AN OUTDOOR, SOOTHING, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

MARYMOORE PATTERSON

JERRY KURTZE · TOBIAS YERGIN

ADAM MCCREEVEY

TASSIANA PADEIRO

CONOR QUINN

GURJOT SANDHU

MICHAEL JACOBS

KELLY LOWEN

RITESH SHRESTHA

ALBERT WU

S T A N F O R D , S P R I N G 2 0 1 4

Mechanical Engineering Design Group

416 Escondido Mall

Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305-2203

http://me310.stanford.edu

© June 10th, 2014

AN OUTDOOR, SOOTHING,

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

M E C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R I N G 3 1 0 F I N A L D E S I G N D O C U M E N T

1 Executive Summary

Panasonic Corp. has growing interest in senior care, defined generally as care for thoseolder than age 65. This stems from the increasingly unbalanced demographic situation inJapan where 24.8% of individuals are already 65 or older and 38% are expected to be over65 by 2050 [1]. The demographics of most developed countries and cities, including thoseshown for the United States in Figure 1.1, are expected to follow a similar aging trend.

Aggravating this issue, seniors are more prone to diseases and ailments due to their oftenfrail nature. The burden on health-care providers and systems will become greatly skewedtowards care for the elderly. Panasonic Corp. recognizes the potential to develop innovativesolutions in this field. According to the Stanford Center on Longevity, most surveys showthat over 80% of older adults want to age-in-place. However, the tremendous amount ofBaby Boomers (estimated at 75.8 million) will vastly overfill the 3 million residential carebeds present in the US [16]. The financial burden for seniors and their health-care providersis also very high. The cost of 24-hour supervised care can also range from $6,000 to morethan $10,000 per month depending on the setting (e.g. assisted living vs. in-home care).These worsening problems create chasms the team desires to fill with innovative productsolutions.

Figure 1.1: Demographics of the United States[4]

The team considered many stakeholders in this senior-focus problem. Primarily, thesenior patients themselves are a focus of the project; however, a patient’s family members(including children, grandchildren, siblings, and spouses) also play a significant role in careand well-being. Additionally, health-care providers such as doctors, nurses, and hospitalfacility staff or also administrators and home health agents were considered throughout thisdesign process. To create a user-accepted solution, the technological adeptness of seniors

5

Front Matter 6

was considered. Many seniors are not comfortable with advanced technological devices. Itis assumed that seniors of the future will be more likely to accept technology because of theintegrated lifestyle patterns of many adults; however, the need for simplicity is still crucial.

After considering many needs that were demonstrated and learned through visits tosenior homes, as well as interviews with seniors and elderly caretakers, the team identifiedhow depression and sadness are linked to other factors of life. Many other common seniorissues are either the direct cause or effect of depression. For example, loss of physicalmobility often leads to depression. Similarly, high levels of sadness and depression arelinked to reduced medication compliance, which can in turn degrade the physical conditionof the patient. Considering the enjoyed hobbies and activities of able-bodied seniors thatprevent depression led to the exploration of immersive multimedia “walks.” For manyseniors, physical or mental limitations, or possibly harsh weather conditions prevent outdoorwalking. Thus, the design team decided to simulate walking experiences and treat symptomsof depression and sadness by giving back in some ways the experience of walking.

An immersive multimedia experience of walking through a park is simulated through theuse of Aura, the final prototype shown in Figure 1.2. Users are able to pedal a recumbentexercise bike to traverse through picturesque sceneries. The video play rate speeds up orslows down according to the speed at which the user pedals. In addition to visual progressionthrough the scenery, a user will feel a simulated breeze that varies in intensity accordingto the pedaling rate of the user. Other incorporated senses include listening to surroundnature sounds, mimicking outdoor lighting colors with Hue lights, and smelling the scents ofthe jungle with scented oils. This experience resulted in excited and interested users duringmultiple rounds of user testing at a local senior center. Many users asked for how muchthe Aura was selling and were interested in bringing Aura to confined family members orphysically injured audiences. The team believes that a full product would be desired bycare facilities, hospitals, and therapy facilities to be used among large groups of people.

Figure 1.2: Aura Setup at Stanford EXPE

Contents

1 Front Matter 5Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2 Context 172.1 Need Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.3 Corporate Partner: Panasonic Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.4 The Design Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.4.1 Student Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.4.2 Corporate Liaisons and Coaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4.3 Teaching Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3 Design Requirements 263.1 Functional Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.2 Functional Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293.3 Physical Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303.4 Physical Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4 Design Development 344.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344.2 Assumptions About the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.2.1 Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354.2.2 Future User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354.2.3 Ideal Persona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4.3 Needfinding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384.3.1 Previous Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384.3.2 Senior Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.4 Exploring Primary Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464.4.1 Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.5 Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484.5.1 SUSIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484.5.2 Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514.5.3 Pedaling/Treadmill/Rowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.5.4 Future of Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4.6 User Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674.6.1 Today’s Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674.6.2 Tomorrow’s Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

4.7 Design Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704.8 Business Benchmarking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5 Design Specifications 73

7

Contents 8

5.1 Aura Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.2 Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.3 Coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

5.3.1 MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875.3.2 Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885.3.3 Circuit Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6 Project Management 906.1 Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906.2 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916.3 Distributed Team Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986.4 Project Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

6.4.1 Stanford University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006.4.2 Trinity College Dublin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

6.5 Reflections and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

7 Resources 113

Bibliography 115

Appendices 117

A Panasonic Resources 117A.1 Panasonic Health-care Prompt Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118A.2 Panasonic CES Notes - Abridged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

B Code 130B.1 MATLAB Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131B.2 Arduino Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140B.3 Aura Operating Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

C Spring EXPE Documents 152C.1 Part X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153C.2 Bill of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155C.3 Penultimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157C.4 Brochure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177C.5 Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

D Additional Needfinding 204D.1 Additional Needfinding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205D.2 Medication Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212D.3 Loss of Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224D.4 Rehabilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225D.5 Physical Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227D.6 Anger Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228D.7 Social Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Contents 9

E Finances 233E.1 Fall Stanford Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234E.2 Winter Stanford Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235E.3 Overall Project Stanford Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

List of Figures

1.1 Demographics of the United States[4] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.2 Aura Setup at Stanford EXPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.1 A visual depiction of Panasonic’s organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.2 Panasonic’s healthcare business focuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.1 Design Development Process Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344.2 Demographics of Social Media Users by Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364.3 Marie, the Panasonic persona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374.4 Google TV remote (left) versus Apple TV remote (right) . . . . . . . . . . . . 384.5 Key learnings from on intelligent human-technology interfaces . . . . . . . . . . 394.6 Avenidas Recruitment Advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404.7 On Lok Rooftop Garden Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414.8 Oragami Created by Golden Heritage Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424.9 Waterproof Alarm Wrist Band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434.10 Senior at Lytton Gardens and Cocoa the Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444.11 SUSIE prototype setup in design studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494.12 SUSIE with subsystems labeled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504.13 System diagram of SUSIE interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514.14 Final version of Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524.15 Aura System Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534.16 Aura subsystem function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544.17 Aura frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554.18 Aura’s comoponenets that are hidden from users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564.19 Multimedia sample content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.20 Dyson fan for wind creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584.21 Placing of the speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.22 Recumbent bike used by seniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604.23 Soleus misting fan for humidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614.24 Mild heat lamp for ambient sun lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614.25 Phillips hue lights used to generate ambient lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624.26 Soleus HR3-08-21 Heater for radiant heat generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624.27 Kelly inspecting one of the considered projector setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644.28 NEC short throw projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.29 Pedaling system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.30 A group of seniors gather to experience Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674.31 User testing at the Avendias senior community center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684.32 A senior user experiencing Aura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704.33 Vision of the Future Product Market and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714.34 Panasonic Sales Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.1 Aura Setup in CAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.2 Aura Setup at EXPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

10

List of Figures 11

5.3 Aura Top View in CAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755.4 Aura Front View in CAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765.5 Aura System Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.6 Wooden Frame, with Kelly for Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785.7 Wood Working by Kelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795.8 Tesh Bending Steel Tubing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805.9 Michael and Albert Drilling Wooden Mounting Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815.10 Screen Setup Testing with Wood Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825.11 Mounting of the Hue Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835.12 Arduino Mount Next to Dyson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835.13 Front View with Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845.14 Side View with Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855.15 Top View with Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855.16 Immersive Desktop Calibration Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865.17 Simple MATLAB GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875.18 Protocol and Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885.19 Circuit Diagram of Arduino MEGA pinouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6.1 Projected schedule for winter quarter deadlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926.2 Actual schedule for winter quarter deadlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936.3 Projected schedule for spring quarter deadlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 956.4 Actual schedule for spring quarter deadlines (page 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 966.5 Actual schedule for spring quarter deadlines (page 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976.6 Actual allocation of fall project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1016.7 Planned allocation of winter project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026.8 Actual allocation of winter project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1036.9 Planned allocation of spring project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046.10 Actual allocation of entire project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1056.11 Actual allocation of TCD fall and winter project budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066.12 Planned allocation of the Trinity College Dublin spring project budget . . . . . 107

D.1 Paro with seniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206D.2 Paro is modelled after a baby seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207D.3 Robot & Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207D.4 Her . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208D.5 TCD Robo-Pet Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209D.6 RoboDog User Storyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211D.7 Sol’s Euthanasia, Soylent Green [18] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212D.8 Gummy and rock candy medication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213D.9 A user taking a blind test of candy medication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214D.10 A tester trying to smell the candy and decide if it would taste good . . . . . . 215D.11 Senior testing of the medication gamification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217D.12 Senior testing of the medication gamification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218D.13 Medication blister packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220D.14 Philips Pill Dispensing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221D.15 Rendering of the pill case concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

List of Figures 12

D.16 Foldable template of the pill case concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223D.17 SeeMe rehabilitation setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226D.18 GestureTek WallFX technology demo showing human interaction of ”clearing”

leaves[12] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227D.19 An Indoor Exercise Pedaling System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228D.20 Swimming with a Virtual Shark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229D.21 Virtual Superhero Flying Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230D.22 Albert Testing an Oculus Rift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231D.23 90 Year Old Woman Using Oculus Rift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232E.1 Line item descriptions for Stanford Fall quarter purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . 234E.2 Line item descriptions for Stanford Winter quarter purchases . . . . . . . . . . 235

List of Figures 13

Glossary

Acuity The severity of an illness or disease.ADL Activities of Daily Living: a health-care term referring to day-to-day self-care ac-

tivities. Basic ADLs include: bathing/showering, bowel and bladder management,dressing, eating, functional mobility (such as walking) and personal hygiene.

Adult Day Care A non-residential care facility in which adults with impairments arecared for during the workday and then returned to the usual source of care (often toa family member) at the end of the workday.

AIST National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and TechnologyAPI Application Programming Interface: a series of protocols establishing how certain

software components connect to one another.Arduino An open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use

hardware and software.Assisted living facility Housing facilities designed to provide residences with support for

ADLs (activities of daily living)Aura The focus of this paper and product developed by Stanford University and Trinity

College Dublin for Panasonic Corp..Baby boomer A person born in the United States between 1946 and 1964, during the

post World War II population explosion.Benchmarking A process of researching and observing to understand the state of the art

for a given field or topic.Blender An open source 3D computer graphics software used for 3D modeling, rendering,

and video editing.Brainstorming A process by which groups of people generate ideas.CEP Critical Experience Prototype: an activity designed to gather insights into user in-

teractions within the problem space.Chemist The Commonwealth English word for the North American English word, phar-

macist.CFP Critical Function Prototype: a prototype built to test a concept that is critical to

addressing the problem statement.CNA Certified Nurse Assistant: an unlicensed individual typically caring and providing

general support for the elderly, chronically sick, or rehabilitation patients in a nursinghome or hospital.

Convalescent care A broad ranging type of rehabilitation services intended for patientsrecovering from serious injuries or illnesses.

COM3 See COM Port.COM Port is a communications channel on the computer that is used to transmit data

from hardware devices to the PC. When the Arduino is connected via USB, COM3is typically the channel assigned. For Windows operating system, COM1 and COM2are used with Serial cables, whereas COM3, COM4, and COM5 are used for USBcables.

Course 4E5 Innovation in Product Development: the Trinity College Dublin equivalentof ME 310.

Dark Horse prototype Similar to a CFP, yet is designed to encompass the entire designspace. It is meant to explore an area that is very far-fetched, wild and even riskywhen compared with previously explored concepts.

List of Figures 14

Depression A mood disorder that associated with a persistent feeling of sadness andloss of interest. Also called major depression, major depressive disorder or clinicaldepression. It affects how you feel, think, and behave and can lead to a variety ofemotional and physical problems.

Dyson fan A safe and quiet fan produced by Dyson Ltd. used by Aura as a wind simulator.ED Emergency Department: also known as Emergency Room, this facility provides acute

care to patients without appointments.EHR Electronic Health Record: a collection of digital health information about specific

patients.EXPE Stanford Design Experience: the final exposition of student projects for the year,

occurring in June.FOV Field of View: the extent of the observable world that is visible at any given moment.Fly Elise A software company utilized by AURA for multi-projector displays that pro-

vides geometric correction and soft-edge blending. This Dutch company producesImmersive Display Pro, the specific software utilized in Aura.

Functional Prototype A system prototype that converges all the ideas and areas ex-plored for the project into a concise form that is descriptive of what is to be expectedat EXPE. The prototype will be used to test the technical and experience issues for thefinal product in a more refined manner than the Funky Prototype may have achieved.

Funky Prototype Also known as a Funktional Prototype, a rough system prototype thatis rapidly assembled and approximates a complete system. It allows for evaluationand testing of the system in order to check for possible areas where the final productcan be directed and refined.

Gamification The practice of increasing the level of fun and engagement in non-gamesituations by applying game-design thinking.

Geriatric A focus of family medicine dealing with preventing and treating diseases andailments of elderly people.

GPS Global Position System: a satellite navigation system providing exact time measure-ments useful in identifying Earth-based device locations.

GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter: a safety device for electrical outlets to preventshort circuiting.

Health A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely theabsence of disease of infirmity (World Health Organization definition).

HHA Home Health Aide: a licensed professional that assists patients with activities ofdaily living provided in the patient’s home

Hitaru A previous product name for AURA. In Japanese, hitaru means “to immerse oneselfin something.” but was not chosen as the product name because the prod

HMD Head Mounted Display: when a projection system is attached directly to a user’shead in front of his or her eyes.

Hospice A subset of palliative care for terminally ill patients near the end of lifeHoyer lift A physical device consisting of harness and pneumatic components to lift and

transport patients that are unable to move on their own.HUD Heads-Up Display: A transparent display providing data to users without requiring

changing viewpoints.HUE See Philips HUE.

List of Figures 15

IoT Internet of Things: A future scenario in which physical objects (such as home appli-ances, mobile devices, and health-care technology) interconnect, communicate, andautonomously operate over a common protocol.

Incontinence The involuntary excretion of bowel contents or urine.Inpatient care A type of care requiring a patient to be present in a hospital.Kickpad A kick-able keypad device explored in one of the CFPs by Stanford University.LGM Large Group Meeting: the weekly presentations by the SU Teaching Team to all

students.Lift team a dedicated team in hospitals and nursing facilities to assist nurses with moving

and transferring patients.LVN Licensed Vocational Nurse: also known as LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse).MATLAB A high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation,

visualization, and programming. MathWorks, Inc. produces the software.ME Mechanical Engineering.ME 310 Project-Based Engineering Design, Innovation, and Development: for Stanford

engineering graduate students intending to lead projects related to sustainability,automotive, biomedical devices, communication, and user interaction. Student teamscollaborate with academic partners in Europe, Asia, and Latin America on productinnovation challenges presented by global corporations to design requirements andconstruct functional prototypes for consumer testing and technical evaluation. Designloft format such as found in Silicon Valley consultancies.

MMORPG Massively multiplayer online role-playing game. An online role-playing videogame in which a very large number of people participate simultaneously.

Observation Services Hospital outpatient services given to help the doctor decide if thepatient needs to be admitted as an inpatient or can be discharged. Observationservices may be given in the Emergency Department (ED) or another area of thehospital.

OT Occupational Therapist: A health-care professional primarily concerned withPalliative care A type of care that focuses on pain management, relief from symptoms,

and prevention of suffering.Panasonic Corporation The corporate partner, a Japanese multinational electronics cor-

poration.Philips HUE A network connected lighting system used to provide ambient lighting that

allows control of the light color and intensity, manufactured by Koninklijke PhilipsN.V.

PotPlayer A multimedia player freeware software.Pressure ulcer Deterioration of skin caused due to constant contact and pressure being

applied.Primary Care Physician The first medical professional an average person contacts for

undiagnosed health concerns and continuing care of medical conditions.PT Physical Therapist: A health-care professional primarily concerned with remedying

issues of mobility and physical ability of patients.Quality of life The general well-being of an individual or the degree to which an individual

can function independently.Recumbent bicycle A bicycle that places the rider in an upright seated position or a

laid-back reclining position.

List of Figures 16

Reed switch an electrical switch operated by an applied magnetic field. It is used in Aurato measure the user’s bicycle pedaling speed.

Rehabilitative care A type of care provided after a major accident or illness that isfocused on restoring the patient to their previous level of function. May includephysical therapy and occupational therapy.

RFID Radio-Frequency Identification: a wireless standard for transmitting informationover short distances, commonly used for personal identification cards.

Senior apartments An apartment complex for senior with special accommodation tomeet their specific needs.

SGM Small Group Meeting: the weekly update meetings between SU Panasonic studentsand the SU Teaching Team.

Short-throw projector A projector with short throw lenses designed to produce largerprojected images at a shorter throw distances

Silver Tsunami A commonly used phrase that describes large quantities of elderly pre-dicted to arise in the future, thus a wave of ’silver’ men and women as populationsage

SNF Skilled Nursing Facility: institutions that have transfer agreements with one or morehospitals and are primarily engaged in providing skilled nursing care and rehabilitativeservice to inpatients

Stanford Center on Longevity The Stanford Center on Longevity is a research centerfocused on redesigning long life. The Center studies policy issues and also looks forinnovative ways solve the problems of people over the age of 50.

Stanford University One of the partner Universities, located in Stanford, California,USA.

SUDS Spontaneous Unplanned Dinner Sessions: weekly working meals in the ME 310course.

SUSIE Senior-User Soothing Immersive Experience: the penultimate prototype developedby Stanford University and Trinity College Dublin for Panasonic Corp..

Sundowning Used to define the irritation and crankiness the seniors feel during evening(sun down)

Trinity College Dublin One of the partner Universities, located in Dublin, Ireland.Uncanny valley The feeling users get when something is very realistic but still feels like

something is off and creates uneasiness Panasonic Corp..USB COM port See COM portUser The person interacting with a technology solution.VHIL Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory: a research laboratory at Stanford Univer-

sity whose mission is to understand the dynamics and implications of interactionsamong people in immersive virtual reality simulations.

VLC a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that playsmost multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streamingprotocols.

Virtual Reality Also known as Immersive Multimedia: a simulated environment contain-ing aspects of real or imagined locations, rendered through a computer system.

Warpalizer a software for multi-projector displays on curved screens. See FlyElise.Wi-Fi A generic name for a series of software protocols for wireless transmission popular

among Internet users.

2 Context

The provided prompt is very broad and open-ended, encompassing a wide range of medicalideas, but can be distilled into the following statement: utilize technology to improve thewell-being of the aging American population. The interpreted need and problem statementswill be discussed, but the full Panasonic prompt presentation is included in Appendix A.1.

2.1 Need Statement

Increased life expectancy, coupled with reduced reproduction rates since the post-WorldWar II baby boomer generation, is leading to a long-term population decline in developedcountries around the world. Japan’s population unbalance foreshadows the situation inEurope and North America. Currently, 24.8% of individuals are already 65 or older, but by2050, 38% are expected to be over 65 [1]. In the United States, the Baby Boomer generationis currently estimated at 75.8 million. The situation is worsened by the increasing ratioof seniors to youth. Modern advancements in medicine and health-care technologies haveprimarily focused on increasing the quantity of life, whereas the quality of life is generallyneglected. But the quality and quantity of life are intertwined.

Depression is the underlying cause of many problems seniors are faced with. Depressedseniors neglect taking care of their health and physical well-being. For example medicationadherence is often a result of prescription compliance. Most health-care solutions focuson solutions external to the senior, but seniors themselves are immensely underutilizedresources. Motivated and happy seniors can alleviate the burden placed on their familymembers, health-care professionals, and the health-care industry.

2.2 Problem Statement

A solution that improves mental and emotional health among the elderly must address themany facets of depression:

• Seniors are mostly retired and may travel a lot or be very sedentary. Lifestyle of atypical senior should also be considered.

• Some seniors prefer the freedom of living in their homes with family as opposed toa facility. They value their independence and attach their dignity to their ability totake care of self. This aspect of quality living is important to all stakeholders.

• All the stakeholders must be considered. Primarily, the patients themselves are a focusof the project. However a patient’s family members (including children, grandchildren,siblings, and spouses) also play a significant role in that patient’s care and well-being.Additionally healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses, and healthcare facilitystaff such as administrators and home health agents must be considered throughoutthis design process.

• To create a user-accepted solution, the technological adeptness of seniors is considered.Many seniors are not comfortable with technological devices and can feel threatened

17

2.3. Corporate Partner: Panasonic Corp. 18

by a sophisticated device with complicated functions. This may lead to a rejection ofsuch solutions.

• It can be assumed that seniors of the future will be more likely to accept technologybecause of the integrated lifestyle patterns of many adults in their late 40s and 50s.However, the need for simplicity is still crucial.

2.3 Corporate Partner: Panasonic Corp.

Panasonic Corp. is a leading organization in electronics industries, as well as one of the 50largest employers worldwide with approximately 295,000 employees [2]. While the Pana-sonic brand name originated for the company’s audio speakers, it now refers to productsand services within four business segments shown in Figure 2.1. Panasonic provides a brandpromise: commitment “to creating a better life and a better world, continuously contribut-ing to the evolution of society and to the happiness of people around the globe” [8]. Thisvision is most commonly communicated through the brand tagline, “A Better Life, A BetterWorld.”

Figure 2.1: A visual depiction of Panasonic’s organization

The four businesses of Panasonic Corp. cover a wide range of electronic applications.AVC Networks Company focuses on audio, video, and other communication systems in-cluding mobile phones and televisions. Appliances Company develops home appliances andother personal products, including commercially scaled variations such as refrigerators. EcoSolutions Company designs lighting, wiring, and power devices including electronic hous-ings and hospital equipment. Automotive & Industrial Systems Company manufactureselectronic products for automobiles, industrial practices, manufacturing operations, andbicycles, including infotainment systems, batteries, semiconductors, and robots.

Within the health-care field, Panasonic Corp. specializes in a much larger sector thanis commonly believed within the U.S. Figure 2.2 depicts the range of businesses Panasonicoperates in Japan – the entire spectrum of adult medical well-being is covered. The currentfocus is on wellness and fitness, aging in place, and telemedicine. Acute health-care is gen-erally of lesser concern, hence Panasonic Corp. operates a series of nursing daycare facilitiesfalling under the Age-Free operations segment. As part of this, Panasonic Corp. trains “liv-ing environment planners” to remodel homes for improved senior aging processes. The goalof Age-Free is to develop a one-stop longterm service capable of providing careful supportto elderly in need of assisted-living [9]. For more information on Panasonic’s healthcare

2.3. Corporate Partner: Panasonic Corp. 19

interests, see Takefumi Yoshikawa’s presentation in Appendix A.1 [25]. As a technologycompany, digital health is one of the newest emerging markets, with hospitals moving tobetter Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to help patients track their own medical history.Spending on digital health increased 39% from 2012 to reach $1.9 billion in 2013, creatingan untapped market for Panasonic Corp. See Appendix A.2 for an abridged portion of CESnotes on health technologies. The proposed technology falls within many Panasonic goals,providing improved aging in place with mild fitness and digital health concerns.

Figure 2.2: Panasonic’s healthcare business focuses

2.4. The Design Team 20

2.4 The Design Team

Team Panasonic was assembled from individuals with a diversity of thinking preferences,interests and backgrounds. There is some evidence that such diversity enhances teamcreativity [23] [24], even if it creates additional challenges for team management. Thiseight-person team includes four Americans, three Irishmen, and one Brazilian studyingthree disciplines of engineering.

2.4.1 Student Team

Michael Jacobs

M.S. CandidateMechanical [email protected] University, USA

I am pursuing my Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University,following a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute ofTechnology. I have an older brother who also went to Georgia Tech for ME. Our sharedinterest in engineering started early on with the classic K’Nex and LEGO phase whereinwe would try to outdo each other with more and more elaborate contraptions. I enjoytinkering and taking mechanisms apart to see how they work – usually to then put themback together. On the technical side of things, I was involved with the Solar Jackets backat Tech where we converted a stock Audi TT into a street-legal, solar assisted, manual-transmission electric sports coupe – a first of its kind. I have also worked for GE Power& Water for a year and half throughout different co-op work rotations, applying my skillsmainly to instrumentation technologies for gas turbines. During my time in Greenville,SC, I designed a new torque sensing system that is currently in the process of beingpatented. Including a brief stint in England and a summer abroad traveling Europe, Ihave moved 17 times and hence love experiencing different cultures.


Kelly (Cox) Lowen

M.S. CandidateMechanical [email protected] University, USA

I grew up on the ”Space Coast” of Florida and from a young age learned what it reallymeans to reach for the stars. I love designing, building, and creating. I believe thatas engineers we truly have the potential to make the world a better place through ourideas. I am interested in using my skills to benefit the needs of others, particularly indeveloping countries. After having traveled to Haiti, Mexico, and South Africa on servicebased projects, I began to recognize fundamental needs that should not go unnoticed. Inthe design world, I believe that every person has a unique set of gifts and experiences tobring to the table for any given project and I am eager to join the innovation party!

Adam McCreevey

M.S. CandidateManagement Science and [email protected] College Dublin, Ireland

I am currently working towards my masters in manufacturing engineering and managementscience. My main interest currently lies in robotics and I spent last summer working ona robot for a teenage girl with a condition called tetra-Amelia syndrome, meaning shewas born with no limbs. The robot is intended to help her pick things up off the groundand do takes which would be impossible for her to do otherwise. The robot appears inthe documentary film No Limbs, No limits which was released in late 2013. I also enjoychocolate and travelling.


Tassiana Padeiro


I am a Biologist by Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) - Brazil and nowadays I aman Integrated Engineering with Management Student at Trinity College Dublin (scholar-ship by the Brazilian program ”Science without Borders”). I also have done an internshipin Sustainability and Engineering areas in a PespiCo SACCAF (PepsiCo regional officefor South America, Caribbean and Central America Foods), for almost 2 years. It hashelped me to understand some New Product Development and Management techniquesand improve my capacity of solving problems under pressure.

Conor Quinn


I am a senior sophister student of engineering with management in Trinity College Dublin.I enjoy working on group projects because interacting with people is my forte. Over theyears Ive worked on quite a few group projects my favourite of which was designing andmanufacturing a resonator guitar, I am very proud of the final result. I like to think Ibring a good attitude to group work and feel that rubs off on everyone else which mayresult in the work getting done a bit slower but that everyone has enjoyed doing it. I enjoytravelling and of course eating chocolate.


Gurjot Sandhu


I am currently a fourth year Engineering with Management student pursuing a MastersDegree in Trinity College Dublin. From an early age I have been interested in how thingswork and combining that with my love for all things business, it was really a no brainerfor me to choose the Engineering with Management course in Trinity. In the past yearI have opened my own restaurant (with my fathers backing of course) which I ended upselling in early December to focus on my college work and responsibilities. This businessventure has provided me with invaluable experience which I believe can only add to thequalities I bring to the table. I enjoy watching and playing sports, especially rugby, andhave a secret passion for science and history. Travelling would also be high on my list ofinterests and my love for food, particularly ice cream and chocolate, is a well-known fact.

