Towards personalized smart wheelchairs: Lessons learned from discovery interviews

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015:2015:5016-9. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2015.7319518.

Abstract

We posit that it is necessary to investigate the personalization of smart wheelchairs in three aspects interfaces for interaction, controllers for action (top-level, middle-level, and low-level), and feedback in interaction. Our team has been selected as an Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Team by the National Science Foundation to pursue customer discovery research to explore the commercial viability of smart wheelchairs. Through the process, our team has performed more than 110 interviews with powered wheelchair users, manufacturers, therapists, policy makers, and non-profit organization staff. Our findings revealed that the acceptability of fully autonomous systems by the users is still challenging and highly-dependent on the severity of the disability. Furthermore, the cost, ease-of-use and personalization are the most important factors in commercializing smart wheelchair technologies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Activities of Daily Living
  • Disabled Persons / psychology*
  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Interviews as Topic
  • Wheelchairs*