Wiki » History » Version 18
Version 17 (Diogo Castro, 12/11/2012 21:41) → Version 18/34 (Diogo Castro, 22/01/2013 00:59)
h1. Improving pedestrian navigation for older adults with cognitive impairments through landmarks
h2. Abstract
Nowadays, ageing is considered a global epidemic due to the rapid growth of the older population throughout the world. It is predicted that, in 2050, for the first time in recorded history, the
older population is set to surpass the young population.
Therefore, an increase of incidence of age-related physical and mental impairments can been noticed. Dementia, in particular, is a well known syndrome which older adults are prone to develop. This condition is connected to a progressive loss of cognitive ability, leading to many difficulties such as mobility issues and time and spatial disorientation. A wandering behaviour, consisting on an aimless and disoriented walk, may present itself as
a most worrying symptom, sometimes leading to accidents, injuries or even death. Such issues lead to decreased navigation skills - the skills a person needs to find their way to a location - and increased dependency on the patient's patient’s caregiver.
This dissertation report focuses on these mobility problems and describes the state of the art in related fields.
As such, focus was will be given to navigation methods used to instruct or guide users throughout a route towards to their destination.
Facing the aforementioned issues, a thesis proposal is presented, with the main motivation purpose of this dissertation was to investigate how two distinct navigation concepts (landmark-based and turn-by-turn) affect the mobility and sense of security of aiding older adults and persons with mild dementia. in navigation tasks.
This goal was pursued by developing a A prototype of a pedestrian-oriented navigation application, to be used in mobile devices by these users.
older adults and persons with mild dementia, will be developed employing new and emergent navigation concepts. This solution employs will follow a landmark-based approach, introducing nearby landmarks in the generated instructions whenever deemed relevant.
As an alternative, it offers
This solution will be validated through the possibility conduction of being guided through usability test sessions. The purpose of these sessions will be to compare the developed prototype with an existing application that follows a turn-by-turn paradigm instead, currently approach, the most common navigation method.
The prototype served as a tool to an empirical study.
12 participants of ages between 63 and 80 were selected and split into two groups to perform field experiments, where they were asked to use one of the two implemented navigation methods to reach an undisclosed destination.
The collected data revealed that a landmark-based approach presents a significative increase in older adult's mobility, orientation and sense of security.
h2. Participants
Student: Diogo Castro
Supervisor: Nuno Honório Rodrigues Flores (PhD)
Second Supervisor: Ricardo Jorge Azevedo Moutinho (Researcher at FhP)
h2. Location
Fraunhofer Portugal
h2. Documents
h2. Dissertation Planning
First presentation: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/bedFM9YPgIep3W2
Final presentation: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/dx6ouK3HU05JHEe
Technical Report: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/OUgYKMdzB67LDLc
h2. Contacts
E-mail: diogo.filipe.castro@gmail.com / diogo.castro@fraunhofer.pt
h2. Abstract
Nowadays, ageing is considered a global epidemic due to the rapid growth of the older population throughout the world. It is predicted that, in 2050, for the first time in recorded history, the
older population is set to surpass the young population.
Therefore, an increase of incidence of age-related physical and mental impairments can been noticed. Dementia, in particular, is a well known syndrome which older adults are prone to develop. This condition is connected to a progressive loss of cognitive ability, leading to many difficulties such as mobility issues and time and spatial disorientation. A wandering behaviour, consisting on an aimless and disoriented walk, may present itself as
a most worrying symptom, sometimes leading to accidents, injuries or even death. Such issues lead to decreased navigation skills - the skills a person needs to find their way to a location - and increased dependency on the patient's patient’s caregiver.
This dissertation report focuses on these mobility problems and describes the state of the art in related fields.
As such, focus was will be given to navigation methods used to instruct or guide users throughout a route towards to their destination.
Facing the aforementioned issues, a thesis proposal is presented, with the main motivation purpose of this dissertation was to investigate how two distinct navigation concepts (landmark-based and turn-by-turn) affect the mobility and sense of security of aiding older adults and persons with mild dementia. in navigation tasks.
This goal was pursued by developing a A prototype of a pedestrian-oriented navigation application, to be used in mobile devices by these users.
older adults and persons with mild dementia, will be developed employing new and emergent navigation concepts. This solution employs will follow a landmark-based approach, introducing nearby landmarks in the generated instructions whenever deemed relevant.
As an alternative, it offers
This solution will be validated through the possibility conduction of being guided through usability test sessions. The purpose of these sessions will be to compare the developed prototype with an existing application that follows a turn-by-turn paradigm instead, currently approach, the most common navigation method.
The prototype served as a tool to an empirical study.
12 participants of ages between 63 and 80 were selected and split into two groups to perform field experiments, where they were asked to use one of the two implemented navigation methods to reach an undisclosed destination.
The collected data revealed that a landmark-based approach presents a significative increase in older adult's mobility, orientation and sense of security.
h2. Participants
Student: Diogo Castro
Supervisor: Nuno Honório Rodrigues Flores (PhD)
Second Supervisor: Ricardo Jorge Azevedo Moutinho (Researcher at FhP)
h2. Location
Fraunhofer Portugal
h2. Documents
h2. Dissertation Planning
First presentation: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/bedFM9YPgIep3W2
Final presentation: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/dx6ouK3HU05JHEe
Technical Report: https://feupload.fe.up.pt/get/OUgYKMdzB67LDLc
h2. Contacts
E-mail: diogo.filipe.castro@gmail.com / diogo.castro@fraunhofer.pt