Ritesh Shrestha

M.S. Candidate 15’Mechanical [email protected] University, USA

I was lucky enough to be born and raised in the beautiful valley and bustling metropolitancity of Kathmandu, Nepal. I moved state side 6 years ago to pursue an undergraduateeducation from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. I graduated with a Bachelorsdegree in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 and worked for the Railway Division of Cater-pillar for 2 years, during which I was accepted into the Masters program in MechanicalEngineering here at Stanford University. Needless to say I accepted and am excited tostart a new phase in my life (academic and professional) with all the wonderful peoplethat I have met and the opportunities that have been made available to students hereat Stanford. Nepal is a very mountainous country with steep terrain and gorges andunlike the valley it is very difficult for remote areas to access utilities that we considerrudimentary, such as electricity and internet. This is also the reason why I am involvedthe Mechanical Engineering program. My interest lies in energy systems development forenvironment sustainability with which I would love to get into designing and developmentof some small scale energy system to help power a communications system for remote andrural area to connect them to the world that they would have otherwise missed.


Albert Wu

M.S. CandidateMaterials Science and [email protected] University, USA

I grew up in Fremont (the city across the bridge from Stanford), and graduated fromUCLA in ’12 with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. While studying at UCLA,I led a team of undergraduate students to design, build, and test a highly fuel efficient,one-person prototype vehicle. After multiple prototypes, my team achieved 1239.5 milesper gallon! At Stanford University, I collaborated on a multi-disciplinary team and in10 weeks, successfully built and flight tested an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle forsearch-and-rescue missions. I have also had the opportunity to conduct research at SandiaNational Laboratories in the area of materials science and metallurgy. I’m addicted tolearning new things and picking up new hobbies. In high school, I was passionate aboutdiscus and shot-put. In my free time, I like to cook, study the Bible, and play golf. Aftergraduating from Stanford this June 2014, I will be working full time with Meggitt PLCin the Aerospace industry.

2.4.2 Corporate Liaisons and Coaches

Jerry Kurtze

[email protected] Corp., USA

Marymoore Patterson

Innovation Strategy [email protected] Corp., USA


Tobias Yergin

[email protected] Corp., USA

Adrit Lath

[email protected] University, USA

2.4.3 Teaching Team

Mark Cutkosky Larry LeiferProfessor [email protected] [email protected] University, USA Stanford University, USA

George Toye Daniel LevickConsulting Professor 310 Course [email protected] [email protected] University, USA Stanford University, USA

Aditya Rao Stephanie Tomasetta310 Course Assistant 310 Course [email protected] [email protected] University, USA Stanford University, USA

Mark Culleton Kevin Kelly310 Course Assistant [email protected] [email protected] College Dublin, Ireland Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

3 Design Requirements

Introduction

In order to develop a new product for the elderly, the team prescribed various functional andphysical requirements for the design in order to facilitate and evaluate the ideas developedand lessons learned throughout the process. The requirements were based on identificationof key issues faced by seniors that were discovered during user testing such as:

• Technological familiarity• Physical mobility• Restriction on available space• Concealing the physical devices

The team also identified various opportunities to be explored for a solution, that canlater be incorporated to further develop the product to solving issues besides its primaryobjectives. The functional requirements listed in the section dictate what the system mustdo and the functions it must successfully perform. The physical requirements constrainthe design in its tangible form. The requirements focus towards an immersive multimediaenvironment.

3.1 Functional Requirements

Requirements Metric Rationale Success

Be Immersiveand Engaging

The device must beable to engage theuser and capturetheir attention.

The immersivity of the deviceis where its effectiveness lies.

The device should allowpeople to transport

themselves into anotherenvironment to overcome

physical or mental ailments.

Based oncurrent usertesting, usersdo not appear

distracted.

ProvideContinuous

Multi-SensoryStimulation

The device must beable to stimulate

the followingsenses: sight,

sound, touch, andscent. The sensesmust agree with

the selected media.

Sight and sound are almostalways stimulated in anyscenario. Stimulating theother senses will increase

realism and make the userfeel completely submerged inthe projected environment.

The devicestimulates

sight (naturevideo), sound

(nature audio),touch (wind),

and scent(nature spray).

continued on next page

26

3.1. Functional Requirements 27

continued from previous page


PromoteSocial

InteractionAmong Users

All users in a groupsession shouldcommunicate

positively at leastonce with anotherindividual during a

5 minute period.

Many senior citizens live asecluded life without much

interaction with others.Having a setting where theycan easily meet other people

may allow them to share theirlives and help overcome

loneliness.

Based oncurrent user

testing,individuals

communicate.

Improve Signsof User

Happiness

75% of usersshould respondwith a positiveemoticon on a

post-experiencesurvey.

Depression is one of the majorcauses of ailments leading todeath among seniors. Helpingseniors overcome depression

would help improve theirquality of life and health.

Even temporary happinesscan improve general outlook.

Based oncurrent user

testing,individualsrespondedpositively.

ShowcaseDiverse Media

Scenery

The device shouldbe able to simulatemore that one kind

of environment.

Simulating the sameenvironment (sight and

sound) can get easily boring.More content must be

developed so the user canexplore diverse environments.

The devicecontains mediarepresenting a

variety ofenvironments.

Operate Safely Zero injuries arecaused during or as

a direct result ofinteraction with

the system or dueto the components

of the device.

Seniors are often susceptibleto injury and any injury canhave a devastating effect on

their health. Recovering frominjury during old age can betaxing and can degrade thequality of life and in some

cases even induce depressionas it is a reminder of

mortality.

No users havebeen injured

during testing.


3.1. Functional Requirements 28



InteractThroughPedaling

User pedalingupdates the speedof the video andwind at or over 1Hz. This input

results in pedalingresistance feedbackin under 1 second.

Just sitting in a room whilethe environment changes

quickly loses it novelty. It ismore engaging if the user can

control features of what isgoing on and what happensnext. It also helps the userfeel more immersed in the

projected environment.

Users havedirect controlover the videoand wind atabout 1 Hz,

but there is noresistancefeedback.

Not InduceMotionSickness

Fewer than 10% ofusers express

feelings of motionsickness during a15-minute session.

Experiencing motion sicknesscauses discomfort which canprevent the user from being

engaged in the simulation. Itcan be disorienting and cancause the users to fall and

injure themselves.

No users havereportedmotion

sickness.

Interface withUsers Simply

Users can interactwith the device

with fewer than 5setting changes.

Most senior citizens are notcomputer literate or tech

savvy. So the device needs tohave an intuitive user

interface so that the users donot get frustrated trying to

operate the device. Thedevice should be operable by

the users alone.

Users interactwith the

device merelyby sitting

and/orpedaling, while

an operatormay switchthe video.

Change MediaQuickly

The transitionbetween different

environments mustoccur in under 10

seconds.

User interface is veryimportant in devices. Usersmay become frustrated fromlong wait times between userinput and device response.

This can lead to aggravation,increased pressure, and stress.

The scenetransition

takes about 5seconds.

Table 3.1: Functional Requirements

3.2. Functional Opportunities 29

3.2 Functional Opportunities

Description Rationale Success

The system couldstimulate and

encourage people torecall memories and

talk aboutexperiences.

As age progresses short term memoryis affected and people seem forgetful.

This would help stimulate peoples longterm memory and in doing so helpexercise their short term memory.

The system allowsfor reminiscence

therapy ifappropriate

environments arecreated.

The device couldsimulate difficultiesfaced by patients

going throughphysical

rehabilitation inincremental steps tohelp with confidence.

It can be difficult and daunting for aperson who is in rehab to perform

simple tasks that were commonplacebefore. By using a simulated

environment that can also be used toadjust difficulty level, the patient can

be motivated and not feel discouraged.

The system can beutilized during

physical therapy ifappropriate


The device couldallow live video

streams of remoteusers to overlay with

the simulation forcommunication.

Remote family members cannot alwaystravel to their loved ones. Live videowill allow a greater connection among

distanced individuals by sharingoutdoor scenery.

The system doesnot support remote

video streams.

Pedaling resistancecould change withprojected mediaterrain to act as

interactive feedback.

The device simulates the environmentsuch that it affects the user and causesthem to react to the change induced inthe environment. A dynamic situation

allows the user to respond and thusincreases the level of immersion into

the simulation.

Pedaling resistanceis not yet

incorporated.

The device couldrecognize the currentuser and personalizeitself based on storedsettings for the user.

Everyone does not have the samepreferences. Personalization helps

users adjust the settings so that theycan modify the level of realism

experienced or completely eliminatesome features that may be

uncomfortable.

The prototyperequires manual

configuration by theoperator for each

user.


3.3. Physical Requirements 30



The device couldproject 3D

environments for amore immersive

experience.

Although the surround screen does afairly good job of immersing a user

into a simulated environment, adding3D content would take that immersion

to a higher level.

The projectorssupport 3Dprojection ifappropriate


The device couldstimulate the sense of

taste.

This is the remaining sense notcurrently implemented by the system.

The more senses stimulated, thegreater the immersion.

The system doesnot incorporate

taste.

Table 3.2: Functional Opportunities

3.3 Physical Requirements


Wide ViewingAngle

The device screenshould create at

least a 75 ◦ field ofview to project inusers peripheral

vision.

In normal conditions,peripheral vision stimulates

the sense of immersion.Making the screen wider toincorporate the peripheralshelps enhance the realism.

Also it is helpful if the userswant to look around in the

environment.

The devicescreen creates

a 80 ◦ FOVangle.

ConcurrentMultiuserSupport

The room must beable to fit at least 3

concurrent users.At least 1 must be

able to interactdirectly with the

system.

The device must be sociallyengaging such that people can

come together to use thedevice. In doing so, the users

can make friends, interactwith other people, and

overcome loneliness.

The deviceincorporates 1

pedalingstation, 2viewing

stations, andstanding room

in the rear.





Wheelchair &Scooter

Accessibility

Users inwheelchairs andscooters must beable to utilize thedevice in the sameway as those not in

wheelchairs.

A lot of seniors requirewheelchairs or scooters. Not

making the product accessibleto them would eliminate ahuge fraction of potential

users.

The currentsystem only

allowswheelchair andscooter usersto passively

interact.

HiddenTechnology

Devices

The projectors andother distracting

equipments shouldbe hidden from the

normal seatingpositions.

In recreating outdoorenvironments, it is important

users are not distracted byitems that do not belong insuch settings. A visible fan

would diminish the intendeduser response to wind.

The system isdisguised from

the normalviewing andoperating

angles, but thetechnology isvisible fromthe rear and

top to improvecooling.

ComfortableSeats

Fewer than 15% ofindividuals

complain aboutcomfort while using

the product.

Experiencing discomfort canprevent the user from beingengaged in the simulation.

The uneasy feeling candetract from the experience of

the simulation and preventusers from returning.

Based oncurrent usertesting, users

have notcomplained

aboutdiscomfort.

User-Adjustable

Seats

The bike mustaccommodate usersfrom 5 ft to 6.5 ft(152.4 cm to 198

cm) and under 300lbs (136 kg).

Each user is unique in sizeand body type, so the seatmust be adjustable so users

can be comfortable during thesimulated experience.

The bikeaccommodatesthe specified

range of users.

MinimalConfiguration

It should takefewer than 30

seconds toreconfigure the

system to afunctional state for

new users.

The device is meant to helpexperience a different

environment. If a lot of timeis consumed setting up the

components then it exhauststhe user in the process andfrustrates them too much toproperly interact with the

device.

The system isin functionalstate at all

times and theonly

adjustmenttime is toadjust the

bicycle seatposition .





ExteriorSound

Isolation

The system mustdamp exterior

sound to under 60dB inside the

prototype (whennot operating).

In order to be immersed intoa simulation one must be

fully engaged in it. Havingexternal inadvertent stimuli

can distract the user andbreak the simulation. Sounddamping foam can be used to

isolate the experience.

The currentsystem relies

on a quietexterior room

to reduceexterior noise.

CoolEnvironment

The system mustkeep itself under

86 ◦F (30 ◦C).

Due to the large number ofelectronics in the room, it isexpected to heat up. It mustnot get so hot that it causes

discomfort ruining thesimulation. Fans and/or air

conditioning will be required.

The currentsystem relies

on a coolexterior roomto maintain

ambienttemperature.

Adequate UserPersonal Space

All users must beable to enter and

exit the room whilekeeping at least 6

inches (15 cm)from all otherindividuals.

Users can feel uncomfortableif there is not enough space in

the system. This can causerestlessness and lead tointerruptions from the

experience.

Users are ableto navigate the

roomunimpeded.

Small FloorFootprint

The device must beable to fit in a 180inch by 200 inchfootprint (457 cm

by 508 cm).

The device must fit in theEXPE designated space, andthe facilities that would use it

should not have to remodeltheir space to accommodate

the device.

The device fitsin the

appropriatefootprint.

High MediaResolution

The media shouldbe projected at orabove 1280 x 720

resolution.

Due to the large projectionsize, videos that are not shotin high resolution will appearblurry. This can cause loss ofdetail, which must be avoided

for a system that heavilyfocuses on stimulating the

senses.

The media isprojected at

approximately2300 x 800resolution.


3.4. Physical Opportunities 33



High MediaFrame-rate

The media shouldbe projected at orabove 25 frames

per second.

It is essential to have allscenes in sync so that users

can feel immersed in theenvironment being created.

Having the video move in anunrealistic manner can break

the sync among the sensesand disrupt the immersion.

The media isprojected at

30 frames persecond.

High ScreenBrightness and

Contrast

The media shouldbe projected at or

above 2,500 lumensand a 500:1

contrast ratio.

In order to project a clearenvironment, the image

should look close to real life.If the brightness or contrast is

unfavorable for the viewingroom, then it would ruin the

visual experience.

ThePT-CW300projectorsexceed therequired

specifications.

Table 3.3: Functional Requirements

3.4 Physical Opportunities


The device could beportable and

modular, able to beassembled by two

individuals within 30minutes.

Although the device is meant for afacility that can dedicate a space for

the system, most individual homes willnot be able to do so. A modular

system makes it easy for people to setup in their personal space. This would

expand the marketability of theproduct.

The current deviceis portable andmodular, yet

requires a modestmoving crew.

Table 3.4: Physical Opportunities

4 Design Development

4.1 Overview

The team began the design development process by first defining the context of the prob-lem through assumptions about the future. This includes the demographics, future user,and ideal persona of our problem space. We then visited facilities and explored technologiesthat currently exists for seniors. Numerous interview with seniors and health-care providersand professionals were performed to gather perspectives from all stakeholders. This helpedthe team identify common problems and grasp an understanding of their significance andprevalence. Along the process of exploring solutions, research was conducted to understandthe current technologies that exist to address care of the elderly.

After this, we were able to identify and explore key needs that seniors encounter. Theteam then prototyped potential solutions and chose a single solution that seemed to bemost effective. With this chosen critical concern to address, the team could then iteratebetween prototyping and user testing until the final product was reached. All of this led tothe construction of a vision for the customers and applications for the final product.

Figure 4.1: Design Development Process Diagram

34

4.2. Assumptions About the Future 35

4.2 Assumptions About the Future

4.2.1 Demographics

The “Silver Tsunami” and predicted demographics for the United States are based oncurrent statistics and data. As the population and baby-boomer generation ages, it isexpected that the number of men and women over 65 will drastically increase. Health caretechnologies, medicines, and capabilities are prolonging human life.

Additionally, many Americans are also postponing having children and are having fewerchildren or none at all. This could eventually lead to negative population growth as is thecase in Japan. With fewer young individuals, the ratio of caretakers to elderly is decreasing.The need for automated and simplified care for the elderly is growing.

The team focused on a solution that could be implemented within the next five years.The structure of current nursing homes and assisted living facilities is presumed to continuewithout significant change. Thus these structures are the primary environments that asolution would be predictably implemented.

4.2.2 Future User

When considering the capabilities of future users, it was valuable for the team to analyzecurrent behavior patterns of both seniors and those who will become seniors within the nextfive years. It was observed and noted by health-care professionals that current seniors inliving facilities do not have technical know-how. The largest barrier that seemingly preventscurrent seniors from learning technologies is not ability, but motivation. Seniors show aninitial resistance to complicated technology.

Many seniors, however, enjoy using Skype or Email applications to keep up with relativeswho live far away if someone else sets up an operates the system for them. The fear ofunknown technology is diminishing as users become more comfortable and integrated withvarious solutions. At some of the facilities that the design team visited, computer classesare taught to enable seniors. It is expected that future seniors will become increasinglymore technical.

For example, looking at the trends of social media use in Figure 4.2 demonstrates thatusers in the 65+ age group is increasing over time, with more than %30 in 2012 [3]. And thenext generation of seniors has more than %50 users of social media. This data was generatedin the United States. As users of technology increases, the acceptance of technical solutionsfor health-care problems will grow.


Figure 4.2: Demographics of Social Media Users by Age

4.2.3 Ideal Persona

While working on this project, the team valued keeping the user in mind. To better addressthis end, a fictitious persona was created and embodied with key characteristics deemedimportant to developing product ideas. The designed persona was named Maria. Mariahas evolved a number of times throughout the research process this quarter to better blendthe values of the users that were interviewed.

Her current form, showcased in Figure 4.3, represents many of the insights gained frominterviews combined with research and data about the field.


Figure 4.3: Marie, the Panasonic persona

Maria is 85 and is still relatively mobile and active. She enjoys being outside andexercise. When she was younger, Maria would often invite friends to go on a social walkthrough the neighborhood or down a nearby forest trail. Though not a victim of Alzheimer’s,Marie does show signs of mild dementia. Because of this, she lives in an assisted livingfacility where there is constant surveillance. Two of her three children live nearby and visitweekly, but are glad to know that their mother is being taken care of at all times. Mariahas friends at the care facility, which helps her maintain a positive attitude. She enjoys lifeand looks forward to the visits from her children.

The Stanford and Trinity teams keep Maria in mind while developing solutions, whileadditionally adding new characteristics as they improve the brainstorming process.

4.3. Needfinding 38

4.3 Needfinding

One of the most important aspects to consider when designing a solution is to first finda problem. This need should stem from real users and not simply be a solution pushedupon them. As one interviewee said, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Instead of pushing anew and innovative technology for the sake of technology, the team sought to identify andaddress the needs observed from and verbally provided by stakeholder in the field of elderlyhealth-care.

4.3.1 Previous Work

In attempting to find key takeaways from the broad needfinding research, a common trenddeveloped in the need for “smarter” technology. Users desire devices that are easy withwhich to interface. In a presentation on the “Trouble with Things,” Alasdair Allan describesthe ideal device that should only present the users with the decisions they have to makewith the data they need right now. It should be anticipatory, not responsive.” [6]. In hispresentation, Alasdair compares the remote from a Google TV to that for the Apple TV(shown in Figure 4.4)and how the inclusion of additional buttons by Google burdens theuser with additional decisions to make. Good designs are simple to interact with, requiringminimal thought. This is particularly notable when considering devices for the elderly whogenerally prefer less technology. Simpler, easy-to-operate devices are less intimidates andmore likely to be accepted by our users.

Figure 4.4: Google TV remote (left) versus Apple TV remote (right)

Increased levels of automation, while difficult to accurately create by the developer, areenjoyed by end users; however, automation must be done right and account for abnormali-ties. An adaptive versus consistent automation implementation scenario will be used as anexample. Imagine John, a user with an advanced entertainment system that detects whena movie is playing and dims the lights, lowers the blinds, and raises the speaker volume.Normally, this automation is enjoyed for reducing the number of steps between the John

4.3. Needfinding 39

and watching a movie in optimum conditions. This perfect scenario falls apart the one timeJohn’s young daughter watches a scary movie and wants the a brighter, quieter room. If theentertainment system was not designed to account for this abnormality, John will be an-gry. Many users are more comfortable routinely performing mundane tasks to their desiredoutcome rather than having to fix the job an autonomous system should have performedproperly the first time.

As the team learned from Timbuk2, a local San Francisco messenger bag manufacturer,users love options in order to create personalized belongings; however, there is a limit.Provide a customer with too many options and he or she becomes overwhelmed and willrefuse to buy the product. Conversely, only allowing a few customizations will make theuser feel limited and concerned about the ability to personalize. It is important to strikea balance in this regard. Research and user testing is the only way to discover where thisline appears.

In researching intelligent human-technology interfaces, a number of key learnings werediscovered, as displayed in Figure 4.5. These insights all came directly from user interviewsand needfinding. All of these values are of critical importance; however, proper implemen-tation of most of them without beating the first requirement will likely not prove successful.Time is the largest barrier for entry into new devices and systems, regardless of any amazingfuture potential offered. Most people have in place a system that just works, regardless ofefficiency. Succinctly put by an interviewee, “If I can’t learn it in 10 minutes, it’s not worthit to me to change.”

Figure 4.5: Key learnings from on intelligent human-technology interfaces

These factors that were previously benckmarked will contribute to the solution createdfor elderly care. During the design process, it will be important to keep simplicity as apriority. A wonderful solution could fail miserably if not accepted by the user, therefore itis important to keep the user’s preferences, abilities, and needs in mind at all times.

4.3. Needfinding 40

4.3.2 Senior Centers

The investigation process of the elderly care field involved visiting care facilities. Thesefacilities are classified in diverse ways according to the abilities and independence levelsof the seniors that they serve. The following facilities were visited during the needfindingprocess. Each was unique and provided fresh incite that benefited the design development.

4.3.2.1 Avenidas

The Avenidas organizations provides a diverse range of services for seniors. There arebranches that provide living communities, but the location that the team visited focuses onorganizing activities to address general well-being and encourage social interaction amongseniors. Figure 4.6 shows some seniors enjoying these activities. The Avenidas branchin Palo Alto is where the team did most user testing. Seniors come for lunch and otherrecreational events, and while they wait in the lobby for their events to start the team wasable to survey and recruit seniors to try the new devices.

Going forward, there has been an established partnership between the Stanford teamand Avenidas. There will be scheduled weekly events dedicated to the Stanford team’suser testing. This weekly event has been published in the Avenidas monthly flyer which isexpected to increase awareness of testing and increase participation.

Figure 4.6: Avenidas Recruitment Advertisement

4.3.2.2 On Lok

On Lok Lifeways is a senior care center for low income residents of the San Francisco bayarea. On Lok provides primary care on site that allows seniors to come to one place for visitsto a general physician, therapist, dentist, optometrist, and even beautician. By becominga member of On Lok, seniors have access to these amenities. Some On Lok location doinclude housing, but others are simply open during the day. In either case, seniors havecaretakers watching out for them to make sure that their needs are being met.

One need that On Lok seems to address well is the transition into ”being old”. There aretwo levels of membership for more and less active seniors. Independent and active seniorsare attracted to the lively events and activities offered by the first stage of care. Thisintroduces the individual to On Lok and establishes a relationship. As the senior ages andhealth begins to decline, they can easily move into the second stage of care. The secondstage of care involves more monitoring by a professional. Seniors in the second stage of

4.3. Needfinding 41

care are still welcome to participate in activities offered by the first stage. Both levels ofmembership meet in the same building and therefore individuals mix and help one anotheradapt to the transitions at a comfortable pace. For senior who are resistant to nursinghomes and ”being old”, this is a more appealing way to move from independence to beingwatched and taken care of.

Figure 4.7: On Lok Rooftop Garden Wall

On Lok also has an outdoor garden that is maintained by the seniors. The administratorwho led the facility tour noted that the garden significantly helps seniors feel more at ease.Because the garden is fenced in on the roof of the building, even seniors with Alzheimer’sand dementia can roam freely without chances of wandering away. Figure 4.7 shows a wallof the garden that was painted by senior members of On Lok.

4.3.2.3 Golden Heritage

Golden Heritage is a non-profit senior care facility that is specifically designed for individualsof Asian decent. Residents pay to live at Golden Heritage, but all the money goes into theoperations of the facility. Residents live on site and are encouraged to participate in dailyactivities and events, such as origami which is shown in Figure 4.8.

4.3. Needfinding 42

Figure 4.8: Oragami Created by Golden Heritage Residents

Golden Heritage was a wonderful run and organized facility, but there were not anyclosed in outdoor areas. Because of this, residents spent little time outside. The admin-istrator noted to us that residents often try to escape and go outside, but because thechances of seniors getting lost of hurt is so great, they must be monitored and preventedfrom leaving the building. A waterproof alarm bracelet is shown in Figure 4.9. Seniors atGolden Heritage were also reported to have high levels of resistance towards medication.

4.3. Needfinding 43

Figure 4.9: Waterproof Alarm Wrist Band

4.3.2.4 Lytton Gardens

Lytton Gardens offers a wide range of care levels for seniors in Palo Alto. Retirement livingcommunities bring elderly together in an apartment style complex. This type of communityenables seniors to connect and be monitored mildly by care professionals. Lunch outingsand other events are organized, but these seniors live independently. Later on, seniors canthen transition into Assisted Living communities. This arrangement still offers freedom tocome and go, but provides more full time care. The assisted living community is wherethe design team visited and collected information. One senior had her dog ”Cocoa” livingwith her at the facility. The team noticed that Cocoa not only cheered up her owner, butaffected all the seniors in the community positively. Cocoa and her owner are pictured inFigure 4.10.

4.3. Needfinding 44

Figure 4.10: Senior at Lytton Gardens and Cocoa the Dog

For seniors who have heavy dementia or Alzheimer’s, Lytton Gardens also offers liv-ing arrangements with skilled nursing staff around the clock. Seniors in this third livingarrangement still have access to an outdoor courtyard, but are not permitted to leave thepremises.

4.3.2.5 Netwell Centre

The Netwell Centre was founded from within the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT),the leading third level educational institution in the North East of Ireland and is sup-ported by a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies. Through the current activities of theNetwell Centre, the centre can be considered a reference for the understanding of ageing andage-friendliness. Their activities involve a selection of disciplines including the social and

4.3. Needfinding 45

behavioural sciences, health and medical sciences, computer science, engineering, design,marketing and business administration.

In their facilities we could go in the Cave, an Automatic Virtual Environment. It is aVirtual 3D world in a room, where they can test products and analyse people behaviour.The controller can move the environment around you but the environment reacts to wherethe user is looking.

In a collaboration between the Local Authorities, local Health Service Executive andindustry partners, the Centre manage the Great Northern Haven, that is a building with16 apartments - Assisted Living Smart Homes. Each apartment has more than 100 sensors,connected TV’s, touch screen devices and a core network infrastructure throughout. Intotal there are over two thousand sensors and actuators throughout the development. The16 apartments are occupied by 17 people (15 living by themselves and 1 couple), with agesbetween 60 and 80, with Mobility issues, depression, stroke. The centre provide serviceof teaching weekly class to elderly on iPads and refresher classes to keep up to date withsoftware. Due to the nature of the visit we didnt actually talk to any elderly occupantsof the centre and hence find needs, but got a comprehensive presentation and tour of thecentres facilities, technology, ideas and aims. The tour was very enlightening in terms ofwhat the centre has learned about the needs of the elderly and their attitude towards newtechnology.

Despite being there for a short period of time, we could obtain some good informationabout the Elderly behaviour: elderly occupants really dont like the idea of cameras in theirhome and constantly ask if the sensors are actually cameras, there is a stigma with stand-outish wearable devices that if seen wearing it you’re a geriatric and the occupants careabout security of home. They want to feel safe when they go to bed and want to knoweverything is locked, closed.

