessary, can be attached to the wheelchair so the wheelchair can be driven in the opposite direction, with the person with dementia and the driver facing each other. Conclusions that have been made in this project are that there is a need for a product that allows eye contact between a person with dementia and its caregiver. The resolution meets the objective to enable eye contact, next step is to produce a functional prototype that can be user-tested.

Wheelchair is for those who cannot walk independently and need assistances in moving around. Six-wheel Power Wheelchair has great functions, such as large sphere of actions, no movement injuries, great stability, and small radius of gyration. The purpose of this paper is to apply the idea of engineering design method and offer a design theory for chassis mechanism for Six-Wheel Power Wheelchair. Firstly, the evolution of chassis mechanism for wheelchair is discussed and the existing chassis mechanism for wheelchair is analyzed. Based on the knowledge, this paper concludes the fundamental functions and structural characteristics of chassis mechanism for power wheelchair and lists the design requirements. Secondly, applying the creative mechanism design procedures, a new design for chassis mechanism and the Kinematic design for six-wheel power wheelchair are proposed and computerized Finally, using CAE software stimulating the designs, the paper presents the three-dimension graph and prototype of the designs.

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in the aerobic response to wheeling between wheelchair dependent individuals and able-bodied individuals of similar genders and ages. Five wheelchair dependent men (WC) and five able-bodied men (AB) performed a 13 minute wheeling test (5 min. at rest, 8 min. wheeling) at 4.0 km∙hr-1. Heart rate (HR) and VO2 were recorded using a Vmax ST system during the constant speed test. There was no significant difference in HR or VO2 between the two groups during rest. Both HR and VO2 were higher for WC during exercise. The mean METS during exercise for WC and AB were 3.589 ± 0.516 and 2.726 ± 0.164, respectively. The results indicate that at a given workload a spinal cord injured wheelchair user will have a greater aerobic response than an able-bodied person in a wheelchair completing the same task.

For people bound to a wheelchair, the ability to elevate one's legs is as much a comfort concern as it is a health concern. The elevation of one's legs changes the user's sitting position, thereby increasing their comfort level while at the same time increasing circulation, ultimately aiding in the prevention of pressure sores and lower extremity swelling. Unfortunately, the motion of current legrests on manual wheelchairs does not accurately match the motion of the user's lower leg. This mismatch of motion causes the legrest to push up on the leg, shortening it while applying torque to the hip. An elevating/articulating wheelchair legrest that consisted of a planar sixbar linkage coupled with a worm gear set was designed and manufactured to address the shortcomings of standard elevating legrests. The legrest prototype elevates and articulates simultaneously from a single user interface, allowing the user's leg to be straight in the elevated position. The prototype design was evaluated by a potential user, his nurse, and the Director of Rehabilitation Engineering at the Massachusetts Hospital School. The collective response from this evaluation was very favorable. The design was successful in meeting the design specifications. Further modifications are needed before the design is ready for the commercial market.

Wheelchair provided people, whose act is inconvenient, a comfortable and economic moving means. The research, about the physiology of wheelchair, says that, the way of wheelchair using hands to move wheel rim in order to propel and control aim is not much perfect. The aim of the research is to develop new-pattern-wheelchair that can improve the problem of efficiency of propulsion and injure of sport coming from traditional wheelchair. The research set up the desing-process of new-mode wheelchair. According using posture, disposition and upper-limbs-activity-mode, we list feasible program, and establish the stander of assess, than choosing the better programs. In the research, upper-limbs-activity-mode is consisting by upper-limbs-propulsion-mode and upper-limbs-control-mode. After setting up upper-limbs-activity-mode, we establish design specification. We provide feasible design-program for each part of wheelchair. After sifting and combining all kinds of program, we offer better designs of new-mode wheelchair. After all, we choose one program, and work out size-plan and analysis.

The purpose of this research was to investigate object classification algorithms for the application of wheelchair interaction with the environment for the cognitively impaired wheelchair user. Towards this end, top performing object classification algorithms were trained on images of the target object classes (chair, dresser, and sink/washbasin) obtained from the internet and tested on images of the target object classes obtain in the home and patient room environments; these algorithms were Locality-constrained Linear Coding (LLC) [1], Kernel Descriptors (KDES) [2], and Hierarchical Matching Pursuit (HMP) [3]. It was found that HMP achieved the highest over classification accuracy (71.3%) in the home environment and LLC achieved the greatest accuracy (85.0%) in the patient room environment. This research also sought to investigate the potential of active learning to improve upon the obtained classification performance. A maximum mean classification accuracy of 98.6% was achieved when active learning was applied.

Wheelchair users are exposed to whole-body vibrations, particularly when traversing rugged terrain such as in less resourced areas. Suspension systems have been added to wheelchair systems to protect occupants from secondary injuries associated with whole-body vibration. Current suspension systems need to be further developed in order to optimize the protection against these secondary injuries. Until further research finds conclusive evidence for comfort level, and the onset of injury due to vibrations, it has been recommended to reduce whole-body vibration exposure to the lowest possible level. A versatile testing apparatus and method were designed and built to detect the acceleration and frequencies a wheelchair occupant would be exposed to while riding on simulated rough terrain. A novel dummy was instrumented with accelerometers to measure the accelerations and frequencies experienced by the wheelchair user. The apparatus and method was able to detect peak acceleration magnitudes, and was able to detect resonant frequencies and their intensities with either a PSD or FFT analysis. The minimum observable effect of change between two test conditions ranged from 6.0% for peak acceleration analysis when using six tests and a light dummy; to 41.0% for PSD analysis when using three tests and a heavy dummy. This adjustable testing apparatus and method can be used to tune a wheelchair system suspension design because it can elucidate whether or not a design is able to reduce accelerations and attenuate resonant frequencies experienced by a wheelchair occupant. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-30 12:17:57.181

No description available.

The purpose of this research was to investigate object classification algorithms for the application of wheelchair interaction with the environment for the cognitively impaired wheelchair user. Towards this end, top performing object classification algorithms were trained on images of the target object classes (chair, dresser, and sink/washbasin) obtained from the internet and tested on images of the target object classes obtain in the home and patient room environments; these algorithms were Locality-constrained Linear Coding (LLC) [1], Kernel Descriptors (KDES) [2], and Hierarchical Matching Pursuit (HMP) [3]. It was found that HMP achieved the highest over classification accuracy (71.3%) in the home environment and LLC achieved the greatest accuracy (85.0%) in the patient room environment. This research also sought to investigate the potential of active learning to improve upon the obtained classification performance. A maximum mean classification accuracy of 98.6% was achieved when active learning was applied.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 489-495). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.