4.4. Exploring Primary Needs 46

4.4 Exploring Primary Needs

After visiting various senior care facilities and interview care professionals, the team iden-tified key needs and further explored each. These needs are summarized in the followingtable and discussed in further detail below.

Problem Description Current Solution Notes

MedicationCompli-ance

Many seniors resistconsuming medicationappropriately

Sorting mechanisms,caretaker overseeingmedication, organizingdispensers

Seniors do not like feel-ing “old”

Depression Depression is commonamong elderly patientsin nursing homes

Reminiscence therapy,organized social events

Often not treated be-cause it is not directlylife threatening or ur-gent

Loss of Mo-bility

Patients in nursinghomes are restrictedfrom going outside

Preventative Loss of independenceand mobility linked todepression

PhysicalExercise

Patients in nursinghomes do not getenough exercise, it isalso a treatment todepression

Treatment and preven-tative action

Physical exercise re-leases feel-good chem-icals to the brain

AngerManage-ment

Seniors become angryor frustrated and makeit harder for caretakers

Therapy, distractions Can affect patientswith dementia or aftera traumatic experience

Social In-teractions

Seniors experience adiminishing circle offriends and family

Organized social inter-actions

Loss of mobility pre-vents new friendshipsfrom being made, fearof the technologicalworld keeps seniors in-door

4.4.1 Depression

Through our research, we identified several common issues that seniors face and exploredsolutions to ameliorate these concerns. We realized that most of these issues were directlylinked as either the cause or the affect of depression. For example, loss of physical mobilityleads to depression. And being depressed affects a senior willingness to comply with medi-cation and care. This in turn deteriorates their health and leads to more depression. Thuswe realized that focusing on depression as our central need would enable us reach a broaderaudience of senior uses.

Depression affects nearly 15% of the elderly population. In many cases, depression isnot recognized or treated, so this number is likely much greater. This seemingly subtle issuehas significant impact. It has been linked by the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation to

4.4. Exploring Primary Needs 47

dementia, stroke, cancer, and other illness. Seniors represent only 13% of the population,yet account for 20% of all suicides in the US. [21] Treatments for depression include healthyliving habits, but one of the most implemented solutions is to engage seniors with funactivities. This effective method was implemented by many of the elderly care facilitiesthat we visited. And we observed that the success of minimizing depression was correlatedto how effective the facility was in engaging the seniors with activities and prevent themfrom getting bored.

4.5. Prototyping 48

4.5 Prototyping

There are four main methods of creating of virtual environments: head mounted display,augmented, Fish Tank, and projection-based. The head mounted display (HMD) is acompletely immersive system where the subject sees only a computer-generated image andthe rest of the physical world is blocked from view. With augmented systems, both computergenerated images and the physical world are visible to the subject. Hence, the computerworld is overlaid on the physical world. With ”Fish Tank” , the environmental images aredisplayed on a monitor in front of the subject. These systems have a limited field of viewand space in which one can interact with the scene. Consequently, the resulting FOV issmaller than that available with other systems but the accompanying pixel visual angleis also smaller and, therefore, sharper. With projection-based systems such as Aura, thecomputer controlled imagery is projected on a screen or wall in front of the user much likethat in a movie theater. Back-projection is often used instead of front-projection to insurethat the projected scene is not obscured by the subject’s body. These systems usually havea wide field of view and can be multi-walled and floor systems as with CAVE technologies[14].

Aura, the current functioning prototype of Team Panasonic implements a variety offeatures to recreate these outdoor environment and addresses four senses (sight, sound,touch and scent). The development of Aura is an evolution of SUSIE, the first prototype.Based on user testing and critique received SUSIE was further worked on and remodeledto Aura.

4.5.1 SUSIE

Team Panasonic created SUSIE within the ME310 design studio loft at Stanford University,allowing for easier implementation of subsystems and upgrades. Prior to disassembling thedesign for transport to Avenidas Senior Center, SUSIE rested in the state shown in Figure4.11. This room immerses users in a simulated outdoor environment triggering four senses(sight, sound, touch, and smell). Journeys including beaches, parks, and museums areprojected in front of the user while soothing sounds flood the room. Wind and radiant heatimpact the user to increase the realism of the unique environment portrayed.

4.5. Prototyping 49

Figure 4.11: SUSIE prototype setup in design studio

The subsystems created are identified in Figure 4.12 and will be explored for theirdevelopment and tweaking in the following sections.

4.5. Prototyping 50

Figure 4.12: SUSIE with subsystems labeled

The interaction of the previously identified subsystems is depicted via the followingsystem diagram in Figure 4.13. The senior user operates a control panel via percent realismknobs – these control the intensity of the other subsystems. For instance, if one userprefers warm Florida weather, she could increase the heat lamp above “normal” to suit herindividual preferences. These inputs run through an Arduino relay control circuit beforebeing forwarded on to the stimulation systems. A laptop computer was used to play theoutdoor environments, allowing independent control over background audio and playbackspeed of the video scenes (where appropriate). All of these systems directly impact the user,resulting in a feedback loop of continuous adjustment (as needed). Ideally these systemswill all be regulated automatically, with minimal user input required, but for the initialprototype the team was investigating the importance of individual controls. This requiredthe ability to discretely alter each system between tests.

4.5. Prototyping 51

Figure 4.13: System diagram of SUSIE interactions

4.5.2 Aura

Aura, as shown in Figure 4.14., is the evolution of SUSIE and represents the final productin form and function. Modeled on the same concept and design requirements and speci-fications as SUSIE, it reflects the users input into what they would like from SUSIE andalso elimination of features that were considered hindrance and distractions. Aura wasdeveloped at Radicand Laboratory, Redwood City, CA. Just like SUSIE it also focuses onstimulation of the four senses (sight, sound, smell and touch) while taking seniors on touralong various scenarios such as forest, beach , city park and desert trail.

4.5. Prototyping 52

Figure 4.14: Final version of Aura

The system diagram in Figure 4.15., shows how Aura functions as a system and allowsthe user to interact with the environment.

4.5. Prototyping 53

Figure 4.15: Aura System Diagram

The interaction between the user and the system and the systems response is also shownin Figure 4.16. The only input the user provides is the speed at which they are pedaling thebike. Based on the speed input, the visual of the scene will move and the fan will blow airat a corresponding speed. The user input in taken in by an arduino, which communicatesto a PC though a serial communication port. The PC then is responsible for the visual andaudio control while the arduino controls the fan speed. This setting allows for minimal userinput for the seniors. The following section show the evolution of Aura from SUSIE alongwith the criteria that lead to such development.

4.5. Prototyping 54

Figure 4.16: Aura subsystem function

4.5.2.1 Frame

The body of Aura was defined and constrained by various factors. Key considerations beingease of transport and size of the EXPE room. Due to these it was decided that the framewould be modular and in two main parts, the screen and the equipment housing. These areshow in Figure 4.17.

4.5. Prototyping 55

Figure 4.17: Aura frame

The screen frame designed to be curved with the user being slight in front of the center ofthe curve. This was necessary to help create an immersive visual. One of the key feedbacksfrom SUSIE was that the screen looked like a movie screen and this made the system feellike just a giant TV. The size of the screen was chosen such that the visual were life size.Having the scenario in life size setting, Figure 4.17, was really important to make the peoplefeel as if they were immersed.

During user testing with SUSIE it was also noted that users felt uneasiness when thescreen was too big, especially when it encroached upon their peripheral vision. This inducedmotion sickness and was detrimental to our experience. In order to address this issue, thearc was set to 60 degrees with a curvature radius of 10 feet.

Also monochrome curtains were hung all around the prototype to isolate the user fromother distractions to maintain the continuation of the immersion.

The housing was designed such that we would be able to fit all the projectors, computer,

4.5. Prototyping 56

arduino, fan and other components as shown in Figure 4.18.

Figure 4.18: Aura’s comoponenets that are hidden from users

4.5.2.2 Media Format (CGI/Real)

There was much debate about the type of media content to use for Aura. While the Stanfordteam felt that the user responses to the real videos used in SUSIE generated good feedbackand wanted to continue with the content. The one issue with the real videos were thatthe users mentioned that they would love to go off the recording trail and wander around.In response to this issue the virtual scene generated by the Trinity team was flexible andallowed the user to travel anywhere they would like to. The issue that arose out of this wasthat it did not seem realistic and broke the immersion experience. It was then decided thatthe team would use real videos for the experience.

The videos used were developed by www.worldnaturevideos.com and the scenarios usedwere tropical jungle (Bali, Singapore, Australia), beach (Australia, Philippines) and citypark (Singapore) as shown in Figure 4.19. There reflected the interests of the users duringour testing with SUSIE. The tropical jungle and city park were added to the beach afterpeople mentioned that they would love to see people or animals and birds in the scenario.The team also decided to film our own high definition video for the content but was scrappeddue to the shakiness of the video that generated negative comments, leading to people askingfor the simple video.

www.worldnaturevideos.com

4.5. Prototyping 57

Figure 4.19: Multimedia sample content

4.5.2.3 Wind Creation

To simulate ambient wind and breezes on the nature journeys, fans were installed anddirected towards the users. A Dyson bladeless fan was incorporated in the device, as shownin Figure 4.20, that responded to the speed of the user pedaling. The fan and wind was oneof the key features of the prototype and received great response. People reacted well to thedevice. With SUSIE it was mentioned that the fan speed change was not responsive enoughand the delay affected the realism. The code along with electronic wiring was improved toreduce latency time for the fans.

4.5. Prototyping 58

Figure 4.20: Dyson fan for wind creation

4.5.2.4 Sound System

A Panasonic 5.1 surround system was used to simulate the audio for Aura. Three of the fivespeakers were embedded in the system housing and hidden from sight; the other two wereset behind the users location, shown in Figure 4.21. During testing the users respondedpositively to the sound coming from all around and mentioned that it was novel that theywere able to hear the birds and animals, as if they were surrounded even when they couldn’tsee them straight ahead.

4.5. Prototyping 59

Figure 4.21: Placing of the speakers

4.5.3 Pedaling/Treadmill/Rowing

Ideally, the user is able to interact with Aura without much difficulty and at the same timethe device should reach a lot of people. During user testing, it was observed that mostseniors were in wheelchairs due to lack of physical strength and balance issues to keep themupright and walking. Some just were not able to walk for longer periods of time. To addressthis issue a recumbent bike was used, Figure 4.22. The bike allowed users to rest withouthaving to worry about balance and the strength required holding them up. This workedout very well in user testing.

4.5. Prototyping 60

Figure 4.22: Recumbent bike used by seniors

With SUSIE, some users mentioned that they were unable to use their legs but wouldlike to actively interact with the system. This led to the development of a rowing systemand even a treadmill for users that were still able to use the function in their legs. Thespace and budgetary constrains meant that only one of the features could be pursued, andthe team decided to go with the recumbent bike, due to the reason that it would have agreater appeal and have more people be able to use the system at EXPE.

4.5.3.1 Humidity Control

In order to better simulate beach and tropical environments, the team also integrated amisting fan capable of raising the humidity of the room, as shown in Figure 4.23. Thisreaction could occur when a wave crashes in front of the user on the screen, or when ridinga bike through a jungle. However, it ended up not being fully utilized for two main reasons:1) users generally preferred not to become wet, even at the expense of realism, and 2)with so many electronics in the prototype room, there was a safety concern of shorting outequipment.

4.5. Prototyping 61

Figure 4.23: Soleus misting fan for humidity

4.5.3.2 Ambient Sun Lighting

The projected screen was bright and was hard to look at in a dark screen. SUSIE had a mildheat lamp, Figure 4.24, which generated a warm hue that acted as a source of ambient sunlight source. It was particularly suitable for beach and sunset scenes as the room becamevery dark orange and warm feeling, a feature much enjoyed by users (see Figure 4.31 inSection 4.6).

Figure 4.24: Mild heat lamp for ambient sun lighting

The users enjoyed the feature and for Aura Philips Hue lamps were used to generatethe ambient light. Due to addition of multiple scenarios, it was required that the ambientlight be able to produce corresponding hue so that it would not detract from the scenario.It could be controlled with a phone app and generate any hue based on the mood of theuser. The Philips Hue lamps were placed with the rear speakers behind the users, Figure4.25. This was done to prevent the glow of the light to land directly on the user.

4.5. Prototyping 62

Figure 4.25: Phillips hue lights used to generate ambient lighting

4.5.3.3 Heat Generation

For SUSIE in order to matching the ambient sun lighting was the heat lamp depicted inFigure 4.26 capable of pumping out 800 W of radiant heat energy. It features a swivel func-tion to warm multiple users, but it was generally directed at the main test subject. Like theother subsystems, the heater was connected to the dimmer switches, enabling varying heatlevels depending on user preferences, displayed scenery, and ambient room temperatures.Many users enjoyed the warmth emitted while “walking on a beach;” however, as the roomwarmed up from the heater and projector, most users then preferred the fan to cool off.

Figure 4.26: Soleus HR3-08-21 Heater for radiant heat generation

4.5. Prototyping 63

In order to maintain the temperature and still give the experience of being outdoors,the team decided to implement an AC unit to cool the electronics side of the system andthen use the heaters to simulate the heat from the sun. This seemed inefficient as wereheating and cooling the room at the same time. Instead in Aura the heater was eliminatedand two box fans were used to ventilate the room.

4.5.3.4 Scent

SUSIE incorporated a beach smell from a compressed can. The room was sprayed beforethe users came into the room and all of them noticed that the room smelled like a beach.Most of them enjoyed the smell; however there were some that mentioned that the smellwas too strong for them and distracting.

In Aura, we incorporated smell but in a fashion that would be less intrusive. Oil smellswere used at the entrance drapes so that the users would notice the smell when they enterthe room but it would not affect them continuously throughout the experience.

4.5.3.5 Number of Users

With SUSIE we found that some people liked to just sit and enjoy the video and talk topeople riding the bike or other that were sitting in on the experience. This was also oneaspect that the users mentioned that they like to be able to experience this with friendsand family and used this to talk to people in their community.

With Aura, the social aspect was given priority and the design adjusted to it. Weincreased the capacity from three in SUSIE to seven in Aura. The seating was arranged toaccommodate conversation and interaction among the senior and Aura. The seating waslimited to seven to prevent overcrowding and noise that would interfere with the experience.

4.5.3.6 Resistance

With our recumbent bike we had the feature to adjust the resistance of the bike. The ideawas to add a random script that moderated the speed to recreate inclines in the road. Butduring user testing with SUISE, we noticed that the users we were aiming towards are notlooking for an active workout and that they may have difficulty pedaling the bike. Someseniors were not receptive towards the modular pedals that were set oh higher resistance.This led us to decide that adding the resistance was an extraneous feature that would hurtthe interaction with the system and was eliminated.

4.5.3.7 Projection

As described in the beginning of this section, there are many methods of displaying multi-media in order to immerse a user. Projection systems allow very large images to displayed,something ideal for multiple users in a single room, often with worsening eyesight. In ad-dition, during user interviews, most seniors preferred not to wear an HMD for extendedperiods. Such an implementation would likely cause dizziness, neck soreness, and decreaseuser socialization. Projection suited all desired goals perfectly. The primary remainingconcern was what kind of projector to use and where to mount it. In Figure 4.27, Kelly isinspecting one of many considered projectors for correct specifications. The model in the

4.5. Prototyping 64

image fit into a small form factor, but had an unacceptably long throw distance. Throwdistance is expressed as a ratio of perpendicular distance from the screen to width of theprojected image. For instance, a standard projector has a throw distance of around 1.6:1.This means for every 1.6 feet the projector is moved away from the screen, the imagewill increase by 1 foot. Projectors then have a maximum screen size requirement, afterwhich point the image will become out of focus, blurry, and washed out. Video size is veryimportant – too small is not immersive, too big might be disorienting or overwhelming.

Figure 4.27: Kelly inspecting one of the considered projector setups

In order to fit the projector into the environment setup, rear projection was considered.Under this system, the projector is mounted behind the screen and mirrored. Users insideSUSIE would then view a normal scene through the screen. This can require a specialscreen, as well as a vast amount of space behind the screen in order to mount the projector.As space was a primary concern, an ultra short throw projector was utilized instead. TheNEC U300X shown in Figure 4.28 has a throw ratio of 0.377:1, allowing the projector to beplaced on the floor in front of the user inside the room. At only a distance of 3 horizontalfeet, the projected image reached 8 feet in width (the size of the front wall). The equipmenthad a poor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, but this proved sufficient for quick testing inorder to save the team from purchasing expensive equipment that might not be utilized.To make sure the images on the screen are sharp, our liaisons at Panasonic lent us threeultra-short throw projectors that are capable of reaching at least 1280 x 800 pixel resolution

4.5. Prototyping 65

each. Despite the original plan to use all three projectors only two were used. This waspartially due to the large amount heat emitted from the projectors and to control the roomtemperature at a comfortable range. Also, due to the reduction of the viewing angle, usingtwo projectors was enough to cover the wide screen.

Figure 4.28: NEC short throw projector

4.5.3.8 Pedaling Control

The users interact with the system with the bike. When they pedal the bike the pedalingrate is taken as in input. With SUSIE stationary pedal stations were used, Figure 4.29.The users would bike on the pedals and the frame rate and fan were manually adjustedaccordingly.

Figure 4.29: Pedaling system

In Aura the recumbent bike came with a magnetic switch that would become a closedcircuit each time a hidden magnet in the pedal went past it. By measuring the number oftime the circuit closed with respect to time the speed was calculated. This input was taken

4.5. Prototyping 66

by the arduino and used to control the fan speed and modify the play rate of the videothrough the computer.

4.5.4 Future of Aura

The current version of Aura is fully ready and functional. However the Stanford Universityteam and Trinity College Dublin team feel like the full potential of the system was notrealized. Apart from working with the physical form of the system to make it more appealingwe feel that there are values to some features that we were not able to incorporate due torestraints in budget and skill work force.

One key feature of Aura is creating a social environment where seniors can interact withthe members of their community. The team felt that it was a great addition to incorporategamification to the system such that users can compete with each other to unlock scenariosto tour or coupons to local businesses for being active with the system.

Another key feature that the team felt would greatly improve the functionality of Aurawould be an inclusion of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)system. With such a system users can log in to a computer rendered environment from anyplace in the world along with family and friends that are in another part of the world. Therendered environment would contain computer generated people and creatures along withother groups of users with whom one can interact. This brings in a social media aspect tothe system that can be very engaging and get the seniors involved.

4.6. User Testing 67

4.6 User Testing

The target audience that Aura aims to benefit includes seniors with physical or mentallimitations that prevent enjoyment of outdoor environments. More specifically, this includesthe extreme elderly (over 85-years-old), seniors with dementia, and seniors with limitingphysical disabilities. To gather strategic insight of our future users, we have approachedtwo different audiences: 1) the users who fit the description today and 2) those who willbecome users within the next 10 years.

Figure 4.30: A group of seniors gather to experience Aura

To reach both of these audiences, our team developed a partnership with Avenidas.Avenidas is a senior center that offers classes, lunches, and events for seniors of the PaloAlto area. A mobile version of Aura was brought to Avenidas for two and a half hours on aweekly bases for the span of seven weeks. Seniors of this community include both audiencesthat we aim to reach. To highlight findings we will discuss key individuals from each group.

4.6.1 Today’s Users

Though most members of Avenidas are still active and independent, a handful currently fitthe user description. Interviews and user testing with these individuals provided us withthe following insights.

• The physical stimulation of pedalling is enough. Too much activity can be draining.Many users who had physical limitations would pedal on and off, taking breaks whenneeded. “You feel like youre exercising,” said Jane.


• Just because a senior is confined to a wheelchair does not mean that they dont havethe ability to use their legs. Bill, a 97 year old retired Lockheed employee, used toride his bike to work. Because of balance issues, he now remains in an electric chair.However, he still has use of his legs and enjoyed re-experiencing a hobby that wasonce lost. “I very much miss not being able to bike ride...” said Bill, “but I considerthis a good simulation.”

• Visiting places remotely is a good substitution for those who can no longer travel.“You feel like youre there,” said Beverly, “I can afford this trip.”. . .

Figure 4.31: User testing at the Avendias senior community center

Some seniors at Avenidas had parents who currently fit the user description and providedus with indirect insight.

• Engaging elderly who suffer from dementia can be difficult. Anns mother is 102.“This would be a great way to engage with her, its hard to find ways to do that.”

• It can be hard to stay motivated as health and ability decline. Catherines motheris 93. “She is perfectly healthy, but chooses to stay in bed all day. This might besomething that could get her to exercise.”

• Maintaining attention is difficult for those who fall asleep easily. Catherine also notedthat watching TV can be problematic. With a continual progression of scenery beingplayed, catching each moment isnt critical. “With this, [my mother] could fall asleepand not really miss anything. She could wake up and jump right back in.”. . .


Other audiences who could benefit from Aura that were not previously considered werealso recommended by testers.

• Veterans or others who have had traumatic experiences could be soothed with Aura.Jim is a war veteran with friends at the Veterans Affairs Hospital. “This could beused as therapy. Its very soothing and peaceful.”

• Aura can be used as motivational encouragement for those recovering from injury.Mishel worked as an engineer designing equipment used in physical therapy for pa-tients who suffered from spinal cord injury or surgery. “Being outside is very im-portant for patients,” explained Mishel. He imagined Aura being used to visuallyaugment and therefore encourage movement during recovery treatments.. . .

4.6.2 Tomorrow’s Users

The seniors of Avenidas who are still active and independent anticipated the benefits ofAura in their future. The following key insights were provided from these seniors.

• Being around nature is important and valued by users. Melisa has been in the bayarea for many years. She prefers to stay away from the city though because there are“not enough trees.”

• Aura can be used socially. Frank lives in an assisted living facility and invited otherseniors to watch programs on a large screen. He was very enthusiastic about the ideaof a more immersive experience that he could share with others.

• There is a limit to how immersive people want to be. Frank explained that “watchingprograms on a big screen really pulls you in.” He and his friends were watchingprograms about those who suffer from AIDS. “The big screen makes you feel likeyoure there experiencing it with them. Sometimes its just too emotional to handle.”

• Aura can be used to connect those who have trouble communicating. Angela is arepeat user from Bulgaria. With little knowledge of English, she enjoyed simplysitting and watching the sceneries. It was very rewarding to see her become moreand more engaged in what ways she could with other seniors over the progress of theseven weeks.

• Being indoors avoids aggravating allergies. Joy is healthy, but is recovering from aknee injury. “I take indoor exercise classes because being outdoors hurts my allergies.”

• Aura can be used to visit familiar places and trigger memories. Margaret grew up inBangalore. “If I were in a facility, I would want to see familiar scenes... like PointReyes National Park.” The comfort of being in places that one knows well can besoothing.. . .

With all of the feedback, the team realized the importance of defining the target au-dience. Seniors who are currently active did not see Aura as something they would enjoygreatly right now. It would end up being too “boring” or “slow” for those who are stillcapable of going outside. It is important to note that Aura is not a perfect substitute forbeing outdoors. This solution is for those who can no longer enjoy the real experiencebecause of certain limitations. As a substitute in these terms, we believe that Aura will besuccess.

4.7. Design Vision 70

Figure 4.32: A senior user experiencing Aura

4.7 Design Vision

By narrowing from a number of concerns that seniors face to the key concern of depressionallowed the team to address a central need. By building a product, Aura, that addressed thiscritical need that many seniors face led to acceptance of the product that was expected andsupported through user testing. There are many potential applications for Aura includingcare facilities, hospitals, and therapy facilities. Each venue could use Aura in unique was toengage their elderly or disabled audiences and improve general quality of life in that venue.Some of these applications are demonstrated in Figure 4.33 This intuitive, user-need basedsolution can be expected to diminish the occurrence and severity of depression among theelderly or other groups of people who become confined indoors.

4.8. Business Benchmarking 71

Figure 4.33: Vision of the Future Product Market and Applications

4.8 Business Benchmarking

Panasonic Corp. is an extremely broad-ranging electronics and global services corporation.With a large sales and services focus in Japan, Panasonic seeks to expand their marketmore into Europe and the Americas. All together, the four divisions of Panasonic yield aglobal sales distribution of 53% to Japan, 12% to the Americas, 13% to China, 12% to Asia,and 9% to Europe, as shown in Figure 4.34. This project aims to boost the small U.S.A.representation on the company’s ledgers. Panasonic is primarily a business-to-businesssolutions company, working in an integrated manner with Apple, Tesla, and Samsung ona variety of electrical subsystems. They also offer a range of products sold directly toconsumers and are seeking to attract new customers and users. The future product willbring Panasonic’s Japanese health-care market to the US, vastly expanding potential profits.Their value propositions include diversity and quality, with the overall motivation of beingdriven by the desire to make life easier. This final priority is articulated in their recentlyredefined motto: “A Better Life, A Better World” [8]. Their key resources come from a vastnumber of personnel located all around the world. With a significant portion of revenuebeing re-investment into research and development, Panasonic also has more than 140,000patents. This project aims to achieve Panasonic’s goal of creating advanced technologiescapable of improving daily life for the American consumer.

4.8. Business Benchmarking 72

Figure 4.34: Panasonic Sales Breakdown

5 Design Specifications

5.1 Aura Overview

Team Panasonic created Aura at Radicand Labs, a remote workspace with an in-housetoolshop and plenty of room to construct the large Aura structure. An overview of the finalsystem is presented below in a CAD rendering and image from EXPE in Figure 5.1 andFigure 5.2 below, respectively.

Figure 5.1: Aura Setup in CAD

73

5.1. Aura Overview 74

Figure 5.2: Aura Setup at EXPE

In addition, top and front views are provided below for more insight into the constructionof Aura, in Figure 5.3 Figure5.4


Figure 5.3: Aura Top View in CAD


Figure 5.4: Aura Front View in CAD

The subsystems created and their hierarchy are identified in Figure 5.5 as a system dia-gram. These will be explored for their development and tweaking in the following sections.

5.2. Construction 77

Figure 5.5: Aura System Diagram

5.2 Construction

In order to construct Aura, many components are needed from a variety of suppliers. Thespecific parts utilized by Team Panasonic are expanded in the Bill of Materials in AppendixC.2.

The first item of construction holds the rest of Aura together. The wooden frame shownbelow in Figure 5.6 was built from the majority of the wood and brackets from the Bill ofMaterials. The joints are screwed together with standard wood screws and metal bracketswere used for critical corners to reinforce the structure. 2x6 planks create the long bracesupports on the bottom, while 2x4 board were used for most other interconnects.


Figure 5.6: Wooden Frame, with Kelly for Scale

Plywood was then placed on top to provide a floor on which to mount projectors usingtheir included ceiling mounting plates (placed upside down for floor mounting). Free-rotating steel caster wheels were also mounted to the bottom for ease of movement, asshown by Kelly in Figure 5.7.


Figure 5.7: Wood Working by Kelly

Next, the screen setup was created. Tube steel was bent into a 12 radius using a tuberoller, as Tesh demonstrates in Figure 5.8. Both pieces needed to be precisely controlled sothe screen would not warp between the top and bottom mounting points.


Figure 5.8: Tesh Bending Steel Tubing

The top curved piece was then bolted to metal support legs to hold the screen upright.Holes were drilled into the wooden structure to increase rigidity, as shown by Michael andAlbert in Figure 5.9. The metal support legs were dropped into the wooden holes.


Figure 5.9: Michael and Albert Drilling Wooden Mounting Holes

The structure during testing of curvature is shown in Figure 5.10.


Figure 5.10: Screen Setup Testing with Wood Panels

The desktop computer was wedged into the frame between wooden braces to preventmoving. The stereo was attached on top of the desktop computer using Dual Lock. Addi-tional Dual Lock strips were placed to hold the keyboard, mouse, and remote controls of thevarious systems to restrain during movement. The speakers were screwed onto mountingplates and attached to the 2x4s of the wooden frame. Long speaker wire runs from eachspeaker to the stereo. The Hue and wireless router were mounted in the same fashion asthe speakers, directly above the computer, as shown in Figure 5.11. Ethernet wires connectthe three items.


Figure 5.11: Mounting of the Hue Components

The Dyson fan required Duron boards to be cut to outline the profile of the Dyson.Six of these boards were stacked and angled such that the fan was centered and pointedupwards, while being supported sideways (as seen in the front of the system in Figure 5.2).The fan was wired into the Arduino for control, shown by Figure 5.12.

Figure 5.12: Arduino Mount Next to Dyson

The overall dimensions of the final Aura system are shown in the following three images


in order to provide a sense of scale. The system fits through a standard set of double doors.Figures 5.13, 5.14, and 5.15.

Figure 5.13: Front View with Dimensions


Figure 5.14: Side View with Dimensions

Figure 5.15: Top View with Dimensions


In order to merge the two projectors onto a curved screen, Fly Elise-ngs ImmersiveDesktop Pro software [10] was implemented. Intensive calibration is required to create asmooth and seamless display. The process involves manually arranging grid points untilperfect squares are represented on the screen, following by blending the overlap of the twoimages, as seen in Figure 5.16.

Figure 5.16: Immersive Desktop Calibration Process

As described in Section 4.5.1, the system utilizes a recumbent exercise bike for pedalling

5.3. Coding 87

control. Non-critical electronic components were removed, including the heart monitor,display panel, and interface buttons. The magnetic reed switch was wired directly into,bypassing the control circuitry and heading directly into the Arduino as the speed input.

5.3 Coding

A variety of software was developed and employed for successful operation of Aura. Theoperation of these components is described in an operations manual in Appendix B.3. Asmost systems were off-the-shelf hardware, synthesizing them into a single system provedtoo challenging, so separate steps are required for each piece of electronics.

5.3.1 MATLAB

In order to operate Aura, a number of softwares must communicate properly, according tothe system diagram in Figure 5.5. MATLAB and Arduino operate in a shared fashion withneither the master nor slave. MATLAB starts the system before both systems communicateback and forth during operation to maintain the video, audio, and fan responses.

A MATLAB GUI was created, as shown in Figure 5.17. The full MATLAB code isprovided in Appendix B.1. MATLAB initiates the system by sending a boot command tothe Arduino (after establishing a Serial connection over an open USB COM port). It thenopens an instance of PotPlayer, a freeware video player application, and passes a referenceto the appropriate movie files. A similar operation is performed on VLC, another freewaresoftware. PotPlayer handles the video playback due to its improved abilities to adjustplayback rate (it is therefore muted). VLC handles the audio playback and remains in awindow behind PotPlayer (which is in fullscreen mode).

Figure 5.17: Simple MATLAB GUI

During operation, the Serial interface is left open and waiting for signals. When theArduino sends a new command, MATLAB utilizes a Java extension to control PotPlayerand VLC via global hotkeys. For instance, when ”CTRL+SHIFT+N” is pressed (on thekeyboard or virtually by MATLAB), PotPlayer interprets this command and skips to thenext media file. All the configuration files are saved to local copies of the application oreasy deployment.

In order to maintain a robust connection, a protocol was decided upon for communica-tion. It is explained in the following tables of Figure 5.18. The pedaling speed input range

5.3. Coding 88

of speeds was matched to the 10 speed settings of the fan and a corresponding 10 playbackrates of the video. The Arduino has the capability to instruct the system to move to thenext media content.

Figure 5.18: Protocol and Standards

5.3.2 Arduino

As indicated in the system diagram in Figure 5.5 and Section 5.3.1, while MATLAB controlsthe audio and video sytems, the Arduino is responsible for:

• measuring the user’s pedaling speed• mapping the pedaling speed to a 1 to 10 speed reading• sending the fan/video playback speed reading of 1 to 10 to MATLAB via the USB

COM port• controlling the Wind SimulatorThe user’s pedaling speed is measured via a reed switch that triggers once every revolu-

tion of the bicycle pedaling. The Arduino measures the time elapsed since the last trigger ofthe reed switch, and after averaging the last 3 timer values, reports an average time. Thisaverage time is then translated into a meaningful video playback/ fan speed: the smallerthe timer values, the higher the speed.

5.3. Coding 89

The speed information sent to the Dyson fan and to MATLAB for the video playbackspeed, is in the form of a ”speed up” and ”speed down” signal. Closed loop control, inwhich the Arduino or MATLAB measures the actual output speed, would be ideal. Thiswas not implemented due to time constraints. The fan speed is adjusted by using an IRLED to mimic the Dyson fan’s remote control signal to turn on, speed up, or speed down.Dyson fan’s provide a very direction source of wind, which is useful in future work withAura for multiple users to simultaneously have a personalized experience.

The full Arduino code is provided in Appendix B.2

5.3.3 Circuit Diagram

As indicated in the circuit diagram in Figure 5.19 this pinout assignments to the ArduinoMEGA are as follows:

• +5V: supplying a normally high signal to D2 via a 100k-ohm pull-up resistor• GND: provides a low signal to D2 when the reed switch is triggered• D2: used with an interrupt routine to measure pedaling speed• A0: drives an IR LED to simulate Dyson Fan remote control• GND: ground for an IR LED to simulate Dyson Fan remote controlThe HUE ambient lighting system, projectors, and Dyson fan are connected t0 110V

AC power.

Figure 5.19: Circuit Diagram of Arduino MEGA pinouts

6 Project Management

6.1 Deliverables

During the past 6 months of ME310, the team learned about several new design processesand went through several iterations of prototyping while exploring the boundaries of theproject. There are several new prototypes and other relevant documents that are criticalfor the design process and are considered essential deliverables. The deliverables that teamPanasonic completed during winter quarter are as follows:

• Dark Horse Prototype (January 16) - Similar to a CFP, yet is designed to encompassthe entire design space. It is meant to explore an area that is very far-fetched, wildand even risky when compared with previously explored concepts.

• Dark Horse Prototype 2.0 (January 23) - The 2nd iteration of the Dark Horse Pro-totype and will continue to explore ideas that may seem very ridiculous.

• Dark Horse Prototype Final (January 30) - The 3rd iteration of the Dark HorsePrototype and will continue to explore ideas that may seem very ridiculous.

• Funky Prototype (February 6) - A rough system prototype that is rapidly assembledand approximates a complete system. It allows for evaluation and testing of the systemin order to check for possible areas where the final product can be directed and refined.

• Funky Prototype Final (February 13) - The 2nd iteration of the Funky Prototypeand will continue to develop a functioning yet funky-looking system.

• Functional Prototype (February 20) - A critical prototype that converges all theideas and areas explored for the project into a concise form that is descriptive of whatis to be expected as a final project. The final EXPE product may closely resemble theprototype in terms of functionality. The prototype will be used to test the technicaland experience issues for the final product in a more refined manner than the FunkyPrototype may have achieved.

• Functional Prototype 2.0 (February 27) - The 2nd iteration of the Functional Pro-totype and will continue to refine the prototype into a functioning system.

• Functional Prototype Final (March 6) - The 3rd iteration of the Functional Prototypeand will continue to refine the prototype into a functioning system.

• Winter Final Presentation (March 13) - Final presentation showcasing the projectvision, the progress made over fall and winter quarters, and projections for finaldeliverable for Spring quarter and EXPE.

• Winter Design Documents (March 18) - A detailed documentation of the overviewof the Spring quarter and all the progress made so far. A final report is created as ahard copy that specifies the direction the team is heading into and explicit descriptionof what can be expected as the final project.

• Travel (March 14 - 30) - The Stanford team of Panasonic will be travelling toDublin, Ireland to meet the team at Trinity College Dublin. The trip will happenover Stanford spring break. Over the course of the trip, the team will discuss whatthe final product will look like and try to work on any functionality, technical anduser experience issue that may linger. A key topic would also be the EXPE and how

90

6.2. Milestones 91

the two teams are going to coordinate efforts to have a successful presentation andcollaboratively prepare an official documentation and report of the project to markits completion.

• Part X (April 17) - One non-trivial part of the design must be completed into itsfinal form.

• Manufacturing Plan (April 24) - In order to create a polished final prototype, adocument containing a full bill of materials, budget plan, and schedule until EXPE.

• Penultimate Integration (May 15) - The design must be in a state which, if frozenuntil EXPE, would be ready to wow the audience.

• EXPE (June 5) - The final presentation of the completed product, showcased in aaesthetic, functioning, and durable form. Hundreds of industry experts and visitorswill test the system during the presentation day.

• Final Report (June 10) - The final report of the completed product, compiled overthe nine month project duration.

6.2 Milestones

Each deliverable mentioned in Section 6.1 Deliverables is treated as a key milestone, signi-fying completion of a design task. In addition, there are many tasks and action items thatare part of and lead up to the deliverables. Some key tasks include ideation, ordering parts,manufacturing, assembly, troubleshooting, presentation, and a final report. The estimateddeadlines and respective timeframes predicted during winter quarter are shown in Figure6.1. The actual milestones dates followed by the team during winter quarter from 6.1 De-liverables are expanded into a project timeline in Figure 6.2. The primary differences wereincreased time spent on dark horse prototypes and further intermediate revisions of eachprototype along the way.

6.2. Milestones 92

Figure 6.1: Projected schedule for winter quarter deadlines

6.2. Milestones 93

Figure 6.2: Actual schedule for winter quarter deadlines

6.2. Milestones 94

At the end of winter quarter, a Gantt chart was created to get the project to EXPE .This estimated plan is described in Figure 6.3. As always occurs, this plan was drasticallyaltered throughout the quarter. Just in the first two weeks, during the deliverable for themanufacturing plan, a more finalized and polished Gantt chart with specific owners of eachstep was created. This final set of instructions is included below in the two-page breakdownof Figures 6.4 and 6.5.

6.2. Milestones 95

Figure 6.3: Projected schedule for spring quarter deadlines

6.2. Milestones 96

Figure 6.4: Actual schedule for spring quarter deadlines (page 1)

6.2. Milestones 97

Figure 6.5: Actual schedule for spring quarter deadlines (page 2)

6.3. Distributed Team Management 98

6.3 Distributed Team Management

Having two teams in different countries is challenging. When compounded with other fac-tors, such as an eight-hour time difference, respective teaching teams and coaches, separatecourse schedules, additional collegiate responsibilities, varying deliverables, and corporateliaisons (Panasonic Corp.), the difficulty in working as a unified team rises greatly. Tomitigate the complexities introduced by the aforementioned causes it becomes very crucialthat a clear and direct method of communication is maintained so that intentions are notmisinterpreted, requests are not lost, concerns are not disregarded, and data is effectivelyshared to meet critical deadlines for both teams.

Communication, collaboration and data sharing strategies and tools were discussed withteam members during the Trinity College Dublin team’s visit to Stanford University for theGlobal Kickoff Weekend. The team attended several events together and even had a teammeeting including the Trinity teaching team and the liaisons from Panasonic Corp.. Thismeeting helped create a sense of what was expected, the resources available, and evencleared up ambiguity regarding the prompt. The team decided upon certain tools andmethods for communicating. The proposed tools and methods were tried and based uponfactors such as ease of use, meeting team needs, and compatibility with other used toolsand methods. the proposed system was modified by means of continuous use and iterationuntil a working model that satisfied all parties was reached. The tools used to communicateand share data are shown in Table 6.1.

6.3. Distributed Team Management 99

Communication Tool Utilization Purpose Access Authorization

310 Wiki

• Tracking course plan• Viewing mission objectives• Reviewing information on de-

sign process & concepts dis-cussed in class

Full access to everyone

Email

• General communication• Quick notices and information• Verification of messages and

deadlines

Google Hangout

• Live discussion with amongteam

• Update presentations to Pana-sonic Corp. liaisons

• Short text messages betweenStanford and Trinity members

WhatsApp

• Real-time communication in-ternationally

• Scheduling deadlines andmeetings

• Sharing images quickly

Full access for studentteam, Viewer only accessfor teaching team andPanasonic Corp. liaisons

Google Drive

• Sharing large amount of anydata files

• Backing up of all data• Accessing data from any all

devices

Google Docs &ShareLATEX

• Collaborative creating, edit-ing, and sharing of content

• Making remarks on docu-ments in real time for othermembers to act upon

Table 6.1: Communications Tools Used

During the Global Kickoff Week it was agreed upon that both teams would followthe course program and missions from the Stanford 310 website. Times were set for theteams to have two meetings per week, with a biweekly Panasonic Corp. update meeting

6.4. Project Budget 100

with the liaisons. This plan would keep everyone in the loop about the various subteams’progress and allow for sharing ideas and comments received from respective teaching team.Certain standards and organizational guidelines were set for documentation of the meetingsand other relevant notes. Due to the close proximity of the Stanford University team toPanasonic Corp. liaisons, Stanford University team members met with Panasonic Corp. asmuch as possible, while relaying information to Trinity College Dublin via notes and liveHangout calls.

Both teams collaborated on the new set of benchmarking, needfinding, and prototyping,while also sharing raw data and analysis information through the proper communicationchannels.

6.4 Project Budget

Both the 310 course at Stanford University and the 4E5 course at Trinity College Dublinhave an independent allocation of $8,000 for the academic year, with a separate budget fortravel expenses.

6.4.1 Stanford University

The breakdown of the Stanford University budget on a per quarter basis is shown in Table6.2. Available funds rollover to future quarters.

Quarter Starting Budget Allocation Available Funds Expenditure

Fall $1,000 $1,000.00 $660.66

Winter $3,000 $3,339.34 $1,316.36

Spring $4,000 $6,022.98 $5,867.35

Table 6.2: ME310 Stanford University project budget for the year

The majority of the budget was spent during the final quarter of the project due to thecosts of constructing a fully integrated prototype and the additional costs of hosting a boothat EXPE. The overall budget was allocated with this in mind. The final prototype could nothave been designed and constructed to the extent that it is without the additional supportthe team received from Panasonic Corp. in the form of donated materials, especially theultra short-throw projectors.

The fall quarter budget was allocated for an ME310 class assignment, office supplies,SUDS, local mileage reimbursements, event expenses, benchmarking, and prototyping. Dur-ing the ME310 class assignment, the Stanford members of the team were tasked with build-ing a paper robot to experiment with human-robot interactions. Additional goals of the as-signment were team bonding and gaining experience with mechatronics prototyping. SUDSis a weekly dinner hosted by ME310 teams at Stanford University to promote informaldesign brainstorming and cross-polination of ideas across ME310 projects. The Stanfordmembers of the team hosted one of these weekly working meals for 75 people. Local travelreimbursements were provided for the traveling required for conducting needfinding inter-views as well as to purchase supplies necessary for benchmarking and prototyping. Eventexpense reimbursements were also provided for the cost accrued to attend the DreamForce


Conference in San Francisco on the 20th of November, 2013. The purpose of attending theDreamForce Conference was to benchmark products and services based upon the Internetof Things. The allocation of the fall quarter budget can be found in Figure 6.6 and anitemized description of expenses can be found in Appendix D.7.

Figure 6.6: Actual allocation of fall project budget

An estimate of the winter quarter budget allocation that was created in the fall canbe found in Figure 6.7. The team expected to host one more SUDS meal next quarterfor approximately $400. As the direction of the project became more focused throughoutquarter, more funds were expected to be allocated towards benchmarking and prototypingthan in the fall.


Figure 6.7: Planned allocation of winter project budget

The actual winter quarter spending is illustrated below in Figure 6.8. Prototypingbudgets increased as models became more complex, larger, and of higher quality. Onlyabout half of the allocated funds were used, because the SUDS working meal was postponedto next quarter and because much of the prototype building conducted later in the quarterwere upgrades to previous prototyping. An itemized description of Winter expenses can befound in Appendix D.


Figure 6.8: Actual allocation of winter project budget

An estimate of the spring quarter budget allocation created at the end of winter canbe found in Figure 6.9. The project has a definite focus, so the build quality of the finalprototype should rise, increasing material and processing costs. Some components wereexpected to be outsourced to local machine shops or computer scientists. In addition,creation of the EXPE booth was expected to require additional resources. Nearly all of thefunding should be spent directly on the product and presentation. More funds should beallocated to travel expenses to local senior centers for further user testing.


Figure 6.9: Planned allocation of spring project budget

In actuality for spring quarter, a number of the expenses changed with increased proto-typing costs. Radicand workspace was rented for $1,100, at over 13% of the entire budgetfor the course. SUDS was also a large expense for the quarter at over $600. Raw materialcosts consisted of most of the remaining funds, as no processes were outsourced to machineshops. About 12% of the budget was used for hosting EXPE, which primarily consistedof Uhaul transportation costs, pipe and drape rentals, printing team banners, posters, andbrochures, and team shirt costs. Significant money was saved by doing videography andgraphic design in-house rather than subcontracting out. The final breakdown is shown inFigure 6.10.


Figure 6.10: Actual allocation of entire project budget

6.4.2 Trinity College Dublin

The actual fall and winter quarter spending of Trinity College Dublin is depicted by Figure6.11.


Figure 6.11: Actual allocation of TCD fall and winter project budget

As it’s the first year that Trinity College Dublin has offered this course there is still a fewkinks to iron out and one of them has been the budget. Information on the budget such aswhat it can be spent on and the process of procurement was not entirely clear to begin with.So at first Trinity College Dublin was quite apprehensive to go out and spend. Instead, theteam made use of materials at home and in college and any spending was a minimal, whichis why there is a noticeable difference in spending of the two budgets between the two sidesof the team. The little the Trinity side did spend is displayed in Figure 6.11 . Figure 6.12shows the budget plan of Trinity College Dublin for the remainder of the project.


Figure 6.12: Planned allocation of the Trinity College Dublin spring projectbudget

Instead of this planned budget, the majority was reserved for internal Trinity CollegeDublin uses. Of the 6,000 Euro total budget, 1,195 Euro was spent on prototyping andoffice expenses throughout the year for Trinity College Dublin use. There is no informationon line itemized expenses.

6.5. Reflections and Goals 108

6.5 Reflections and Goals

Michael Jacobs

With the project narrowing to the senior healthcare field, our efforts have proven muchmore refined than earlier on in the project. I still felt scattered in the beginning of thewinter quarter, to the point where it felt like we would never find any suitable prototypesolution; however, with our almost spontaneous decision to pursue immersive media, theproject really came together within the first two weeks of spring quarter. Actually buildingthe product almost felt like a formality after all the research and planning.

Our communication with Trinity College Dublin improved from fall to winter quarter,and we definitely enhanced our relationship over the spring break travels, making us feelmore aligned. However, Hangout sessions were still mostly declarations, not discussions,and spring quarter resulted in Stanford operating independently on the entirety of Aura.This lack of communication definitely made the project easier to complete, but certainlysacrificed some possible extensions and connections. Trinity’s vastly differing deadlines anduse of money (i.e. very little) made a unified team front nearly impossible. Thankfully weall get along well, and Stanford really needed, and thankfully received, the assistance ofIreland in the last week.

I enjoyed the mostly hands-off engagement of Panasonic liaisons throughout the project.They were very interested in our work and keeping up with recent engagements, but werevery hesitant to provide direction into the project. This allowed the team to pursue itsown interests, at least until more heavily pushed by the TTeam. I still feel as if our finalprototype is more of a giant movie room with a treadmill in front of it, but I am likelybeing overly critical of my own invention. Users love it and Panasonic is pursuing the ideafurther, keeping my excitement up.

EXPE was a crazy event with way too much going on during the last week. Aurawas completed over a week before the event, but we still worked long hours to preparethe brochure, poster, banner, presentation, video, paper, and other miscellaneous tasks. Ienjoyed working with my team, and we definitely worked better together than many otherteams, at least from what I saw. As with any group, it was not perfect, but we made itthrough the project as friends and built a great, polished final product.

Kelly Lowen

Our project really came a long way. Having started anew in January with a revised promptwas wonderful. I clearly saw the need for better elderly care and was able to get emotionallyattached to the users that we were trying to help. Seeing my own grandparents face healthchallenges makes me eager to improve their lives in any way that I can. I feel like ourteam solution can really help people in need. Better than creating a fancy gadget, we couldbuild something useful and helpful. As a team we had many ideas; I think our biggestchallenge is deciding which idea to pursue. For a number of reasons, we ended up choosinga multi-media experience to treat the central concern of depression. Finally choosing aspecific target concern made me feel confident that we could deliver a worthy solution byEXPE .


This quarter I like that we were more organized. We learned how to construct a visionof our final product and road map of how to get there. This experience was extremelyvaluable and I have no doubts that this practice will benefit other projects that I work onin the future. I also enjoyed being able to finally build with full force towards the finalproduct. We became better about designating tasks and accomplishing milestones. Ourcommunication across the entire team continued to improve and our work became morecollaborative as we converged.

One of the aspects of the project that I most enjoyed was user testing at Avenidas, thelocal senior community center. Going on a weekly basis really allowed us to get to knowthe seniors. We remembered things about their lives and learned about their hobbies andfamilies. I think that we learned a lot of valuable information from our user testing thathelped us refine small details of our final prototype. It was especially rewarding to see afew of our user testers from the Avenidas come to EXPE . Looking back at EXPE , I feelgreat about the product that we delivered. I really enjoyed taking this class and feel thatthis skills of design thinking will carry through in many ways to the projects that I take onin the future.

Adam McCreevey

Taking on this project has proven to be extremely beneficial. I have learned many newskills from programming to interviewing which will all become very useful in the future.I think you have to be prepared to learn anything and to attempt everything with thistype of design. Seeing our ideas become actual prototypes was a really interesting aspectof the project. There are not very many courses that enable this to happen. I feel thatthe prototype that we delivered was very impressive and I am quite proud of it. All of thefeedback which we have received has also been very positive and Panasonic seem to be veryinterested in proceeding with the idea. The approach to engineering design taught by thiscourse is really useful and I believe that it is a very good framework for a developer tryingto learn how to develop ideas. I would definitely recommend the course to anyone who isinterested in engineering design.

Tassiana Padeiro

With the project coming to an end, I can say that it was a great experience. Like mostprojects (personal and/or professional) we went through different phases: moments of frus-tration, discoveries and achievements. Our prototypes, for both the ”mini-EXPE” and forthe EXPE at Stanford, exceeded my expectations because despite its relatively long timewe had, we also had changes in our prompt, delay in defining the model/prototype becauseof the different models used to Dark Funky Horse prototype and prototype. This experiencealso served to develop our capacity to project management: issues related to communicationbetween team members and between teams, alignment of ideas and discussion, and prior-itization of activities and mechanisms used in the prototype. This allowed us to finalizethe prototype earlier than expected and further testing with users. My teammates, bothof Trinity College and Stanford, could not be better and made this a much more enjoyableexperience. The final result is extremely positive and the lessons I have learned will be veryuseful for my future career and personal life.


Conor Quinn

Overall its been a fantastic experience and would recommend the course to any potentialstudent. I feel I have learned valuable skills from the course and certainly plan to utilisethem in my future career no matter what the field. Looking back there are certainly areaswhere I feel the team and I could have done better but overall I was very pleased withhow everything came together. For myself I was personally disappointed with my part ofthe presentation, I didnt know it as well as I thought and that was clear to see during thepresentation. Working with team members across the pond has been surprising enlighteningand I have certainly learned a lot from working with them outside of the course curriculum.Its nice to be part of a project that will help people especially when its a vulnerabledemographic such as the elderly. I have also enjoyed addressing a sensitive issue such asdepression and I am happy the team hasnt shied away from the subject as it does affect asubstantial amount of elderly.

Gurjot Sandhu

With the project coming to a close now I feel extremely happy with both our progress overthe course of the year and our final products (in Trinity and also in Stanford). The 4e5course has been an unbelievable experience helping me learn many new things and acquirenumerous skills which no doubt will come in useful even after I put my college days behindme. As with any team project, we had both ups and downs but every time rose above ourchallenges as a team and strove to better ourselves and also our ideas. Working with theStanford team has also been an extremely positive experience and while there obviouslygoing to be some sort of set-back or problems with regards to communications, etc. I got achance to learn a lot from our Stanford counterparts as they really helped bring the me310ideology and design thinking to life. I have also, no doubt made friends for life working withan overseas team and would have no problems recommending this course to any prospectivestudents as it has been the most enjoyable and insightful project I have worked on to dateduring my time in Trinity.

Ritesh Shrestha

Continuing on from the first quarter I’ve come to learn and accept that ME310 is not justmeant to be an engineering course. It is a philosophy course in design with an engineeringemphasis. Accepting this helped me feel more comfortable with the setting that I was in,as a part of the team and as a part of the class. This really helped when ideating over aproduct and trying to bring it to its physical form.

Reeling in from fall quarter when the project direction was too vague, we were glad tohave a specific direction,”senior health-care ”, to focus our efforts on. This was great ina way but also turned out to be really stressful for the team as we jumped directly in tothe Dark Horse Prototyping, without having looked into senior health care at all duringthe previous quarter. We didn’t have time to properly need-find and benchmark like theprocess was meant to allow us to. It was a mixed and rushed job trying to cram everythingwe did last quarter while trying to meet the deadline each week over winter quarter. Thisset us up with a lot of internal conflicts about which ideas to pursue and prototype. Therewas a brief moment when deciding which aspect to follow through with was the biggest


challenge, since each one of us including the team from Trinity College Dublin wanted toprototype different ideas. The teaching team was a great help to us during that moment ofuncertainty and helped us come out with a clear vision of what we needed to do.

One of the greatest challenges that bugged the team was the foreshadowing of extensivesoftware development for our chosen path. Due to lack of comprehensive content for ourplatform, it seemed very likely that we may have to create video and audio content alongwith user interfaces. This was one aspect that none of us had experience with and was notvery comfortable with. It took us some time to get used to doing so, but with the availableresources from the teaching team and at Stanford University we did manage to get it alldone and even more. Despite not being familiar with graphic editing we still were able tocreate posters and banners for the project. This was a good exposure to the real worldmarketing skills.

I was very glad with the team’s effort in checking out multiple aspects of senior health-care, meeting specialists in the areas of concern and prototyping concepts to check forapplicability of the ideas. We’ve had regular meeting with Trinity College Dublin andPanasonic Corp., that help solidify the path we took with Aura. The product came outbetter than we had expected and that gave us some time to work on the aesthetics of it. Itwas great going to Avenidas for user testing and after seeing all the enthusiasm for Auraand receiving all the feedback we were confident that Aura was all that it was mean to be.Getting on to the final platform at EXPE was a surreal experience. It was a day that allof us were told to wait for since the very beginning. And it did live up to the hype. EXPEwas a grand experience that I will always remember.

Albert Wu

In December, when our prompt was redirected towards a health-care solution for the babyboomer generation, my team was very excited and optimistic that we could quickly convergeon a problem to solve. But after conducting initial interviews with health-care professionals,health-care facilities, and senior citizens, we soon realized the broadness of the prompt. Itwas a dive into ambiguity again. However, compared to Fall quarter, we were much moreskilled at the ”design hunting” mindset during Winter quarter. During Spring quarter,it felt like the course took a drastically different path: rather than being encouraged toexplore the design space, we were asked to converge and focus on making a well functioningprototype for the EXPE design faire. By focusing our efforts on a final prototype, I feltmy team had the opportunity to understand the ”solution space” in much greater waysthan we could before during the diverging phase. Having a physical prototype allowed usto conduct weekly user testing, which resulted in very helpful design insight.

In regards to team dynamics, it was very exciting to see the team work together moreeffectively as the year progressed. During Winter quarter, our global team communicated100 times better than Fall quarter. This was due to (1) transitioning to more frequentglobal hangouts (via Google Hangouts), (2) using What’s App for real-time updates viatext messaging, and (3) getting to know each other better. During Spring quarter, ourteam really gelled together. I think this was due to (1) the fun our team had together whenthe Stanford side visited Ireland during Spring Break, and (2)The TCD side having theirmini EXPE during the beginning of Stanford’s Spring quarter, which pushed both sides tohash out design ideas earlier.


I was not very fond of the prompt change to health-care because it is an industry thatI know almost nothing about. However, during winter break, I quickly felt emotionallyinvolved with our prompt after one evening when I brought my grandpa to the EmergencyRoom at 3am. During the moment, I felt helpless to assist my grandpa. I hope my team’swork this quarter will have a lasting impact on improving the quality of life and overallwell-being for seniors. Overall, I am very satisfied with the design work we did this yearand I hope it will have insightful ideas that Panasonic Corp. can use moving forward toimprove the quality of life for us all. I am also very glad I decided to take this course,because it has changed my perspective on what engineering can be used for.

7 Resources

Avenidas450 Bryant St.Palo Alto, CA 94301Phone (650) [email protected]

On Lok, Inc. Administrative Offices1333 Bush StreetSan Francisco, CA 94109Phone: 415-292-8888Email: [email protected]: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm

Golden Heritage Living1275 North Fourth StreetSan Jose, CA 95112-4705Phone: 408-392-0752http://goldenheritage.net

Lytton Gardens Assisted Living649 University AvenuePalo Alto, CA 94301(650) 617-7373

Vasona Creek Healthcare CenterVasona Creek Healthcare Center16412 Los Gatos Blvd.Los Gatos, CA 95032

The Netwell CentreDundalk Institute of Technology,PJ Carroll’s Bldg - Bright Room,Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland.

Virtual Human Interaction LabMcClatchy Hall, Room 411Department of CommunicationStanford UniversityStanford, CA, 94305-2050Phone: 650.736.8848Email: [email protected]

113

Resources 114

VA Palo Alto Health Care SystemNadine KwebetchouPhysical [email protected]

Ann Lindsay MDCo-Director, Stanford Coordinated CareClinical Professor of Medicine211 Quarry RoadSuite 102 Mail code: 5995Palo Alto, CA 94304Phone: 650.736.0682Mobile: 707.267.4741Email: [email protected]

Stanford Center on LongevityLandau Building579 Serra Mall (Serra at Galvez)Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6053http://longevity3.stanford.edu/

Bibliography

[1] The old and the older. Technical report, The Economist, November 2010. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/japans population.

[2] Annual report 2013. Technical report, Kadoma, Osaka, Japan, March 2013. http://panasonic.net/ir/annual/2013/pdf/panasonic ar2013 e.pdf.

[3] Us social network users by age group. Technical report, Mature MarketingMatters RSS, February 2013. http://knowledge.creatingresults.com/2013/02/19/us-social-network-users-by-age-group-new-statistics-from-pew/.

[4] World population prospects. Technical report, United Nations, 2013. http://esa.un.org/wpp/Documentation/pdf/.

[5] Paro robots. Technical report, PARO Robots U.S., Inc., 2014. http://www.parorobots.com/index.asp.

[6] Alasdair Allan. The trouble with things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-D2Gh2y0vM.

[7] P.Kronholm C.Nananda, J.P. Fanale. The role of medication non-compliance andadverse drug reactions in hospitalizations of the elderly. Technical report, Archives ofInternal Medicine, Dec 1990. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546404.

[8] Panasonic Corp. Corporate profile. http://panasonic.net/corporate/.

[9] Panasonic Corp. Solutions for seniors. http://panasonic.net/es/solution-works/agefree/.

[10] Fly Elise-ng. Immersive desktop pro. http://www.fly.elise-ng.net/immersivedisplaypro.

[11] Dr. Gupta. World’s untold stories: Dementia village. Technical report, CNN,July 2013. http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2013/07/30/wus-dementia-village.cnn.html.

[12] GestureTek Health. Sensory wallfx. http://www.gesturetekhealth.com/products-sensory-wallfx.php.

[13] Director Jake Schreier. Frank & robot. Technical report, Hallowell House, August.

[14] Emily Keshner. Virtual reality and physical rehabilitation: A new toy or a new re-search and rehabilitation tool? Technical report, National Center for BiotechnologyInformation, Dec 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546404.

[15] Journal of the American Medical Association. History of falls associated with post-operative complications in older patients. http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/history-falls-associated-postoperative-complications-older-patients/.

[16] Stanford Center on Longevity. Design challenge. http://longevity3.stanford.edu/designchallenge/about.

[17] Brontes Processing. Seeme rehabilitation. http://www.virtual-reality-rehabilitation.com/products/seeme/what-is-seeme.

115

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/japans_population

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/japans_population

http://panasonic.net/ir/annual/2013/pdf/panasonic_ar2013_e.pdf

http://panasonic.net/ir/annual/2013/pdf/panasonic_ar2013_e.pdf

http://knowledge.creatingresults.com/2013/02/19/us-social-network-users-by-age-group-new-statistics-from-pew/

http://knowledge.creatingresults.com/2013/02/19/us-social-network-users-by-age-group-new-statistics-from-pew/

http://esa.un.org/wpp/Documentation/pdf/

http://esa.un.org/wpp/Documentation/pdf/

http://www.parorobots.com/index.asp

http://www.parorobots.com/index.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-D2Gh2y0vM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-D2Gh2y0vM

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546404

http://panasonic.net/corporate/

http://panasonic.net/es/solution-works/agefree/

http://panasonic.net/es/solution-works/agefree/

http://www.fly.elise-ng.net/immersivedisplaypro

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2013/07/30/wus-dementia-village.cnn.html

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2013/07/30/wus-dementia-village.cnn.html

http://www.gesturetekhealth.com/products-sensory-wallfx.php

http://www.gesturetekhealth.com/products-sensory-wallfx.php

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546404

http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/history-falls-associated-postoperative-complications-older-patients/

http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/history-falls-associated-postoperative-complications-older-patients/

http://longevity3.stanford.edu/designchallenge/about

http://longevity3.stanford.edu/designchallenge/about

http://www.virtual-reality-rehabilitation.com/products/seeme/what-is-seeme

http://www.virtual-reality-rehabilitation.com/products/seeme/what-is-seeme

Bibliography 116

[18] Director Richard Fleischer. Soylent greem. Technical report, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,Apr 1973.

[19] Stanford University Roundtable moderated by Katie Couric. Paro robots. Technicalreport, Are You Happy Now? The New Science of Happiness and Wellbeing, Stanford,Janurary 2014. www.stanford.eduroundtablewebcast.

[20] Christy Schmid. Hogewey dementia village — the future of dementia care?Technical report, alzCAREGIVER, August 2013. http://alz-caregiver.com/hogewey-dementia-village-the-future-of-dementia-care/.

[21] Matthew Shulman. Confronting sadness in seniors. Technical report, USNews Health, Oct 2007. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2007/10/25/confronting-sadness-in-seniors.

[22] Director Spike Jonze. Her. Technical report, Annapurna Pictures, December.

[23] D.J. Wilde. Using student preferences to guide design team composition. In Proceed-ings, ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences, DETC97/DTM-3890. ASME,September 1997.

[24] D.J. Wilde. Teamology: The construction and organization of teamology: The con-struction and organization of effective teams. Monograph, Stanford University Dept.of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford, CA, July 2007. http://wikibox.stanford.edu:8310/06-07/Public/.

[25] Takefumi Yoshikawa. Why is panasonic interested in senior healthcare. Presentation,Panasonic Corporate R&D, Dec Dec.

www.stanford.edu roundtable webcast

http://alz-caregiver.com/hogewey-dementia-village-the-future-of-dementia-care/

http://alz-caregiver.com/hogewey-dementia-village-the-future-of-dementia-care/

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2007/10/25/confronting-sadness-in-seniors

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2007/10/25/confronting-sadness-in-seniors

http://wikibox.stanford.edu:8310/06-07/Public/

http://wikibox.stanford.edu:8310/06-07/Public/

Appendix A

Panasonic Resources

117

A.1. Panasonic Health-care Prompt Presentation 118

A.1 Panasonic Health-care Prompt Presentation

Why Is Panasonic Interested in Senior Care?

Presentation to Stanford ME310/ Trinity-Dublin TeamDecember 05, 2013

Panasonic Corporate R&DGlobal Solutions Promotion Office

Tak Yoshikawa

2013 0610_AboutPanasonic_SeniorCareLifeScience

A. Information about Panasonic


PersonalCareproducts

Whiteappliances

Wellnessproducts

AV products

Electronic parts

Electronic materials

Kitchen counters

EV charging

Solarpanels

Lighting fixtures

Lightbulbs

Industrial appliances

Home building services

Circuit boardsRechargeable

batteries

Smallappliances

Home building materials

Lithium ion batteries

Office building materials

Wide Array of Products

■ Founded in 1918 by Konosuke Matsushita

■ Major reorganization in January 2012 Combined Panasonic Corporation with Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd. & Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

■ Fiscal 2012 Net Sales of 7.8 Trillion Yen Operating profit of 43.7 billion Yen

■ New Group Organization (9 Domain Companies and 1 Marketing Sector)Consumer

Business Field(BtoC)

SolutionBusiness Field

(BtoB)

ComponentDevice Business

Field (BtoB)

AVC

Netw

orkC

ompany

Appliance

Com

pany

Systems &

Com

munications

Com

pany

Some Facts About Panasonic

Eco Solutions Com

pany

Healthcare C

ompany

Manufacturing Solutions C

o.

Autom

otive Systems C

ompany

Industrial Device C

ompany

Energy Com

pany

AVC AP ES AIS

Global ConsumerMarketing Sector


Fiscal 2012 Net Sales of 7.8 Trillion Yen / Operating profit of 43.7 billion Yen


Agefree

Healthcare Advice


B. Panasonic is already involved in healthcare


Comprehensive Senior Care Business AGE-FREE

Products

Services

Facility Nursing

Care

Home Nursing

Care

Facility Care Service

Facility nursing care services AGE-FREE LIFE OWADA / HOSHIGAOKA

Group home care

Individual care

Care support

AGEｰFREE LIFE HOSHIGAOKAAGEｰFREE LIFE OWADA

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care


Day Care Service

50 facilities

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care

Home Care Service

Home bathing support service

Home nursing care service

34 offices14 offices

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care


Equipment for Home Nursing Care

Bathrooms for the Elderly Shower chairs

Mattresses, balance balls Various bathroom assistance products

Electrically powered nursing care beds

Module assembly type wheelchair

Portable lavatories

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care

AGE-FREE Care Chain Store

① Selling senior careequipment & products

③ Renovating homesfor aging-in-place service

② Renting senior careequipment & products

● Home renovation products

● Facilities

● Senior care equipment

Comprehensive nursing care storeProduction DivisionProduction Division

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care


Nationwide Expansion

Hokkaido Region

3

stores/7

locations

Northeast Region

4

stores/6

locations

Tokyo Metropolitan Area

50

stores/69

locations

Chubu (Central) Region

23

stores/26

locations

Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe/Nara

28

stores/42

locations

Kyushu Region

7

stores/10

locations

Shikoku Region

2

stores/4

locations

117

stores in 164

locations

As of Feb 2011

Service

Product

HomeNursingCare

FacilityNursing

Care

AGE-FREE Care Chain Store

A.2. Panasonic CES Notes - Abridged 128

A.2 Panasonic CES Notes - Abridged

CES 2014 Digital Health Summit Report 1 Marymoore Patterson, PRDCA

Digital Health Summit Report [Abridged] CES 2014, Jan. 8-9

Marymoore Patterson, PRDCA [email protected]

Executive Summary

Digital health participation in CES increased by 40% in 2014. This summit reflected the fragmented nature of the business and attempted to understand and predict the cultural shift in the way we think about health information. Key drivers of change are technology advances/the Internet of Everything and new regulations with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The regulatory changes affect who pays for healthcare, what payment is based on—services vs. outcomes, access rights to patient data, and “meaningful” implementation of electronic health records (EHRs). In the light of the aging population and escalating costs, these changes have major business implications for Panasonic, creating opportunities for us to empower patients and their families with in-home data and care access, empower physicians to “scale up” their impact on patient lives, and reduce costs for payers and the system as a whole. We can make a difference on all three challenges of access, quality, and cost. Key trends The nature of the digital health business is shifting from

- Mobilizing data, with early businesses offering isolated wearable + mobile apps to

- Organizing data, with data warehouses, dashboards, reports, and communication, and more recently to

- Generating insights from data, with population-level aggregation, integration and analytics, and most recently moving towards

A.2. Panasonic CES Notes - Abridged 129

CES 2014 Digital Health Summit Report 2 Marymoore Patterson, PRDCA

- Bring about beneficial behavior changes, designing rewards, incentives, coaching systems.

These trends have implications in the types of skills that we need to have internally and partner with externally. In particular, if we are to be part of closing the loop to effect behavior change—a major component of the need to improve outcomes and reduce hospital re-admittances, I recommend strong design, user experience, human factors talent and partnering. Other key areas will be venture partnering and/or acquisition and mobile/data analytic engineering. Key verticals

- Wellness and fitness - Chronic disease - Aging in place - Transitional care - Clinical trials - Telemedicine

Panasonic’s strategy is currently primarily focused on wellness and fitness, aging in place, and telemedicine. See the Business Models section for some trends on what types of startups are being funded, and how this is changing. Key challenges

- Interoperability—fragmented market, with complicated stakeholder set. “Walled garden” vs. “open ecosystem” decision.

- Privacy/security - FDA approval - HIPAA compliance - Elder resistance to new technology (hypothetical! and could be changing) - Resistance of doctors to change—lack of time, suspicion of industry solutions,

fear of data overload and liability for midnight notifications. Co-creation with providers is crucial.

Below are my notes from different sessions in the conference. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Appendix B

Code

130

B.1. MATLAB Code 131

B.1 MATLAB Code

Contents

Get VLC and PotPlayer locations

Add video names

function varargout = MatlabControl(varargin)

% MATLABCONTROL MATLAB code for MatlabControl.fig

%**********************************************************************

% TEAM PANASONIC

% MATLAB Control code for Aura

% 6/6/2014

% Written by Michael Jacobs

%**********************************************************************

%

% MATLABCONTROL, by itself, creates a new MATLABCONTROL or raises the existing

% singleton*.

%

% H = MATLABCONTROL returns the handle to a new MATLABCONTROL or the handle to

% the existing singleton*.

%

% MATLABCONTROL('CALLBACK',hObject,eventData,handles,...) calls the local

% function named CALLBACK in MATLABCONTROL.M with the given input arguments.

%

% MATLABCONTROL('Property','Value',...) creates a new MATLABCONTROL or raises

% the existing singleton*. Starting from the left, property value pairs are

% applied to the GUI before MatlabControl_OpeningFcn gets called. An

% unrecognized property name or invalid value makes property application

% stop. All inputs are passed to MatlabControl_OpeningFcn via varargin.

%

% *See GUI Options on GUIDE's Tools menu. Choose "GUI allows only one

% instance to run (singleton)".

%

% See also: GUIDE, GUIDATA, GUIHANDLES

% Begin initialization code - DO NOT EDIT

gui_Singleton = 1;

gui_State = struct('gui_Name', mfilename, ...

'gui_Singleton', gui_Singleton, ...

'gui_OpeningFcn', @MatlabControl_OpeningFcn, ...

'gui_OutputFcn', @MatlabControl_OutputFcn, ...

'gui_LayoutFcn', [] , ...

'gui_Callback', []);

if nargin && ischar(varargin{1})

gui_State.gui_Callback = str2func(varargin{1});

end

if nargout

[varargout{1:nargout}] = gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});

else

gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});

end

% End initialization code - DO NOT EDIT

% --- Executes just before MatlabControl is made visible.

function MatlabControl_OpeningFcn(hObject, ~, handles, varargin) %#ok<*INUSL>


% This function has no output args, see OutputFcn.

% hObject handle to figure

% eventdata reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB

% handles structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)

% varargin command line arguments to MatlabControl (see VARARGIN)

% Choose default command line output for MatlabControl

handles.output = hObject;

%Import for global key control

import java.awt.Robot;

import java.awt.event.*;

handles.SimKey = Robot;

% var to tell matlab to stop looping

handles.stopNow = false;

Get VLC and PotPlayer locations

%Default included locations

vlcLoc = '.\AudioPlayer\vlc.exe';

potLoc = '.\VideoPlayer\PotPlayerMini.exe';

if(exist(vlcLoc,'file') ~= 2 || exist(potLoc,'file') ~= 2)

dirPF = matlabroot;

dirPF = dirPF(1:strfind(dirPF,'MATLAB')-2);

vlcLoc = [dirPF '\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe'];

if(exist(vlcLoc,'file') ~= 2)

vlcLoc2 = [dirPF ' (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe'];

if(exist(vlcLoc,'file') ~= 2)

fprintf('\n*****\nVLC not found in either:\n%s\n%s\n*****\n\n',vlcLoc,vlcLoc2)

else

vlcLoc = vlcLoc2;

end

end

handles.vlcLoc = vlcLoc;

potLoc = [dirPF '\Daum\PotPlayer\PotPlayerMini.exe'];

if(exist(potLoc,'file') ~= 2)

potLoc2 = [dirPF ' (x86)\Daum\PotPlayer\PotPlayerMini.exe'];

if(exist(potLoc2,'file') ~= 2)

potLoc3 = [dirPF ' (x86)\PotPlayer\PotPlayerMini.exe'];

if(exist(potLoc3,'file') ~= 2)

fprintf('\n*****\nPotPlayer not found in:\n%s\n%s\n*****\n\n',potLoc,potLoc2)

;

else

potLoc = potLoc3;

end

else

potLoc = potLoc2;

end

end


end

handles.vlcLoc = vlcLoc;

handles.potLoc = potLoc;

% Update handles structure

guidata(hObject, handles);

initialize_gui(hObject, handles, false);

% UIWAIT makes MatlabControl wait for user response (see UIRESUME)

% uiwait(handles.figure1);

% --- Outputs from this function are returned to the command line.

function varargout = MatlabControl_OutputFcn(hObject, ~, handles)

% varargout cell array for returning output args (see VARARGOUT);

% hObject handle to figure



% Get default command line output from handles structure

varargout{1} = handles.output;

% --------------------------------------------------------------------

function initialize_gui(fig_handle, handles, isreset)

% If the metricdata field is present and the reset flag is false, it means

% we are we are just re-initializing a GUI by calling it from the cmd line

% while it is up. So, bail out as we dont want to reset the data.

if isfield(handles, 'metricdata') && ~isreset

return;

end

% Update handles structure

guidata(handles.figure1, handles);

% --- Executes on button press in ButtonConnect.

function ButtonConnect_Callback(hObject, ~, handles)

% hObject handle to ButtonConnect (see GCBO)



delete(instrfindall); %clear any open/crashed COM ports

handles.s = serial(handles.COM,'BaudRate',9600); %create COM objects

fopen(handles.s);


disp('OPEN')

disp(handles.s)


% --- Executes on button press in ButtonDisconnect.

function ButtonDisconnect_Callback(hObject, ~, handles)

% hObject handle to ButtonDisconnect (see GCBO)



fclose(handles.s);

disp('CLOSE')

disp(handles.s)

% --- Executes on slider movement.

function SliderCOM_Callback(hObject, ~, handles)

% hObject handle to SliderCOM (see GCBO)



comport = int2str(round(get(hObject,'Value')));

set(handles.TextCOM,'String',comport);

handles.COM = ['COM' comport];


% --- Executes during object creation, after setting all properties.

function SliderCOM_CreateFcn(hObject, ~, handles)

% hObject handle to SliderCOM (see GCBO)


% handles empty - handles not created until after all CreateFcns called

if isequal(get(hObject,'BackgroundColor'), get(0,'defaultUicontrolBackgroundColor'))

set(hObject,'BackgroundColor',[.9 .9 .9]);

end

handles.COM = 'COM3';


% --- Executes on button press in ButtonStart.

function ButtonStart_Callback(hObject, ~, handles)

% hObject handle to ButtonStart (see GCBO)



Add video names

vidDir = '.\Videos\'; % sets directory of videos, referenced from current file location

vidFileNames = [];

curFolderFiles = dir(vidDir); % cur file list

numCurrentDirFiles = size(curFolderFiles,1); % num cur files

if(numCurrentDirFiles > 0)

for ind = 1:numCurrentDirFiles

if(~curFolderFiles(ind).isdir && isempty(strfind(curFolderFiles(ind).name,'.ini')))


vidFileNames = [vidFileNames ['"' pwd vidDir(2:end) curFolderFiles(ind).name '" '

]];

end

end

else

fprintf('\n*****\nNo video files found in:\n%s\n*****\n\n',vidDir)

end

%Start audio (VLC)

system(['start "audio" "' handles.vlcLoc '" -vvv ' vidFileNames]);

pause(2.5) %let it open before moving on

%Start video (PotPlayer) in fullscreen

system(['start "video" "' handles.potLoc '" ' vidFileNames]);

pause(4.5) %let it open before moving on

fullscreen(handles)

%Start Arduino

if(~exist('handles.s','var'))

fprintf('\n*****\nNo COM Port Connected\n*****\n\n')

end

fprintf(handles.s,'1');

%Main Loop

while ~(handles.stopNow)

%Check serial

if(handles.s.BytesAvailable > 0)

serialData = int8(fread(handles.s,1,'int8')); %read first char

% cmdClass = class(cmd)

% valReceived = handles.s.ValuesReceived

if(handles.s.BytesAvailable > 0) %clear buffer

fread(handles.s,handles.s.BytesAvailable);

end

switch(serialData)

case 48 %Speed down, ASCII for '0'

speedDown(handles);

fprintf('Speed down\n')

case 49 %Speed up, ASCII for '1'

speedUp(handles);

fprintf('Speed up\n')

case 57 %Next media, ASCII for '9'

nextMedia(handles);

fprintf('Next media\n')

end

end

pause(0.05) %prevent MATLAB from looping ridiculously fast and eating CPU

drawnow; %Give the button callback a chance to interrupt

handles = guidata(hObject); %Get the newest GUI data to check for stop cmd

end %loop

handles.stopNow = false;



% --- Executes on button press in ButtonStop.

function ButtonStop_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)

% hObject handle to ButtonStop (see GCBO)



handles.stopNow = true; %will stop loop shortly

fprintf(handles.s,'0'); %stop arduino

pauseVideo(handles);

%Close existing windows

!taskkill /im PotPlayerMini.exe /f

!taskkill /im vlc.exe /f


function fullscreen(handles)

handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);

handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_BACK_SLASH);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_BACK_SLASH);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL);

function pauseVideo(handles)

%Pause video



handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_P);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_P);



%Pause audio


handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ALT);

handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_P);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_P);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ALT);


function speedDown(handles)



handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_OPEN_BRACKET);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_OPEN_BRACKET);

pause(0.3); %smooth framerate change









function speedUp(handles)



handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_CLOSE_BRACKET);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_CLOSE_BRACKET);









function nextMedia(handles)

%Video



handles.SimKey.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_N);

handles.SimKey.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_N);



%Audio







%{

%----KEY COMMANDS

%NEXT VIDEO

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + N

% V - CTRL + ALT + N

%MUTE/UNMUTE

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + M

% V - CTRL + ALT + N

%PLAY/PAUSE

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + P

% V - CTRL + ALT + P

%SPEED UP

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + ]

%SPEED DOWN

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + [

%SPEED RESET

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + =

%FULLSCREEN

% P - CTRL + SHIFT + \


% EXAMPLE







%}

Published with MATLAB® R2013b

B.2. Arduino Code 140

B.2 Arduino Code/*

***************************************************

TEAM PANASONIC

Arduino control code for Aura prototype

Written by Albert Wu

6/6/2014

***************************************************

The pedaling speed is updated at a 1 Hz frequency to MATLAB and the Dyson Fan

+5V logic voltage normally high with pullup resistor,

and the reed switch connects V_out to ground when triggered.

Notes:

-Most Arduino boards have two external interrupts: numbers 0 (on digital pin 2)

*/

/***State machine states ***/

const int stateMaintainSpeed = 0;

const int stateUpdateSpeed = 1;

int state = stateMaintainSpeed;

int currentSpeed = 3;//speed values range from 1-10

int displayedSpeed = 3;

volatile int reedState =LOW;

//main loop timers

long previousTimer = 0;

long timer = 0;

volatile long time;

const int BUFFERSIZE=3;

volatile long values[BUFFERSIZE] = {3000,3000,3000};//arbitrary large values fo

volatile int i;//index for values[] array

long averageValues=3000;//average of values[] array

const long IDLING=8000;

/* Variables for Dyson Control */

int fanEnable ='0'; //default in the disabled state, switches to 1

boolean firstPowerOn =true;

boolean fanOn =false;

int IRPin = A5;// LED connected to digital pin 12

int cycleTimeOn = 730;//one on pulse in us

int cycleTimeOff = 800;//one off pulse in us

char incomingByte = 0;

B.2. Arduino Code 141int numPulses = 34;

unsigned long pulseDelay = 50;//delay between successive pulses, ms

#include "ircodes.h"

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(IRPin, OUTPUT);

//pinMode(reedSwitch, INPUT);

//interrupt service routine to call the pedaling speed function named "reedSwt

//interrupt 2 uses digital pin 21

attachInterrupt(0, reedSwitch,RISING);

/***initializes Dyson fan speed to 3 ***/

for (int count = 0; count < 10; count++) {

decreaseSignal();

delay(50);

}

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

increaseSignal();

delay(75);

powerSignal();

//Serial.println("Start now");

}

void loop() {

//input for computer for enable Dyson control

if (Serial.available() ) {

//inputBuffer = Serial.read();

fanEnable =Serial.read();

B.2. Arduino Code 142//Serial.print( "fanEnable - ");

//Serial.println( fanEnable );

Serial.flush();

//turn off fan when '0' signal is sent to fanEnable

if ( (fanEnable == 48) && (fanOn ==true) ) {

fanOn =false;

powerSignal();

}

//turn on fan when '1' signal is sent to fanEnable

if ( (fanEnable == 49) && (fanOn ==false) ) {

fanOn =true;

powerSignal();

}

}// if serial

if( fanOn ) {//ascii code for '1'

switch (state) {

//Serial.println(state);

case stateMaintainSpeed:

//report the speed every 1 seconds

timer =millis();

if ( (timer - previousTimer) > 1500 ){

previousTimer = timer;

//update average speed

averageValues = averageValueOfFullBuffer();

/*

//debugging code

Serial.print("*Average time: "); Serial.print("["); Serial.pr

Serial.print("] ");Serial.print(i );Serial.print("- "); Seri

Serial.print("Dyson: "); Serial.print(displayedSpeed);

Serial.print(" Pedaling: "); Serial.println( currentSpeed );

*/

currentSpeed = reportSpeed();

//slow down the reed speed if

if (averageValues < 8000 ) {

reduceBufferValues();

}

//report the average speed

B.2. Arduino Code 143/*

if( i == 0) {


}

*/

//update speed

if (currentSpeed != displayedSpeed ) {

state = stateUpdateSpeed;

}

}break;

case stateUpdateSpeed:

//Serial.println( "Updating speed...");


currentSpeed = reportSpeed();

if( displayedSpeed < currentSpeed ) {

increaseSignal();

//increment video speed

Serial.write(49);

displayedSpeed++;

delay(50);

}

else if( displayedSpeed > currentSpeed ) {

decreaseSignal();

//decrement video speed

Serial.write(48);

displayedSpeed--;

delay(50);

}

else if( displayedSpeed == currentSpeed ) {

state = stateMaintainSpeed;

}break;

}// ends switch case

//reedState = LOW;

}//if fanenable

}//loop


/* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Individual Sub-Functions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */

void reedSwitch() {

//debouncing code

static unsigned long last_interrupt_time = 0;

unsigned long interrupt_time =millis();

// If interrupts come faster than 200ms, assume it's a bounce and ignore

if (interrupt_time - last_interrupt_time > 100)

{

//compute the time since the last reed switch trigger

long curTime =millis();

long duration = curTime - time;

time = curTime;

//restrict outlier timer values

if( duration > IDLING ){

duration = IDLING;

}

//checks if the buffer is full before incrementing the index to the buffer

if( i< (BUFFERSIZE-1) ){

values[i]= duration;

i++;

}

//if it is the last index

else

{

values[i]=duration;// input at index 2

i=0;//reset index to buffer

}

}

last_interrupt_time = interrupt_time;

}

doubleaverageValueOfFullBuffer()

{

long totalSum=0;

double average=0.0;

for(int j=0; j<BUFFERSIZE; j++) {

totalSum = totalSum + values[j];

}

average= totalSum/BUFFERSIZE;

return average;

B.2. Arduino Code 145}

voidreduceBufferValues()

{

int SLOWING_RATE = 200;

//bicycle speed slows down over time if user does not pedal

for(int h=0; h<BUFFERSIZE; h++) {

values[h] = values[h] + SLOWING_RATE;

}

}

//map the average reed trigger time to 1-10 speed, correlating with fan speed

int reportSpeed()

{

if( averageValues < 700 )

return 10;

else if ( averageValues < 900 )

return 9;


return 8;


return 7;


return 6;


return 5;


return 4;


return 3;


return 2;

else

return 1;

}

B.3. Aura Operating Instructions 147

B.3 Aura Operating Instructions

Aura Operation Instructions

Setting up Aura 1. Turn on the yellow surge protector (toggle switch on top).

2. Turn on both projectors (power button on top of each projector). After about 15 seconds, press

the Menu button on each to disable the notification message.

3. Turn on the computer (power button on front of Aura, but must reach around the wall to get to

the square button).

4. Turn on the stereo (use remote control velcroed to top of stereo – must aim at front of stereo,

which is Aura left). You may have to reach over the front wall to get a good angle for the IR remote.

a. When powering on, the Panasonic stereo does not boot to a configuration which allows

it to receive audio from the computer. Using the remote, point the remote at the front of

the stereo. Then press the following button sequence with a second pause between each:

Left - Up - Select - (Pause 3 seconds) - Right - Select. Refer to troubleshooting for issues.

5. Next to the computer, on the inside far left of Aura, there is a knob. This adjusts the intensity of

the fan, which helps air circulate around the electronics. Adjust as needed.

Using the Computer 1. Once Windows has booted, wait for the screen image to warp (the desktop will then look normal

and not have the weird overlapping proportions).

a. If the screen does not automatically warp after a minute, open “Immersive Display Pro”

from the desktop. It should look like the following. Check the box for “Desktop Warping”

and wait ten seconds for the screen to reset. You may now close or minimize the software

and utilize Windows like normal.

2. Open the Aura Controller shortcut on the desktop. MATLAB should open the file.

a. If it displays a warning message, click okay and wait for MATLAB to start in its default

mode. Then drag the Aura Controller shortcut from the desktop on to the MATLAB


window and release. This should open the file in MATLAB. It should look similar to the

following.

3. Ensuring the correct file is open, press the Run button, as shown below.

4. The GUI should now appear. Press Connect. MATLAB should not display any red error messages

in the bottom Command Window or make any sounds.

a. If it errors, MATLAB was not able to establish a connection to the Arduino. If this is the

case, ensure the USB cable from the Arduino is properly connected. Then open the

Windows Start Menu, type “Device Manager” and press Enter. Expand the “Ports (COM

& LPT)” as below and look for “Arduino Mega 2560”. Check for the number displayed in

parenthesis at the end (e.g. 8 in the below image). Now go back to the MATLAB GUI and

use the up and down arrows to adjust the COM# until it matches what was displayed in

the Device Manager. Now press Connect and there should not be any errors.


5. You are now ready to begin. Press Start and wait about 10 seconds for everything to start playing.

Troubleshooting 1. If sound is not playing through the stereo, it may be defaulting to the projector’s internal speakers.

Go to the Windows Start Menu, type “Sound” and select it from the results. Under the Playback

Tab, scroll down to the bottom and look for a result with S/PDIF. Right click and press “Test.” If

you hear audio from the speakers, then right click the device and press “Set as Default Device.”

Repeat as necessary until the sound device is properly set. This option will not work if the Stereo

is not in the correct mode.

2. If you are not sure if the stereo is in the correct mode (there is no easy way to confirm beyond

hearing sound through the speakers), you may have to physically connect the stereo to a projector

by moving one of the HDMI cables from the rear of the computer to the rear of the stereo. Now

you can view the Panasonic interface of the stereo on one of the projector screens. The previously

mentioned button sequence (Left - Up - Select - (Pause 3 seconds) - Right – Select) will select


"Digital In" as the audio source for the device. It appears as if the stereo is first intended for playing

BluRay movies, and so the setting must be reset at each boot.

3. If you wish to take independent control of the audio and/or video during playback, you can use

the following global hotkeys to instruct PotPlayer and VLC to perform certain actions. Press the

correct key combination at the same time and release

a. Next Media

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + N

ii. Audio: CTRL + ALT + N

b. Mute / Unmute

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + M

ii. Audio: CTRL + ALT + N

c. Play / Pause

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + P

ii. Audio: CTRL + ALT + P

d. Speed Up

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + ]

e. Speed Down

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + [

f. Speed Reset (to 100%)

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + =

g. Fullscreen

i. Video: CTRL + SHIFT + \

4. If the pedaling appears to have little effect on the wind or playback rate after a few minutes, try

restarting the program. Return to the MATLAB GUI and press Stop. This should close all open video

and audio players. Press Disconnect. This will terminate the Arduino connection. Close the GUI.

Press Run from MATLAB again and restart the original process.

Configuring the Screen Warping 1. If the projected image is blurry, misaligned, or otherwise distorted, you may have to reconfigure

Immersive Display Pro to adjust the corrections. Open the program from the taskbar and press

Configure from the bottom left. An image similar to the following will appear, except with a menu

covering about half of the screen.


2. Drag the white diamonds around the screen to adjust the image. You will have to do this for both

Projectors (see top left of below image). It can also be easier to adjust certain portions of the

screen when viewing different calibration images (see middle left of below image).

3. For advanced instructions, refer to the included instruction manual written by Fly Elise. It is in the

Aura Controller folder from the Desktop, or can be downloaded from the official website at:

www.fly.elise-ng.net/images/products/ImmersiveDisplayPro/Immersive%20Display%20PRO%20

User%20Guide.pdf

4. When you are finished, press Escape. Then press CTRL + ALT + DEL and click Cancel in the resulting

window. This should return you to the Windows desktop. If you are happy with the warping

changes, press Save in the bottom middle of the main window and overwrite the old .dat settings

file. Click Yes to apply settings at new boot of Windows.

Appendix C

Spring EXPE Documents

152

C.1. Part X 153

C.1 Part X

Panasonic | Part X

SUSIE: Senior-User Soothing Immersive Experience

Part X is Finished

What is Part X An important aspect of our product is being able to control fan speed and video speed as functions of pedaling speed input. Our part X was defined to be hacking the Dyson fan so that it can be controlled directly with a computer, via an Arduino.

Components 1 Dyson AM07 tower fan

1 Arduino (need one output pin, analog or digital)

1 USB cable for communication with Arduino

1 IR LED

1 small resistor, [47 Ohm]

1 computer with MATLAB, or other serial input software

MATLAB instructed video speed to increase to

1.9x, Dyson fan automatically follows suit to

increase speed to 5 (out of 10)

C.1. Part X 154

Panasonic | Part X

Overall Project Status Major Project Milestones

Description Planned Date(s) Finished?

MATLAB output to Fan April 13 Yes

MATLAB output to Video/Audio April 17 Yes

Pedaling input to MATLAB April 25

Build Projection Display Screen May 5

Acquire Video Content April 30

Gantt Chart (larger version on Drive)

C.2. Bill of Materials 155

C.2 Bill of MaterialsS

ubsy

stem

Sub

asse

mbl

yIte

mD

escr

iptio

nP

art N

umbe

rV

endo

rQ

ty$/

unit

Tota

l Cos

tD

ispl

ay S

truct

ure

Bas

e2x

4x12

'P

ine,

sta

ndar

dH

ome

Dep

ot6

$2.8

2$1

6.92

2x6x

12'

Pin

e, s

tand

ard

Hom

e D

epot

3$7

.69

$23.

07

Woo

d S

crew

s3"

x10

0H

ome

Dep

ot2

$7.9

4$1

5.88

Cas

ter W

heel

sM

etal

, loc

king

, 2" h

eigh

tH

ome

Dep

ot10

$6.9

7$6

9.70

Bra

cket

sL-

brac

kets

3",

T-br

acke

ts 3

", L-

Bra

cket

s 4"

Hom

e D

epot

, 310

30$1

.25

$37.

50

Ply

woo

d8'

x4'x

0.5"

Hom

e D

epot

1$1

1.97

$11.

97

Truc

k R

enta

ltra

nspo

rting

sup

plie

s to

Rad

ican

dH

ome

Dep

ot1

$47.

22$4

7.22

Woo

d sc

rew

s1-

5/8"

x10

0H

ome

Dep

ot1

$6.4

7$6

.47

Woo

d sh

eet

2'x4

'x0.

5"H

ome

Dep

ot2

$14.

43$2

8.86

Wire

mou

nts

stap

les,

wid

eH

ome

Dep

ot1

$5.0

0$5

.00

Bla

ck c

loth

Stre

tcha

ble

to h

ide

elec

troni

cs31

01

$50.

00$5

0.00

Scr

een

Tube

Ste

el3/

4"x3

/4"x

15',

20' r

aw, c

urve

d sc

reen

Ala

n S

teel

2$3

0.00

$60.

00

Tube

Ste

el1"

x1"x

1/16

"x6'

, 20

' raw

, leg

sA

lan

Ste

el1

$20.

00$2

0.00

Tube

Ste

el1.

25"x

1.25

"x1/

16"x

2', 1

0' ra

w, f

eet

Ala

n S

teel

1$2

5.73

$25.

73

Sha

nk b

olts

Ste

el, f

or s

uppo

rt pi

ns, 3

/8-1

6 x

3"H

ome

Dep

ot3

$1.2

3$3

.69

Bol

ts1/

4-20

x 3

"H

ome

Dep

ot54

$1.2

0$6

4.80

Nut

s1/

4-20

12

pack

Hom

e D

epot

5$1

.18

$5.9

0

Was

hers

1/4"

12

pack

Hom

e D

epot

9$1

.18

$10.

62

Vel

cro

Dua

l Loc

k TB

3550

10'

, for

scr

een

mou

ntin

gA

maz

on2

$28.

52$5

7.04

Ligh

ting

Phi

llips

Hue

Per

sona

l wire

less

ligh

ting

4316

43P

anas

onic

3$0

.00

$0.0

0

Soc

kets

Min

imal

des

ign

for H

ue3

pack

trac

k sy

stem

Hom

e D

epot

1$5

0.00

$50.

00

Wiri

ngP

ower

for H

ue31

0$0

.00

$0.0

0

Rou

ter

TP-L

INK

Wire

less

N30

0 H

ome

Rou

ter

TL-W

R84

1NA

maz

on1

$19.

99$1

9.99

Eth

erne

t Cab

le3

ft, fo

r Hue

-Rou

ter-

CP

ULo

ft S

uppl

ies

2$0

.00

$0.0

0

Win

dD

yson

Fan

AM

07 to

wer

fan

Pan

ason

ic1

$0.0

0$0

.00

Ard

uino

Meg

aS

ainS

mar

t mic

roco

ntro

ller

Meg

a256

0 R

3A

maz

on2

$26.

80$5

3.60

Res

isto

r47

Ohm

310

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

IR L

ED

Sta

ndar

d31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

US

B C

able

6 ft

310

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

C.2. Bill of Materials 156

Pow

er C

able

exte

nsio

n co

rd31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

Ped

alin

gE

xerc

ise

Bik

eS

chw

inn

230

Rec

umbe

nt B

ike

Am

azon

1$4

33.9

1$4

33.9

1

Mag

nets

mat

ch s

chw

inn

230

310

3$0

.00

$0.0

0

Pow

er C

able

exte

nsio

n co

rd31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

Wiri

ngC

able

(eth

erne

t?) f

or lo

gic

sign

al31

0, R

adic

and

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

Circ

uitry

resi

stor

s, c

aps,

oth

er c

ompo

nent

s21

0 la

b ki

ts1

$0.0

0$0

.00

Aud

io/V

ideo

Com

pute

rD

eskt

op C

ompu

ter

Vid

eo, a

udio

, US

B o

ut31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

Gra

phic

s C

ard

Gig

abyt

e R

7 26

0X m

ultim

onito

r out

GV

-R72

6XO

C-1

GD

Am

azon

1$1

13.5

7$1

13.5

7

Vid

eo A

dapt

erIm

porte

r520

HD

MI F

emal

e to

DV

I-D M

ale

Am

azon

2$4

.19

$8.3

8

Pow

er C

able

exte

nsio

n co

rd31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

US

B W

iFi

wire

less

ada

pter

for i

nter

net

TP-L

INK

TL-

WN

722

New

egg

1$1

6.11

$16.

11

Mou

seA

nker

por

tabl

e w

irele

ss m

ouse

Am

azon

1$9

.99

$9.9

9

Key

boar

dst

anda

rd, w

ired

310

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

Sur

ge P

rote

ctor

8 ou

tlet,

1500

W31

01

$0.0

0$0

.00

Vid

eoP

roje

ctor

Sho

rt th

row

PT-

CW

330

Pan

ason

ic2

$0.0

0$0

.00

HD

MI C

able

Blu

eRig

ger 2

5 ft

Am

azon

3$1

1.95

$35.

85

Pow

er C

able

exte

nsio

n co

rd31

02

$0.0

0$0

.00

Pro

ject

ion

Sof

twar

FlyE

lise

war

ping

cal

ibra

tion,

don

ated

Des

ktop

Pro

FlyE

lise

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

Fans

Mis

c. 1

2cm

for c

oolin

g31

03

$0.0

0$0

.00

Aud

ioS

peak

er5.

1 so

und

syst

emS

C-B

TT19

0P

anas

onic

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

Spe

aker

Wire

rear

ext

ensi

on -

25 ft

310

1$0

.00

$0.0

0

Tool

sLa

ser L

evel

Bos

ch la

ser s

quar

eG

TL2

Am

azon

1$3

7.99

$37.

99

Cam

era

Ren

tal

4k v

ideo

cam

era,

SD

car

d, 1

wee

kLe

nsR

enta

l1

$252

.31

$252

.31

Pip

e an

d D

rape

rent

al fa

bric

for d

ark

room

- 20

'D

anny

Tho

mas

1$2

35.5

0$2

35.5

0

TOTA

L:$1

,827

.57

C.3. Penultimate 157

C.3 Penultimate

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Panasonic’s interest in senior care (older than age 65), stems from the worsening demographic situation in Japan where 24.8% of individuals are already 65 or older (38% are expected to be over 65 by 2050)1. The demographics of most developed countries and cities are expected to follow a similar trend as shown for the United States. Adding to this issue, seniors are more prone to diseases and ailments due to their frail nature. The burden on health care providers and systems will be greatly skewed towards care for the elderly. Panasonic Corp. recognizes the potential to develop innovative solutions in this field. According to the Stanford Center on Longevity, most surveys show that over 80% of older adults want to age-in-place. However, the tremendous amount of Baby Boomers (estimated at 75.8M) will vastly overfill the 3 million residential care beds present in the US. The financial burden for seniors and their healthcare is also very high. The cost of 24-hour supervised care can also range from $6,000 to more than $10,000 per month depending on the setting (e.g. assisted living vs. in-home care). These worsening problems create chasms that the team desires to fill with innovative product solutions.

There are many stakeholders who must be considered. Primarily, the senior patients themselves are a focus of the project. However a patients' family members (including children, grandchildren, siblings, and spouses) also play a significant role in patient care and well-being. Additionally, healthcare providers and such as doctors, nurses, and healthcare facility staff such as administrators and home health agents are being considered throughout this design process.

To create a user-accepted and friendly solution, the technologically adeptness of seniors is considered. Many seniors are not comfortable with technological devices and can feel threatened by a sophisticated device with complicated functions, especially when it involves them directly interacting with the technology. This may lead to a rejection of such solutions. It can be assumed that seniors of the future will be more likely to accept technology because of the integrated lifestyle patterns of many adults in their late 40s and 50s; however, the need for simplicity is still crucial. Seniors also have varying ranges of physical mobility and activity. Some seniors prefer the freedom of living in their homes with family as opposed to a facility. They value independence and attach their dignity to their ability to take care of oneself. This aspect of quality living is important to keep for all stakeholders.

After considering many needs that were demonstrated and learned through visits to senior homes and interviews with elderly and elderly caretakers, the team identified how depression and sadness are linked to other factors of life. Many other common senior issues are either the direct cause or effect of depression. For example, loss of physical mobility often leads to depression. Similarly, high levels of sadness and depression are linked to reduced medication compliance, which can in turn degrade the physical condition of the patient. Considering enjoyable hobbies and activities of able-bodied seniors that prevent depression led to the exploration of immersive multimedia “walks”. Walking is commonly self-prescribed to help treat emotional and physical needs but is also a common social activity. For many seniors however, physical or mental limitations or possibly harsh weather conditions prevent outdoor walking. Thus our design team hopes to simulate walking experiences and treat symptoms of depression and sadness by giving back in some ways the experience of walking that many are limited from. An immersive multimedia experience of walking through a park can be simulated inside. Thus the team created Hitaru:

ひたる - Hitaru - verb - \hi-tahrü\

1. to be immersed in (joy, memories, alcohol, etc.); to give oneself over to


2 DISCUSSION

Q: What is Hitaru?

Hitaru is an interactive immersive environment that allows users with growing physical disabilities due to illness or aging to experience the feelings of traveling outdoors. It recreates outside environments in a closed room and incorporates multisensory stimulation (sight, sound, feel, and smell) to fully captivate the user and his or her senses. It aids in addressing the issues of depression among seniors by stimulating them physically and involving them socially. By addressing their outlook on life, Hitaru can help revitalize other aspects of life such as medical adherence, willingness to take care of oneself, and a generally healthy life.

Users can enjoy Hitaru individually, in a group context, or online socially. When used individually, the user simply sits on one of the recumbent bicycles, chooses the desired outdoor destination, and begins pedaling. As the user pedals, the immersive environment automatically advances the user through the experience. When multiple users engage Hitaru in a group context, one of the users will act as the party leader and choose the destinations, while the pedaling speed and resistance will be shared between the users as though the users were on a tandem bicycle. The online aspect will be addressed in the future section below.

Q: Who should use Hitaru?

There are a variety of users of Hitaru. Seniors that have reduced physical mobility, elderly individuals with mental handicaps requiring constant monitoring, patients with injuries that causes mobility issues, and even friends and family of the user who would like to be involved with the user but do not live in close proximity to the user and community members.

Q: Is Hitaru only limited to the users mentioned above?

Anybody who is interested in travel and health and fitness can use Hitaru. The device can recreate scenes from any part of the world and provide information regarding the scenes displayed. These locations could be from unknown parts of the world or places from the user’s past, allowing for reminiscence. The device also has resistance control so anyone interested in getting a good cardio or intense workout can also use Hitaru for their needs.

Q: How does Hitaru function?

Hitaru is controlled through an Arduino microcontroller and an onboard computer. The Arduino microcontroller measures pedaling rate via a magnetic reed switch and translates the frequency into a linear speed value. Based on this speed value, the Arduino simulates the Dyson fan’s IR remote signal to modify the fan speed. The speed value is also serially communicated to the computer which adjusts the video content playback speed. The computer also drives the 5.1 surround sound system and the Philips Hue ambient lighting system via a wireless network. A tablet remote controller is used to interface with the computer to start up and shut down the system.

Q: How many users can participate at once?

In its current configuration, one active and two passive users are accommodated for with seating. The active user exercises by operating the pedals, resulting in the various feedback stimuli. The two passive users are able to enjoy the environment with limited system interaction, but are


anticipated to interact socially with others in the room. Additional seating can easily be provided in further rows, and individuals may stand in the rear of the room.

Q: How long should I use Hitaru?

Hitaru can be enjoyed for as long as a user is comfortable. A typical session might involve a single 15-minute walk, but can be halted at any point or extended into multiple journeys. If the pedaling user becomes tired, he or she may simply relax in a passive chair and appreciate the various locations as a passerby.

Q: Is Hitaru safe to use?

Yes! Enjoying the experience involves at the minimum sitting in a chair, and at the most pedaling a stationary exercise bike at a comfortable speed. Users are able to engage with the system at a personally safe level. The system may stimulate users susceptible to nausea or epilepsy due to the large, moving image; however, care has been taken to maintain a smooth and simple environment. Physicians should be consulted if there is a fear of exercise or other reaction.

Q: What is the future of Hitaru?

A further extrapolation and exploration of Hitaru would be the use of a computer rendered environment to travel with avatars of users from around the world. This would simulate a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). The users along with their friends or family could meet up in the virtual scene that includes other groups of users, computer simulated people, animals and birds. The digital simulation allows infinite flexibility in the locale and even permits users to explore off the standard path recorded in a video.


3 RENDERINGS

3.1 PENULTIMATE STATUS - USER VIEW


3.2 PENULTIMATE STATUS - SIDE VIEW

3.3 LAYOUT IN EXPE CONFERENCE ROOM


4 SYSTEM DIAGRAM


5 DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

5.1 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Requirements Metric Rationale Degree of Success

Immersive

The users should not

appear distracted or

bored for at least 10

minutes of continuous

use.

The immersivity of the device is where its

effectiveness lies. The device should

allow people to transport themselves

into another environment to overcome

physical or mental ailments.

Based on current

user testing, users

do not appear

distracted.

Multi-Sensory

The device must be

able to stimulate the

following senses:

sight, sound, touch,

and scent.

Sight and sound are almost always

stimulated in any scenario. Stimulating

the other senses will increase realism

and make the user feel completely

submerged in the projected

environment.

The device

stimulates sight

(nature video),

sound (nature

audio), touch

(wind), and scent

(nature spray).

Promote Social

Interaction

All users in a group

session should

communicate at least

once with another

individual during a 5

minute period.

Many senior citizens live a secluded life

without much interaction with others.

Having a setting where they can easily

meet other people may allow them to

share their lives and help overcome

loneliness.

Based on current

user testing,

individuals

communicate.

Reduce Signs

of Depression

75% of users should

respond with a

positive emoticon on a

post-experience

survey.

Depression is one of the major causes of

ailments leading to death among seniors.

Helping seniors overcome depression

would help improve their quality of life

and health. Even temporary happiness

can improve general outlook.

Based on current

user testing,

individuals

responded

positively.

Media

Diversity

The device should be

able to simulate more

that one kind of

environment.

Simulating the same environment (sight

and sound) can get easily boring. More

content must be developed so the user

can explore diverse environments.

The device contains

media representing

a variety of

environments.


Safety

No injuries are caused

during or as a direct

result of interaction

with the system or due

to the components of

the device.

Seniors are often susceptible to injury

and any injury can have a devastating

effect on their health. Recovering from

injury during old age can be taxing and

can degrade the quality of life and in

some cases even induce depression as it

is a reminder of mortality.

No users have been

injured during

testing.

Interactivity

Users control the

speed change in the

video and wind. This

input results in

pedaling resistance

feedback.

Just sitting in a room while the

environment changes quickly loses it

novelty. It is more engaging if the user

can control features of what is going on

and what happens next. It also helps the

user feel more immersed in the

projected environment.

Users have direct

control over the

video and wind, but

there is not yet

feedback.

Not Induce

Motion

Sickness

Fewer than 20% of

users express feelings

of motion sickness

during a 15-minute

session.

Experiencing motion sickness causes

discomfort which can prevent the user

from being engaged in the simulation. It

can be disorienting and can cause the

users to fall and injure themselves.

No users have

reported motion

sickness.

Interface

Simplicity

Users can interact with

the device with fewer

than 5 settings.

Most senior citizens are not computer

literate or tech savvy. So the device

needs to have an intuitive user interface

so that the users do not get frustrated

trying to operate the device. The device

should be operable by the users alone.

Users interact with

the device merely

by sitting and/or

pedaling and can

press a button to

change the video.

Quick Media

Change

The transition

between different

environments must

occur in under 10

seconds.

User interface is very important in

devices. Users may become frustrated

from long wait times between user input

and device response. This can lead to

aggravation, increased pressure, and

stress.

The scene transition

takes about 5

seconds.


5.2 FUNCTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES


Stimulate

Memory

The system

encourages people to

recall memories and

talk about them.

As age progresses short term memory is

affected and people seem forgetful. This

would help stimulate people’s long term

memory and in doing so help exercise

their short term memory.

The system allows

for reminiscence

therapy if

appropriate

environments are

created.

Physical Therapy

The device can

simulate difficulties,

faced by patients

going through

rehabilitation, in

incremental steps to

help with confidence.

It can be difficult and daunting for a

person who is in rehab to perform

simple tasks that were commonplace

before. By using a simulated

environment that can also be used to

adjust difficulty level, the patient can be

motivated and not feel discouraged.

The system can be

utilized during

physical therapy if

appropriate

environments are

created.

Communication

The device should

allow live video

streams of remote

users to overlay with

the simulation.

Remote family members cannot always

travel to their loved ones. Live video will

allow a greater connection among

distanced individuals by sharing outdoor

scenery.

The system does not

support remote

video streams.

Interactive

Feedback

Pedaling resistance

changes with

projected media

terrain.

The device simulates the environment

such that it affects the user and causes

them to react to the change induced in

the environment. A dynamic situation

allows the user to respond and thus

increases the level of immersion into the

simulation.

Pedaling resistance

is not yet

incorporated.

Personalizable

The device must be

able to recognize the

current user and

recalibrate itself

based on stored

settings for the user.

Everyone does not have the same

preferences. Personalization helps users

adjust the settings so that they can

modify the level of realism experienced

or completely eliminate some features

that may be uncomfortable.

The prototype

requires manual

configuration by the

operator for each

user.


3D Media

The device would be

able to project 3D

environments for a

more immersive

experience.

Although the surround screen does a

fairly good job of immersing a user into a

simulated environment, adding 3D

content would take that immersion to a

higher level.

The projectors

support 3D

projection if

appropriate

environments are

created.

Taste

The device could

stimulate the sense

of taste.

This is the remaining sense not currently

implemented by the system. The more

senses stimulated, the greater the

immersion.

The system does not

incorporate taste.

5.3 PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS


Wide Viewing

Angle

The device screen

should create at least

a 74o field of view to

project in users’

peripheral vision.

In normal conditions, peripheral vision

stimulates the sense of immersion.

Making the screen wider to incorporate

the peripherals helps enhance the

realism. Also it is helpful if the users want

to look around in the environment.

The device screen

creates a 80o angle.

Multiuser

The room must be

able to fit at least 3

concurrent users. At

least 1 must be able to

interact directly with

the system.

The device must be socially engaging

such that people can come together to

use the device. In doing so, the users can

make friends, interact with other people,

and overcome loneliness.

The device

incorporates 1

pedaling station and

2 viewing stations.

Wheelchair &

Scooter

Accessible

Users in wheelchairs

and scooters must be

able to utilize the

device in the same

way as those not in

wheelchairs.

A lot of seniors require wheelchairs or

scooters. Not making the product

accessible to them would eliminate a

huge fraction of potential users.

The current system

only allows

wheelchair and

scooter users to

passively interact.

Hidden

Technology

The projectors and

other distracting

equipments should be

hidden from the

normal seating

positions.

In recreating outdoor environments, it is

important users are not distracted by

items that do not belong in such settings.

A visible fan would diminish the intended

user response to wind.

The system is not

very disguised at the

current stage.


Comfortable

Seats

Fewer than 25% of

individuals complain

about comfort while

using the product.

Experiencing discomfort can prevent the

user from being engaged in the

simulation. The uneasy feeling can

detract from the experience of the

simulation and prevent users from

returning.

Based on current

user testing, users

have not

complained about

discomfort.

Adjustable

Seats

The bike must

accommodate users

from 5 ft to 6.5 ft

(152.4 cm to 198 cm)

and under 300 lbs

(136 kg)

Each user is unique in size and body type,

so the seat must be adjustable so users

can be comfortable during the simulated

experience.

The bike

accommodates

specified range of

users.

Minimal

Configuration

It should take fewer

than 30 seconds to

reconfigure the

system to a functional

state for new users.

The device is meant to help experience a

different environment. If a lot of time is

consumed setting up the components

then it exhausts the user in the process

and frustrates them too much to properly

interact with the device.

The system is in

functional state at

all times and the

only adjustment

time is to adjust the

bicycle position .

Isolation

The room must be

under 60 dB when not

operating (excluding

audio from the system

itself).

In order to be immersed into a simulation

one must be fully engaged in it. Having

external inadvertent stimuli can distract

the user and break the simulation.

The current system

relies on a quiet

exterior room to

reduce exterior

noise.

Cool

Environment

The room must not be

hotter than 30o C (86 oF).

Due to the large number of electronics in

the room, it is expected to heat up. It

must not get too hot, that it causes

discomfort ruining the simulation.

The current system

relies on a cool

exterior room to

maintain ambient

temperature.

Adequate

Space

All users must be able

to enter and exit the

room while keeping at

least 6 inches (15 cm)

from all other

individuals.

Users can feel uncomfortable if there is

not enough space in the system. This can

cause restlessness and lead to

interruptions from the experience.

Users are able to

navigate the room

unimpeded.

Size Limitations

The device must be

able to fit in a 180 inch

by 200 inch footprint

(457 cm by 508 cm)

The device must fit in the EXPE

designated space, and the facilities that

would use it should not have to remodel

their space to accommodate the device.

The device fits in the

appropriate

footprint.


Media

Resolution

The media should be

projected at or above

1280 x 720 resolution.

Due to the large projection size, videos

that are not shot in high resolution will

appear blurry. This can cause loss of

detail, which must be avoided for a

system that heavily focuses on

stimulating the senses.

The media is

projected at 2100 x

800 resolution.

Media Frame-

rate

The media should be


25 frames per second.

It is essential to have all scenes in

sync so that users can feel immersed in

the environment being created. Having

the video move in an unrealistic manner

can break the sync among the senses and

disrupt the immersion.

The media is

projected at 30

frames per second.

Screen

Brightness

and Contrast

The media should be


2,500 lumens and a

500:1 contrast ratio.

In order to project a clear environment,

the image should look close to real life. If

the brightness or contrast is unfavorable

for the viewing room, then it would ruin

the visual experience.

The PT-CW300

projectors exceed

the required

specifications.

5.4 PHYSICAL OPPORTUNITY

Requirement Metrics Rationale Degree of Success

Portability

The device should be

modular and able to

be assembled by two

individuals within 30

minutes.

Although the device is meant for a

facility that can dedicate a space for the

system, most individual homes will not be

able to do so. A modular system makes it

easy for people to set up in their personal

space. This would expand the

marketability of the product.

The current device is

portable and

modular, yet requires

a modest moving

crew.


6 USER TESTING

The target audience that Hitaru aims to benefit includes seniors with physical or mental limitations that prevent enjoyment of outdoor environments. More specifically, this includes the extreme elderly (over 85-years-old), seniors with dementia, and seniors with limiting physical disabilities. To gather strategic insight of our future users [reference design playbook], we have approached two different audiences: 1) the users who fit the description today and 2) those who will become users within the next 10 years.

Figure 1:A group of women gather to experience Hitaru

To reach both of these audiences, our team developed a partnership with Avenidas. Avenidas is a senior center that offers classes, lunches, and events for seniors of the Palo Alto area. A mobile version of Hitaru was brought to Avenidas for two and a half hours on a weekly bases for the span of seven weeks. Seniors of this community include both audiences that we aim to reach. To highlight findings we will discuss key individuals from each group.

6.1 TODAY’S USERS

Though most members of Avenidas are still active and independent, a handful currently fit the user description. Interviews and user testing with these individuals provided us with the following insights.

● The physical stimulation of pedalling is enough. Too much activity can be draining. Many users who had physical limitations would pedal on and off, taking breaks when needed. “You feel like you’re exercising,” said Jane.

● Just because a senior is confined to a wheelchair does not mean that they don’t have the ability to use their legs. Bill, a 97 year old retired Lockheed employee, used to ride his bike to work. Because of balance issues, he now remains in an electric chair. However, he still has use of his legs


and enjoyed re-experiencing a hobby that was once lost. “I very much miss not being able to bike ride...” said Bill, “but I consider this a good simulation.”

● Visiting places remotely is a good substitution for those who can no longer travel. “You feel like you’re there,” said Beverly, “I can afford this trip.”

Some seniors at Avenidas had parents who currently fit the user description and provided us with indirect insight.

● Engaging elderly who suffer from dementia can be difficult. Ann’s mother is 102. “This would be a great way to engage with her, it’s hard to find ways to do that.”

● It can be hard to stay motivated as health and ability decline. Catherine’s mother is 93. “She is perfectly healthy, but chooses to stay in bed all day. This might be something that could get her to exercise.”

● Maintaining attention is difficult for those who fall asleep easily. Catherine also noted that watching TV can be problematic. With a continual progression of scenery being played, catching each moment isn’t critical. “With this, [my mother] could fall asleep and not really miss anything. She could wake up and jump right back in.”

Other audiences who could benefit from Hitaru that were not previously considered were also recommended by testers.

● Veterans or others who have had traumatic experiences could be soothed with Hitaru. Jim is a war veteran with friends at the Veterans Affairs Hospital. “This could be used as therapy. It’s very soothing and peaceful.”

● Hitaru can be used as motivational encouragement for those recovering from injury. Mishel worked as an engineer designing equipment used in physical therapy for patients who suffered from spinal cord injury or surgery. “Being outside is very important for patients,” explained Mishel. He imagined Hitaru being used to visually augment and therefore encourage movement during recovery treatments.

6.2 TOMORROW’S USERS

The seniors of Avenidas who are still active and independent anticipated the benefits of Hitaru in their future. The following key insights were provided from these seniors.

● Being around nature is important and valued by users. Melisa has been in the bay area for many years. She prefers to stay away from the city though because there are “not enough trees.”

● Hitaru can be used socially. Frank lives in an assisted living facility and invited other seniors to watch programs on a large screen. He was very enthusiastic about the idea of a more immersive experience that he could share with others.


● There is a limit to how immersive people want to be. Frank explained that “watching programs on a big screen really pulls you in.” He and his friends were watching programs about those who suffer from AIDS. “The big screen makes you feel like you’re there experiencing it with them. Sometimes it’s just too emotional to handle.”

● Hitaru can be used to connect those who have trouble communicating. Angela is a repeat user from Bulgaria. With little knowledge of English, she enjoyed simply sitting and watching the sceneries. It was very rewarding to see her become more and more engaged in what ways she could with other seniors over the progress of the seven weeks.

● Being indoors avoids aggravating allergies. Joy is healthy, but is recovering from a knee injury. “I take indoor exercise classes because being outdoors hurts my allergies.”

● Hitaru can be used to visit familiar places and trigger memories. Margaret grew up in Bangalore. “If I were in a facility, I would want to see familiar scenes... like Point Reyes National Park.” The comfort of being in places that one knows well can be soothing.

With all of the feedback, the team realized the importance of defining the target audience. Seniors who are currently active did not see Hitaru as something they would enjoy greatly right now. It would end up being too “boring” or “slow” for those who are still capable of going outside. It is important to note that Hitaru is not a perfect substitute for being outdoors. This solution is for those who can no longer enjoy the real experience because of certain limitations. As a substitute in these terms, we believe that Hitaru will be success.


7 BILL OF MATERIALS


8 TIMELINE UNTIL EXPE


Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

X X X

~ Penultimate Doc (Michael) ~ Capture video of system working (Kelly) ~ Take more pictures and video of setup (Kelly) ~ Finalize Code (Albert)

~ Wire Speakers (Michael) ~ Find EXPE video contractor (Kelly) ~ Finalize Penultimate Doc (Kelly)

~ “break” testing to make sure platform is stable (Albert) ~ Buy fabric from Walmart (Kelly) ~ Order Film Cameras (Michael)

~ Cover platform with cloth to hide electronics (Kelly) ~ Cable Management (Michael) ~ Mount Projectors better (Tesh)

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

~ Film content (Michael) ~ Find out how to pay videographer (Albert)

~ Final testing at Avenidas (Kelly) ~ Find rubber shoes for metal feet (Albert)

~ Finish covering platform with cloth to hide electronics (Kelly) ~ Clean code (Albert)

~ Assemble surrounding walls (Kelly) ~ Practice mounting hue lights (Tesh) ~ sound proof walls (Albert)

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

~ start final presentation (Kelly) ~ Create brochure (Michael) ~ Poster (Tesh) ~ Edit/ Finalize Film (Albert)

~ Add bike seat padding (Kelly)

~ Internal presentation run through

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

~ Order Uhaul (Michael)

~ Internal presentation run through ~ Final Presentation rehearsal

EXPE

~ Full force on final report

C.4. Brochure 177

C.4 Brochure�� !��"#��#�"� ��$�� #��#%�� #��#��&��#�"'��#��%#"$��#��#�!�'�#�"�(#�� #!�)�*+�� (#"$�!��#�� $��%� ��!��#$"� �"��"'��$��# #,��#�"� ��"��#��!�� %�� !-�� '�"#.��)� �"�$#"$��$��#��'�#�"��#"$��&��#�"'��(#��!�#�"��"��!��# +��"��"$�$#"$�#"�%#�� #"#�'�"'��+�� '�"��#�� "#"$��"�� '��"�� '��!��#�"� �)�/��"�#��&��#�"'#"$��#� +-�$#"$�� #�"0�123��!�#"�#%#�� %��42-+��-� ��&��'��$��(��563��+�1727)��#�# ��"��#��''��#"$�#"��"#��(#��%��87��# #�"� #%#"$��"#��)�� $��429�'��#��173��!�� #'#��(�# ��"�#"$��" +�:53��!�� #�")��#��#'� �"�� ;��"��#�"�� #"<��#�"��'��!!�'��!��"+�# "��#"' ��#"$��"�#��<��"��'�"'��)��(��'�"#.��"��+��"��'��"#��#�")�

C.4. Brochure 178� �� !"#$�%&�'�()&'*� '+�*!�&,('(&� �*��-.+�.!*�&)/0��*1��')$�*!�2�,$� '+��*!�$!�*�'*� �*��&)�$&.&,*�'34�56789:6;<�=>>?��@ABCD�EACCF�G>HI��CJKLMFN��@?D>>A�K?@AC��MOCI��CDKJMFN��>F?A>JI��K?C�>P��>@AFCQ��A>NACIIM>F��KAMKRJCSTCCD��MFD�=KF�TCKOCAI��JKQ�@AA>@FD�K?@AC�>@FDI�=KRAME��>BCAMFN�UVWXYZW[[\6] _8 a6b8X6c[WXZY\d� efghijklmnompqrsmetkuhvmwrqx� =>KyS�KyTCD��KJJI��ACBCF?��L?CAM>A��MI?AKE?M>FI��CKJ��MBMFN��JKF?I��yRMCF?�@F��MNG?MFN�

C.5. Presentation 179

C.5 Presentation

6/7/2014

1

MICHAEL JACOBSKELLY LOWENRITESH SHRESTHAALBERT WU

ADAM MCCREEVEYTASSIANA PADEIROCONOR QUINNGURJOT SANDHU

JERRY KURTZEJASON MURPHY

MARYMOORE PATTERSONTOBIAS YERGINGABRIEL RUBINSKY


6/7/2014

2

VISION PROCESS RESPONSE FUTURECONTEXTCONTEXT

Increasing Unbalanced Populations

Japan 25 % 65+ in 2010

38 % by 2050

United States40 million 65+ in 2010

90 million by 2050

20 million 85+

1 United Nations 2 Kinsella3 Shulman

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1009080706050403020100

Mill

ion

s o

f A

me

ric

an

s

Age

2010 2050

Senior growth outpacing

rest of population

4


6/7/2014

3

Defining Critical Concerns

DepressionLimited Social

Interaction

Resistance to

Medication

Stress & Trauma

Rehab

Anger Issues

Loss of Mobility &

Lack of Exercise

5

Resisting Depression

• Statistics4

• 15% of seniors 65+

• Linked to:

4GMHF4 NIH

• Treatments5

• Exercise

• Good sleep habits

• Fun activities

• Talking with a trusted friend

Dementia

Heart Disease

Stroke

Cancer

Arthritis

6


6/7/2014

4

VISION PROCESS RESPONSE FUTURECONTEXT VISION

Aura

8


6/7/2014

5

9

What causes confinement?

Physical Limitations

Mental Instability

Inclement Weather

10


6/7/2014

6

On Lok Rooftop Garden

11

Golden Heritage Senior Living

12


6/7/2014

7

Nature in a Box

Wind

SunlightSun

Warmth

Beautiful Scenery

Trees Swaying

Tweeting Birds

Beaches

Rain Mist?

13


6/7/2014

8

VISION PROCESS RESPONSE FUTURECONTEXT PROCESS

16


6/7/2014

9

Aura Design

17

Aura Sight 12 Foot Curved Screen

Shows Relaxing Outdoor

Nature Hikes

Ambient Sun Lighting

Two

Panasonic

Projectors

18


6/7/2014

10

Aura Touch

Variable-

Speed Wind

FanPedaling Controls Rate

of Journey Progression

19

Aura Sound

20

Speakers Play

Surround Nature

Sounds

Foam-Damped Walls

Prevent Exterior

Distractions


6/7/2014

11

Aura Smell

21

Essential Oils

Providing an

Environment’s

Distinctive Scent

Control Diagram

ArduinoATmega

User Speed Eliptical Bike

Remote Console

Surface Pro Tablet

Wire

Control (signal name)

Wireless Control

Wind Simulator

Dyson Fan

Wind Speed

Sun Simulator

Router Hue HubHue Light

Hue Light

Light Color& Intensity

Sound System5.1 Speakers Stereo

Volume

Pedaling Speed

Video System

Projector

FlyElise

Projector

Video Source

Screen

On/OffPedaling Speed

Desktop

VLC

MATLAB

Video Speed

PotPlayer

Audio Source

22


6/7/2014

12

VISION PROCESS RESPONSE FUTURECONTEXT RESPONSE

Knowing Our Audience

• 60+

• Active

• Social

• Engaged in the community

• Concerned about healthy lifestyles

24


6/7/2014

13

Knowing Our Audience

67%

8%

8%

17%

25

Aura Testing

26


6/7/2014

14

Aura Testing

27

Aura Testing

28


6/7/2014

15

Hearing the Response

“You feel like you’re exercising”“I very much miss not being able to bike ride... but I consider this a good simulation.”

“You feel like you’re there… I can afford this trip.”

“This could be used as therapy. It’s very soothing and peaceful.”

“I take indoor exercise classes because being outdoors hurts my allergies.”

“If I were in a facility, I would want to see familiar scenes... like Point Reyes National Park.”


“I very much miss not being able to bike ride... but I consider this a good simulation.”


29

Recommending for Others

“This would be a great way to engage with her, it’s hard to find ways to do that.”

“She is perfectly healthy, but chooses to stay in bed all day. This might be something that could get her to exercise.”

“With this, [my mother] could fall asleep and not really miss anything. She could wake up and jump right back in.”

“Being outside is very important for patients… this would be very helpful encouragement during therapy”

Adults with Elderly Parents

Retired Physical Therapist

30


6/7/2014

16

VISION PROCESS RESPONSE FUTURECONTEXT FUTURE

Who is Our Customer

Care Facilities

Group Health Care

Social Meet Ups

Connected to Reality with

Rewards

32

Reminisce Therapy


6/7/2014

17

Who is Our Customer

Hospitals/ Therapy Facilities

Escape the “Hospital”

Treatment Encouragement

33


6/7/2014

18

MICHAEL JACOBSKELLY LOWENRITESH SHRESTHAALBERT WU

ADAM MCCREAVEYTASSIANA PADEIROCONOR QUINNGURJOT SANDHU

JERRY KURTZEJASON MURPHY

MARYMOORE PATTERSONTOBIAS YERGINGABRIEL RUBINSKY

?


6/7/2014

19

References

• Kevin Kinsella and Wan He, "An Aging World: 2008," U.S. Census Bureau, International Population Reports P95/09-1 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009).

• United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision. (Medium variant)

• Takefumi Yoshikawa, Staff of Division Director, Consumer Electronics, Panasonic Healthcare Presentation, Dec. 2013.

• "Wallpapers and Images." Zastavki.com. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

• Shulman, Matthew. "Confronting Sadness in Seniors." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 25 Oct. 2007. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

• "Depression - Elderly: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

• "GMHF: Geriatric Mental Health Foundation." GMHF: Geriatric Mental Health Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.


6/7/2014

20

Appendix

12 Foot Curved Screen

Shows Relaxing Outdoor

Nature Hikes

Variable-

Speed Wind

Fan

Speakers Play

Surround Nature

Sounds

Fabric Covering

(Partially

Removed for

Clarity)

Foam-Damped Walls

Prevent Exterior

Distractions

Real Living

Plants

Ambient Sun Lighting

Aura Design

Pedaling Controls Rate

of Journey Progression


6/7/2014

21

Aura Testing

SUSIE Testing

"It's something I'm seeing for thefirst time. I've never done anythinglike this before!" – User at Avenidas


6/7/2014

22

S.U.S.I.E. TestingSUSIE Testing


ControlStation


6/7/2014

23


Pedals


Angela

Jo


6/7/2014

24

Summary

FUNCTIONAL:

• Decrease signs of elderly depression

• Adapt to user preferences

• Instant-on with minimal configuration

• Stimulate memories & trigger learnings

PHYSICAL:

• Wheelchair and scooter accessible

• Simultaneous multiuser support

• Concealed technology drivers

• Integrated into a senior center

Services

Products

FacilityNursing

Care

HomeNursing

Care

Comprehensive Senior Care Business

1 Panasonic


6/7/2014

25

Zastavki

Zastavki

Appendix D

Additional Needfinding

204

D.1. Additional Needfinding 205

D.1 Additional Needfinding

Professional Opinions

To understand depression and how to tackle it we felt it necessary to understand what theexperts think of happiness and depression and what is being done or prescribed toimprove the condition in the general populous.

“Three ingredients to improve our level of happiness1. a sense of control (autonomy) in our lives;2. personal growth;3. connecting with others and contributing to our communities.”

- Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, Professor of Psychology at UC-Riverside [19]

“ Happiness is the feeling of being present and really able to have funand knowing whatfun is for you. It also has to do with having a sense of the world, and a calling of doingsomething of a higher purpose thats meaningful to you.”- David Kelley, Head of D. School (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) [19]

“ Happiness is loving and believing that you’re loved and finding meaning in what you’redoing.”- Ian Gotlib, chair - department of psychology and director, Stanford Mood and AnxietyDisorders Laboratory [19]

Based on the insights from the experts, the key areas we focused were• giving seniors some control over their situation and environment• helping them gain access to activities that have a meaningful impact on their mental

wellbeing• providing a means of social interaction to help them feel as a part of a community

that loves and needs them.

Robo-Companion

In order to target depression among seniors, a Robo-Companion was designed to addressthe loneliness that seniors face. After having lived with family for so long, seniors can feelvery isolated, even when they are living in a senior care facility. They can feel theirmortality catching up to them, as they are constantly made aware of the loss of friendsthat they have come to know over their life. The Robo-companion is meant to providethem with a means to be in control of some aspect of their life and also have something totake care of. This would give them an increased sense of being needed and provide a senseof purpose. In addition to the comfort the Robo-companion provides, it can also serveother purposes, as a device to monitor health of individuals and communication.

Paro Seal

PARO is an advanced interactive robot developed by AIST, a leading Japanese industrialautomation pioneer. It allows the documented benefits of animal therapy to be


administered to patients in environments such as hospitals and extended care facilitieswhere live animals present treatment or logistical difficulties as shown in Figure D.1. Thepresence of a robotic pet such as Paro has been found to

• reduce patient stress and their caregivers• stimulate interaction between patients and caregivers• have a Psychological effect on patients, improving their relaxation and motivation

Figure D.1: Paro with seniors

Paro improves the socialization of patients with each other and with caregivers. It utilizesfive kinds of sensors that detects touch, light, sound, temperature and pressure that helpsit to perceive people and the environment. It responds to ambient light, strokes and hitson its body and its posture. It is a user adaptive device that learns preferences of the userbased on the interaction history. It is modeled to look like a seal as in Figure D.2 andimitates the action of a baby seal. [5]


Figure D.2: Paro is modelled after a baby seal

Frank & Robot

Frank & Robot [13] (Figure D.3) is futuristic movie where an elderly is paired with arobot that he is reluctant to accept as help but soon accepts the robot as a friend and hasseveral adventures with the robot. Frank lives alone and has no family living with him.His son and daughter as far away and although they care for him, they are unable to carefor him due to his stubbornness to not move close to them. His son gets him a robot thatwould take care of the household chores, cook and remind him of anything that wasimportant. Resistant of the robot at first, because he feels he is able to take care ofhimself, Frank slowly befriends the robot. The robot provides therapeutic care to Frankand helps him with cognitive, daily routine activities as Frank suffers from dementia.Frank gets attached to the robot to a level so much that he accepts it as another person.

Figure D.3: Robot & Frank


Her

Her [22] (Figure D.4) is a futuristic movie set in 2025 where Theodore Twombly, a lonely,introverted man unlucky in love and going through divorce falls in love with an ArtificialIntelligence Operating System (OS). The OS has a female persona and He is fascinated byher ability to learn and develop. The two bond over discussions of life and love. She is aconstant source of support, undemanding and is always available for him. Even aftergoing on dates with real women, he still prefers the OS over the real woman.

Figure D.4: Her

Teddy Bear Monitor

The Teddy Bear Monitor is a derivative of the Paro robot in the form of a teddy bear.The bear is a cuddly and cute bear that invokes the desire to take care of it as if it were apet. The concept was developed to involve ideas from the movie Her and Frank & Robot.The bear would be fitted with a microphone and camera to monitor the user and act as apersonal communication device. It would remind the user of any appointments,medication schedule, order things from the Internet and measure and log health statisticsand transmit them to the physician. It would also be able to hold its own inconversations. One of the aspects we were looking into was to incorporate a system where


it would be able to read out e-books. Seniors love to read but with old age are unable todo so due to their failing eyes.

Robot Dog

Studies have shown that elderly people who own pets live longer and healthier lives thanthose who dont. The solution: give elderly people pets. Unfortunately every elderlyperson cant look after a pet due to their mental or physical health. So the solution of arobo-pet was envisioned, one which could provide the companionship of a regular pet butwould not need all the required attention and care. Some interesting facts regardingelderly and pet ownership:

• Elderly people without companions are 4 times more likely to pass away within ayear after a heart attack.

• Proven benefits of pet ownership:• Low blood pressure• Higher self esteem• Decreased loneliness and depression• Higher levels of physical activity

Figure D.5: TCD Robo-Pet Concept

The group really focused on the idea of the user taking the robo-pet pictured in FigureD.5 for a walk and this came about for a number of different reasons:

• Affection is where the idea started, something that would seek affection and henceencourage the user to care for it sparking a companionship. Research and


benchmarking lead us to Paro the Therapeutic Robot which sole function was to seekaffection and react to users, and so we needed something different in our product.

• The idea was focused towards depression and the positive affect companionship hadon it. The idea of addressing depression with a pet introduced the value of physicalexercise. Pet ownership results in more physical exercise for the owner whichobviously improves ones physical health but is also a treatment for depression henceimproving ones mental health also.

• The target market of the product converged when we decided to solely concentrateon nursing homes and exclude at home personal use. In attempting to match thefunctions of a real pet to the robo-pet integrating the idea of taking it for a walkwas inevitable. This idea coincided with the fact that in nursing homes patients areset distances to walk to keep them physically active which means walking aimlesslyaround the nursing home. A pet which the user could take for a walk would providethe user with motivation for the activity and possibly disguising the fact that theywere told to walk this amount.

The robo-pet would be used in a nursing home and utilised by a number of different usersthere. The robo-pet would use facile recognition to know its user, making use of adatabase of information on the patients it would access via the cloud. In recognising itsuser it could evaluate user preferences, mobility and physical activity requirements tointeract with the user in a personal way. It would seek affection, play or beckon the userto take it for a walk. Like the Paro robot it would record different user preferences. Alongwith beckoning patients to take it for a walk, patients could call the robo-pet to assistthem for example if one wanted to walk from their bedroom to the common room therobo-pet could provide guidance and add a sense of safety in terms of the risk of falling.The ideal user-RoboDog interaction concept is presented in Figure D.6,


Figure D.6: RoboDog User Storyboard

A leash system would be included where it would not be necessary for a user to benddown and attach a leash but the leash would extend from the pet to the user. We plannedto include two sensors in the leash which would be utilised when taking a patient for walk.The two sensors would measure tension and pulse. The tension sensor would allow us torecognize whether the pet needs to slow down or possibly speed up, e.g. tight leash - hightension - slow down the pet is moving too fast for the user. This would basically mean thepet would always be in-front of the user simulating how dogs are usually walked. If apatient has fallen the sensor could also recognize the extremes of a sudden drop to notension (the patient has let the leash go) or a steep increase in tension (the patient hasstopped). In these situations the pet needs to assess the situation and alert the nursestation if needed. The pulse sensor is to recognize whether the physical exercise is toomuch for the patient and take appropriate action if necessary.

Soylent Green

In order to leverage off previous works in different categories of media, the team exploredSoylent Green. This 1970s movie depicts a dystopian future world full of overpopulation,pollution, and famine. There was one very notable scene within the movie depicting thewriter’s version of future euthanasia. One of the older characters, Sol, becomes depressed

D.2. Medication Compliance 212

with society’s decline and agrees to undergo euthanasia at a government run facility. Theworkers take care of his every desire, providing for him much better than he wouldnormally receive in his life. In the end, he is placed in a comfortable bed and allowed torest. In front of him, relaxing scenery is projected, including the flowers shown in FigureD.7. Edvard Grieg’s relaxing Peer Gynt Suite is played to him as he slowly fades awayinto a peaceful sleep. While portrayed in regards to a depressing topic, this representationimpacted the team greatly in regards to the future prototyping of SUSIE. Team Panasonicutilized this idea to improve the life of the living to prevent them from reaching Sol’smental state.

Figure D.7: Sol’s Euthanasia, Soylent Green [18]

D.2 Medication Compliance

Medication adherence is a chief concern among the elderly. Seniors have concerns overwhether or not all the medications are required, the dangers of the side effects, distrust ofmedical professionals, and simple disgust over pill taste.

Candy Medication

The process of taking prescription medication is depressing because people feel theirmortality catching up to them. The concept presented here it to improve the medicationtaking experience by associating medication with enjoyable candy. When seniors takebetween 5 and 15 pills per day, it can be quite a process to convince oneself to take themedication. The team dove straight into this and created candy medication to test on realusers to see if such a change could improve the process. Team Panasonic createdstrawberry gummies and orange rock candy. These candies were selected for a variety ofreasons. Chocolates, caramels, applesauce, and other creamy substances are difficult toprocess. In addition, it is critical that seniors consume the entire dosage of medication,but a bowl of pudding will likely have some remaining pudding left in the bowl uponfinishing the medication taking process. User surveys were sent out first, and the gummyand rock candy ideas were popular. They are easy to create and very small and easy to


eat. In order to facilitate user-testing, we used Vitamin C pills rather than possiblydangerous medication. Strawberry gummy and orange rock candies were created. Thefinal products are shown in Figure D.8.

Figure D.8: Gummy and rock candy medication

Following making a large batch of this candy, the team conducted user testing on fellowteam mates and friends. Due to safety concerns, the team was unable to tes on seniorsdirectly. A few sample shots of the user testing are given below in Figures D.9 and D.10.


Figure D.9: A user taking a blind test of candy medication


Figure D.10: A tester trying to smell the candy and decide if it would tastegood

Some concerns that appeared during testing include:

• Impact of dosage reduction if candy/medication solution sticks to cookware?• Turn the cookware into the dispensing container?• Need to crush pills thoroughly to ensure texture consistency.• What flavors mask the medication taste? (Strawberry, Orange, Orange Mojito, etc.)• Minimize required operations and ingredients in candy to ease manufacturing.

The general feedack was very positive. Most test subjects prefer candy over medication,so even the slightly off-tasting candy was a vast improvement over sour and poor tastingVitamin C tablets. Some other test feedback is provided below:

• Gummy candies were favored – primarily the storebrand due to greater sweetness• Can add more sugar and flavoring to mask sour medicine• Softer on teeth and can be swallowed immediately or chewed and enjoyed• Do not require water to remove poor pi l l taste• Traditional pill tasted terrible, but quickly swallowing helps• Hard rock candy remains sol id in mouth for too long – needs quick option• Decreasing size and number of pi l ls is desired


• Taking only one medication format longterm would not change user opinion• However, would the novelty of a gummy medicine wear off or ruin real candy?

Gamified Pill-Taking

Following successful prototyping of creating candy-based medication, the team continuedthe design exploration into the medication-taking experience by gamifying the entireexperience. The purpose of this concept was to involve the user in some sort of physical,emotional, and social experience during the medication-taking process instead of the triteexperience of just taking a pill. A short, simple, and fun game was selected to distractfrom the symptoms of aging while promoting a healthy lifestyle. The game is based off acarnival attraction where a ball rolls across a slanted maze. The user is able to rotate thearena to control whether the balls angles left or right. The objective is to send the ballinto a goal at the end of the board; each goal corresponds to a specific candy format towhich the users medication will be converted. The use of multiple goals grants a purposethat promotes the taking of medication by providing the user with a sense of control(addressing the issue of increasing dependence). At each medication time, the user canlook forward to a new type of treatment. The game requires minimal physical activity andallows for social interaction with others in the area (cheering each other on, competing forthe best candy, topic for conversation, etc.).


Figure D.11: Senior testing of the medication gamification


Figure D.12: Senior testing of the medication gamification

The team was primarily interested in how social interaction would impact the emotionalstate of the user following pill testing. Would the user become distracted from the sorrowsof medication? Would excitement from a game raise the users happiness? Conversely,would the process become drawn out and instead make the user more aware of his or herailments?After tweaking the game on Stanford students, the team traveled to a nearbyassisted-living facility for user testing. General feedback of the gamification concept wasvery positive. After some initial hesitation, all the free residents were excited to play thegame, especially in being able to choose a goal candy for which to aim. In addition, manyof the residents loved the idea of candy medication, assuming the process was fullyapproved by medical professionals. Without some verification, there was a securityconcern about the reliability of candy medication. During this test, no one vocallyexpressed concerns against public awareness of medication.An interview with Dr. Ann Lindsay from the Stanford Coordinated Care Clinic exposedsome possible concerns. She stated most people consider individual health a privatematter and do not want others seeing from which illness or health issues they aresuffering. Prolonging or amplifying this experience may backfire and enhance negativeemotions towards medication dependence and aging ailments.For some professional context, Ann Lindsay from the Stanford Coordinated Care Clinic


exposed some possible concerns. She stated most people consider individual health aprivate matter and do not want others seeing from which illness or health issues they aresuffering. Prolonging or amplifying this experience may backfire and enhance negativeemotions towards medication dependence and aging ailments. The team ultimatelydiscontinued pursuit of this design over some of the previous concerns.

Pill Sorting Systems

A primary need that was very quickly discovered was the desire to automatically sort pillsand medication. Many seniors face difficulty in selecting and sorting proper medications,either due to missing memories, poor eyesight, or mental disabilities. According to onestudy, “1 in 10 hospital admissions for seniors are a result of medication errors” [7].Thisprototype design is intended to improve the pill taking experience and get rid of themorbid experience of sorting pills manually. The process of sorting pills for the week isdepressing and people feel their mortality catching up to them, leading to depression. Thissystem will help alleviate the ache from the process and save the users time. Elderly whodo not have caregivers or family looking out for them are prone to missing out on theirsupplements. For example, the mother of a team member from Trinity College Dublinforgot to sort out her pills that she needed to take before dinner. She then had to spend15 minutes sorting out her pills while the family waited for her at the dinner table. Theteam member mentioned that it was frustrating for his mother. A Stanford Universityteam members grandparent sorts her own medication into a standard seven-day container,but occasionally drops or fails to see her small white pills, resulting in her not taking themedicine. The value of this prototype is in ensuring that users do not forget any of theirsupplement or medication, while making the process itself a little simpler and lessdepressing. It brings convenience and assurance to the patients regarding their medication.Many design features were brainstormed, discovered from users, and idealized for futuretechnologies. However, the team soon realized how many existing technologies exist forpill sorting. Most of these systems are designed for pharmacies, allowing a user (or his orher doctor) to submit prescriptions and request the dosages to be delivered in aprepackaged form. For example, every pill and capsule a user requires in the morning canbe automatically placed into a single, large blister package. This process is repeated foreach time medication is required, creating the product shown in Figure D.13. All thecontainers are packaged together and the user now only must remember when to take thepills. The sorting is performed automatically without user input.


Figure D.13: Medication blister packaging

Taking this a step further is the Philips Pill Dispensing System depicted in Figure D.14.This home device is leased to users for $49 per month, and it handles nearly allmedication issues internally. Pills are ordered automatically online by the machine. Auser or caretaker merely inserts the delivered capsules into the top of the machine andinputs the required dispensing times. When the alarms are triggered, the appropriate pillspop out into a tray and the user is notified via sounds, lights, and wirelesscommunications. There is room for improvement in the loading and programming aspects,but the dispensing operation appears to perform well.


Figure D.14: Philips Pill Dispensing System

Traveling Pill Case

The team tested a traveling pill case concept for on-the-go users requiring medicationmultiple times per day. The main design challenge addressed was the ability to dispenseonly one pill at a time. This turned out to be more difficult than previously assumed itwould be. We had considered the device to be used with capsules but soon realized theproblems that arise as pills come in all shapes and sizes, even flat, circular formats. Toovercome this hurdle, a separation mechanism was developed that would accommodate acustom tray for each pill type the user consumed. The design prototype is illustrated byFigure D.15.


Figure D.15: Rendering of the pill case concept

The selected solution resonated with us because it is a compact design that requires noelectronics for its basic functional operation and is straightforward to operate. The initialprototype was huge and bulky and will be refined to reduce total package size, smooth thedispensing functionality and optimize aesthetics such as discreetness and fashion. Thissimple design was physically constructed from cardstock cut and folded from the templatein Figure D.16.


Figure D.16: Foldable template of the pill case concept

The above device stores pills in the upper cavity and as the user moves, the pills areshaken until a single pill fills the dispenser. The current prototype has a two step processfor the pill dispensing. The first to place a single pill in the dispenser and the second todispense the isolated pill. We tested the device and were glad with how it works. It willlater include a spring loaded system wherein a button press dispenses a pill, cutting theprocess to a single step. The device dispenses the large Vitamin C pills one at a time andshaking it seems to prevent jams and ensure dispensing of the pills one at a time.A functional version would have a couple of these individual dispensers connectedtogether to allow for different pill varieties (shapes and sizes). It would incorporate a lockfor pills that are not needed at the current time and a single button to release all the pillsthat are to be dispensed. In addition, a medication reminder apparatus would connect tothis device to track adherence. The proposed design is a small bracelet that normallyglows a subtle green, but changes to yellow when a deadline approaches, and to red whena deadline is missed or a series off vibration that indicates the similar statues. Morerecognizable alarms could include vibration or smart-phone apps.The device would be placed on a dock overnight that refills the medication. It wouldremind the user to put in on the dock and also if the user left home without the device, itwould used location services to notify them.

Personal Medication Packaging

Designed with busy, on-the-go individuals in mind. The automated, medication packagingdevice sorts various medication and packages them into conveniently-sized blister packsconducive for active and mobile lifestyles. The blister packs feature perforations to allowthe user to separate the medication even further. For example, the user might want tocarry Monday AM medication to work or school, while leaving Monday PM medication athome.

D.3. Loss of Mobility 224

The value of this blister packaging is the flexibility of use. Many forms of on-the-gomedication dispensers do not allow the user to see the contents of the packaging (to aid inidentifying the medication and counting remaining pills). Team Panasonic benchmarkedPEZ candy as a potential solution for medication dispensing, but soon realized two maindisadvantages:

1. PEZ candy dispensers only allow a single type of medication to be dispensed at atime. Heavy users of prescription medication would then need a multiplicity ofdispensers, which is not convenient for active lifestyles.

2. PEZ candy dispensers are not transparent. The rationale of this dark horseprototype is the ability for the user to take their medication with them on-the-go.

The ideas was based on the notion that people carry all sorts of things with them, Men inparticular carry everything in their pockets: their key, cell phone, wallet, and somemints/gum. Blister packs allow men to carry their medication just as easily as theynormally would with breath mints. Women, on the other hand, have more carryingcapacity with their handbags, but carrying bottles in a bag results in noisy pills slidingbacking and forth.It also adds a discrete element to pill taking. Rather than having to sort out all the pillsor remove pills from a large pill boxes it will seem like the user is just having some gum ormints.

D.3 Loss of Mobility

Wheelchair for Shower

Intended for personal use in the home for seniors that are partially mobile and forcaregivers that are not strong enough to lift up the patient into a bathtub or supportthem on a chair for a shower.During a visit to an assisted living facility, the team noticed a distinct lack of concern forpersonal hygiene. It seemed like the caregivers considered it to be too much of a hassle(due to being short staffed as a non-profit) to dwell too deep into the hygiene of theresidents. The caregivers mentioned the residents reason they do not need to cleanthemselves often because they are not active and are not getting dirty enough to justify acleanup.. This made us want to make the process a bit easier for both the resident andthe caregiver. This product creates value by easing the cleaning of people, hopefullyimproving happiness. If residents feel clean they will not be embarrassed aboutsocializing, aiding in combating depression. It also helps us to address the stigma ofdistinct smells around elderly facilities.

Non-Stagnant Pressure Point Bed

After interviewing a number of health-care professionals it was discovered that pressureulcers are a significant concern. Pressure ulcers are prone to develop at the heels, derriere,shoulders, and upper back and can be a significant medical concern if infected. Nurses,CNAs, and home health aides are often stressed out to make sure patients do not developpressure ulcers because they would be held accountable for negligence. In all the hospitals

D.4. Rehabilitation 225

and nursing homes that were visited, it was discovered that there are policies in place toreposition patients every two hours.To prevent the development of bedsores in patients of limited mobility (such as due tosedation or weakness). The comb shaped device can lift or twist the two sides to changepatient weight distribution preventing pressure points. This design would also reduce thenumber of tasks that nurses need to remember. After seeing a miniature scale prototype,nurses voiced their concern about user comfort.

eDiaper

The eDiaper is an adult diaper system that monitors humidity and temperatureconditions in the diaper to check if the elderly person has defecated into their diaper ornot and notify the caregivers to address the situation. The caregivers at a local nursinghome mentioned that nearly all residents wear a diaper, but it is not regularly checked.The diapers are changed only when it starts smelling bad or when a caregiver realizedthat the resident has not replaced his or her diaper changed for a long time. The eDiaperhelps to keep the individual wearing the diaper clean immediately after bowel movementand prevents the person from having to sit in his or her own excrement. Such a method ofnotification will help prevent the embarrassment to the senior of having to search for helpin a compromising situation. Furthermore, there is opportunity to monitor theconsistency of the bowel movement and automatically chart the information electronicallyso LVNs and CNAs do not need to.

D.4 Rehabilitation

A further identified need of the senior population is improved rehabilitation techniques.For instance, a study performed by the Junior of the American Medical Associationidentified that postoperative complications occurred twice as frequently among individualswith prior falls compared to those patients who had not reported falls (59 percent vs. 25percent following colorectal surgery and 39 percent vs. 15 percent after cardiacoperations)[15]. In addition, the large number of injuries and deaths following hip andother joint replacement surgeries illustrates issues in the current system. The teamresearched current technological solutions that address rehabilitation using virtualinteraction. Two notable systems are presented below.

SeeMe

Brontes Processing developed SeeMe as a computer program designed to aid inrehabilitation and physiotherapy. Through a modern and technology-based system, theprogram allows home users to self-help, with only the need to purchase a Microsoft Kinectand connect the software to a TV set. As illustrated by Figure D.17, a senior user isreceiving training on the device from a medical professional, prior to using the device athis convenience. The system takes a gamification approach to rehabilitation, enablingstroke patients to regain their previous range of motion through a series of fun games.Geriatric specialists from an Israeli hospital discovered fun approaches bring manypositive aspects to the process, which result in stronger effects - desired in terms of

D.4. Rehabilitation 226

improving the functioning of the people undergoing the rehabilitation. According to themanufacturer, patients increased their range of motion from less than 90 degrees prior totesting the SeeMe to greater than 140 degrees during the last use of the program [17].Some cues of ideal user interaction were taken with regards to motion and gesturecontrolled interfaces. The minimal amount of equipment required to set up and operatethe system is ideal; however, the software requires much medical professional configurationand monitoring throughout the process.

Figure D.17: SeeMe rehabilitation setup

GestureTek Multi-Sensory Wall

GestureTek Health technologies performed research into immersive and interactivedisplays. Currently GestureTek only showcases demonstration pieces of these technologies,but custom orders for entertainment venues are offered. Users are directed to alter thevideo projected in front of them in real-time, with a primary goal of entertainment. Asshown in Figure D.18, a user can utilize motion capture systems to cause leaves to be”cleared” away from the forest screen. Immersion was not considered during these tests,with the focus on computer-vision-enabled gesture interactivity. Extensions of thesoftware were made to create a therapy suite capable of testing mentally stimulatinggames on users recovering from stroke, traumatic brain injury and other conditions. Alluser interaction is wireless, while configuration is performed on a separate terminal by anexperienced technician.

D.5. Physical Exercise 227

Figure D.18: GestureTek WallFX technology demo showing human interac-tion of ”clearing” leaves[12]

D.5 Physical Exercise

During the team’s visit to Golden Heritage in San Jose, we realized that many facilitieshave limited space capacity. Because dementia patients cannot be allowed to wanderfreely, and because staff is limited, outdoor exercise is minimal. The administrationexplained that they schedule outdoor excursion events weekly, but that seniors wish theyhad more opportunity to be outside. With limited space for physical exercise, one devicethat we noticed was a stationary pedaling system. An example is shown in Figure D.19.With this device, a senior can experience at least some exercise. For seniors who havetrouble standing or moving, this is also beneficial. A senior can sit comfortably and pedalat whatever speed is best for them. The resistance of pedaling can also be changed tocreate more or less challenging exercises.

D.6. Anger Management 228

Figure D.19: An Indoor Exercise Pedaling System

D.6 Anger Management

In Hogewey in the Netherlands, a woman established a new form of demensia patient care.The enclosed facility has plenty of outdoor space, housing for residents, comfortable lobbyarea, and barber, even a grocery store. The facility is specially geared to mimic a smalltown in which the residents can roam freely without wandering off the campus. Patientscan have a more enjoyable life going where they please instead of being couped up in astandard nursing home. By creating a little town the, caretakers aim to stimulate longterm memories for the residents [20]. A social worker explains that sometime the residentget angry or frustrated and cause a ruckus that could potentially hurt themselves or otherresidents. This is a common side affect which occurs in many dementia care facilities. Sheexplains that the most effective way to deal with anger outbreaks is to talk to the patient.By distracting them, and making them feel that they are exactly where they are supposedto be, anger issues can be subsided [11].The design team also visited the VA Hospital of Palo Alto and interviewed a physicaltherapist, Nadine. Nadine explained that while recovering from an injury or illness,patients can often get frustrated at their lack of full recovery or with slow progress. Withlots of encouragement and interpersonal tactics, therapists can sooth frustrated patientsto help them make a better recovery. Observing at the hospital, the team noticed aparakeet named ”Blue” who lives in the wing full time as a therapeutic service animal.Also, a violinist was playing a few songs in the hallway while patient rooms listenedthrough their opened doors. These methods of treating anger issues and general wellbeingduring recovery were noted.

D.7. Social Interactions 229

D.7 Social Interactions

A common problem that was identified through visits to the senior community centerswas that social circles diminish easily and grow slowly. Family members and mostsignificantly spouses pass away. Friends also pass away or are physically difficult to reachand stay in contact with. As mobility decreases, seniors can no longer travel to socialevents and are likely to stay secluded. Additionally, seniors can even develop phobias ofbeing out in the world. This can be caused by health related or physical insecurities, oreven by fear of changes and unfamiliar environments. Fitting the stereotypes, many eldermen in particular become grumpy or less sociable.

Virtual Human Interaction Lab

During a visit to the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, the team learned aboutdifferent studies being conducted to use virtual reality as a treatment for social issues.Though not specifically isolated to seniors, these studies engage users is activities thathelp reduce fear or encourage positive behavior. For example, one application of thevirtual reality room is to cause the user to swim with a virtual shark as is occurring inFigure D.20. Because the task is seemly real but also completely safe, the user becomemore comfortable with being close to a shark and the phobia can be treated and improved.

Figure D.20: Swimming with a Virtual Shark

Another task assigned to virtual reality users is to become a ”superhero”. By giving theuser superpowers and then presenting them with the task of saving a virtual child’s life,users become more likely to replicate this behavior in the real world. This treatment canbe used as therapy for anger management or to encourage a user to become more outgoingand confident. Figure D.21 shows a user flying around a virtual city.


Figure D.21: Virtual Superhero Flying Around

Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift is a headset designed to immerse a user in a virtual environment. Bywearing the headset, the user can physically turn their head to look around at theirenvironment and the scenery displayed to them will change accordingly. This is primarilydesigned for gaming purposes, but the team tested this equipment to see if it could beapplied to senior entertainment uses. Figure D.22 shows a team member wearing theOculus Rift.


Figure D.22: Albert Testing an Oculus Rift

Testing the Oculus Rift on the elderly has been done before. A 90 year old woman wasgiven the headset to explore a virtual environment. Her reactions were priceless; she lovedhow real everything felt and enjoyed being toured around the virtual beach. Her joy iscaptured in Figure D.23. During her trial though, she never took her hands off of the rift.Either she wasn’t sure if the headset would stay, or it was too heavy for ther head to holdup alone. Noticing this behaviour, the team realized that headgear for elderly is not thebest solution. Though enjoyable and fun, this would not be ideal for a broader range ofphysical capabilities that would prevent many of our target users from being able toparticipate.


Figure D.23: 90 Year Old Woman Using Oculus Rift

Transition into Senior Life

After interviewing both seniors, caretakers, and administrators the team noticed a trendin how a senior feels about becoming old. Seniors still think of themselves as young andintentionally block out their aging. Until a significant event happens, seniors often do notnotice their aging or slow health decline. This mindset is only negative when seniorsrefuse help or care. Being afraid to loose independence is difficult to overcome. Andloosing independence gradually or at once is a reality that ever senior faces as they moveinto this new stage of life. Some seniors report feeling a loss of identity as they no longerare able to care for themselves.As mentioned previous, On Lok has an effective method for slowly transitioning elderlyinto a dependent state of living and care. By having an initial stage that is more of asocial club, senior approaching the need for better care can first become familiar with OnLok as an organization. After they have adjusted and then begin to further decline, theycan easily slip into the secondary program which involves more intentional care. Bymaking the transition smoother and accepted by seniors, On Lok is able to assist manywho might normally have been resistant. As one administrator at On Lok said, ”Theydon’t think they are old. They sometime don’t want to join the program because theydon’t want to hang out with ’old people’ not realizing that they look the same age.” Thisvaluable information is important to keep in mind as the team moves forward with asolution to improve elderly care.

Appendix E

Finances

233

E.1. Fall Stanford Budget 234

E.1 Fall Stanford Budget

Figure E.1: Line item descriptions for Stanford Fall quarter purchases

E.2. Winter Stanford Budget 235

E.2 Winter Stanford Budget

Winter Quarter - Line Item Expenses Date Vendor Category Description Value

1/14/2014 Walmart Other Prototyping medicine dispenser prototype and teddy bear robot prototype

$29.88

1/18/2014 Costco Other Prototyping testing user acceptance of different pill shapes (sugar, multivitamin, vitamin C)

$26.24

1/18/2014 Safeway Other Prototyping

testing user acceptance of medication form factor (jello, mint extract, orange flavoring, honey, corn syrup)

$32.74

1/28/2014 Safeway Other Prototyping

Tic Tac mints, M&M mini's (candy dispenser) and Jolly rancher candy, hershey kisses candy, sour punch twists candy, Werthers candy, Morinaga chewy candy (user feedback)

$24.56

n/a *Local Travel Mileage January Mileage (186.4 miles) $104.38

2/6/2014 Walmart SUSIE Prototyping flat bed sheets, 719 beach-scented candle, febreeze air freshnener

$99.21

2/8/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping

2"x4" lumber, clamp lighting fixture, red heat lamp bulb, 3" screws, hex nuts, hex bolts, plywood, 6'x8' blue tarp

$139.01

2/8/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping 3x New Work electrical outlet bracket, 3pack GFCI electrical outlet

$33.35

2/8/2014 Fry's Electronics SUSIE Prototyping Logitech Z623 Speakers $108.74

2/8/2014 Fry's Electronics SUSIE Prototyping

misting fan, halogen heater, electrical wire, 3 power strips, dual AC relay, kill-a-watt electricity usage monitor

$174.35

2/8/2014 Fry's Electronics SUSIE Prototyping dual AC relay control kit $27.18

2/9/2014 Walmart SUSIE Prototyping sheets $28.69

2/9/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping

push button 600W dimmer control, 2x 600W dimmer control, hinge supports, clamp set

$83.69

2/10/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping 600W dimmer control, 8" black cable ties, black electrical tape, 3 x 4pc set of clamps

$127.01

2/24/2014 Amazon SUSIE Upgrades 3 x exercise bikes $59.97

2/24/2014 Vimeo SUSIE Upgrades 3 x nature content videos $59.97

2/26/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Upgrades hot glue sticks $5.40

3/3/2014 IKEA SUSIE Upgrades Chrysalidocarpu Potted Plants $63.95

3/6/2014 Amazon SUSIE Upgrades travel adapters for prototyping in Ireland

$32.60

n/a *Local Travel Mileage February Mileage (114.2 miles) $55.44

Figure E.2: Line item descriptions for Stanford Winter quarter purchases

E.3. Overall Project Stanford Budget 236

E.3 Overall Project Stanford Budget

Date Vendor Category Description Value

-- --- Mileage Fall Mileage (219.2 miles) $123.85

10/18/2013Stanford PRL,

Room 36General Electronics for pbots $22.70

10/20/2013 Fry's Electronics General LEDs $4.34

10/21/2013 Walmart General Audio chip from greeting card $5.40


Room 36General Servos $3.00

11/3/2013 Staples Initial Prototyping Rolodex, business card holders $23.96

11/20/2013Fifth & Mission

GarageInitial Prototyping

Parking fee for DreamForce Conferencein San Francisco

$10.50

11/21/2013 Costco Working Meal SUDS $367.95

11/23/2013 Staples Initial PrototypingCarbon paper to measure kick-ablekeypad accuracy

$19.39

11/23/2013 Amazon Initial PrototypingAccelerometer for characterizing kick-able keypad entry system

$10.29

12/5/2013 Lahlouh General Business Cards $69.28

1/14/2014 Walmart Initial Prototypingmedicine dispenser prototype and teddybear robot prototype

$29.88

1/18/2014 Costco Initial Prototypingtesting user acceptance of different pillshapes (sugar, multivitamin, vitamin C)

$26.24

1/18/2014 Safeway Initial Prototypingtesting user acceptance of medicationform factor (jello, mint extract, orangeflavoring, honey, corn syrup)

$32.74

1/28/2014 Safeway Initial Prototyping

Tic Tac mints, M&M mini's (candydispenser) and Jolly rancher candy,hershey kisses candy, sour punch twistscandy, Werthers candy, Morinaga chewycandy (user feedback)

$24.56

-- --- Mileage January Mileage (186.4 miles) $104.38

2/6/2014 Walmart SUSIE Prototypingflat bed sheets, 719 beach-scentedcandle, febreeze air freshnener

$99.21

2/8/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping2"x4" lumber, clamp lighting fixture, redheat lamp bulb, 3" screws, hex nuts, hexbolts, plywood, 6'x8' blue tarp

$139.01

2/8/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping3x New Work electrical outlet bracket,3pack GFCI electrical outlet

$33.35


2/8/2014 Fry's Electronics SUSIE Prototypingmisting fan, halogen heater, electricalwire, 3 power strips, dual AC relay, kill-a-watt electricity usage monitor

$174.35



2/9/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping600W dimmer controls, hinge supports,clamp set

$83.69

2/10/2014 Home Depot SUSIE Prototyping600W dimmer control, black cable ties,electrical tape, set of clamps

$127.01

Overall Project - Line Item Expenses














$10.50



$19.39


$10.29



$29.88


$26.24


$32.74



$24.56



$99.21


$139.01


$33.35



$174.35




$83.69


$127.01















$10.50



$19.39


$10.29



$29.88


$26.24


$32.74



$24.56



$99.21


$139.01


$33.35



$174.35




$83.69


$127.01


Figure E.3: Line item descriptions for Stanford purchases for the entirety ofthe project

AN OUTDOOR, SOOTHING, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

Documents

Transcript of AN OUTDOOR, SOOTHING, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE