How we picture KARES in the real world.

Last Week

Last week we went to Horsens and interviewed another physical therapist. It went really well, and we had a very long conversation. The conversation really helped us focus on the subject and some really beneficial information came up. We aquired the knowledge that Horsens Hospital has a website with general exercises to do during rehab, all categorised according to what injury or operation you have been through.

Thusly we have decreased our scope of exercises to focus on one or two particular injuries. This allows us to hopefully do a more precise and correct software without the aid of a physical therapist as an extern consultant. The decrease in scope is just to show a proof of concept and would ideally be expanded to include at least the whole library that Horsens Hospital have provided.

The Goal of the day

We have nearly completed our asignment for today - we just need to check some grammar. After we have turned our paper in we are most probably going to do some sketching of the physical design of KARES.

We have a name

Kinect Aided Rehabilitation Exercise System --> K A R E S

Its the future.

Pics form the latest brainstorm

Idea creation

We went to the gym to try out some exercises. We found that motivation, balance and the knowledge of doing the exercise right was the key elements in doing it right. We have brainstormed yet again, some of the key points was trying to motivate for example through an online community, and a quick glance on the viability to cater towards companies for buying our product for their employees.

Tomorrow we will visit another physical therapist and commit an interview.

Motivation is key!

We had a meeting with a physical therapist today, and it was a real eye-opener.

She answered all our questions and really helped us get a clearer picture of what its like to get treated by a physical therapist.
We thought we could make a device that would be able to help fx all patients with back injuries, but as it turns out, the injuries are as different as the patients themselves.
If you design a back brace with sensors to record posture, then that brace might only be usable on 1 patients out of a hundred. On the other hand if you focus on motivation when it comes to rehabilitation, then suddenly, you reach every patient, and as we discovered in our interview, motivation is alpha and omega, when it comes to the work done by physical therapists.

Now comes the easy part, coming up with the million dollar idea!

The daily progress report

We are authoring the first hand-in currently by creating graphs and creative representation of data.
Later we are to hand in the assignment, it should be no problem managing to complete this task.

News update

I just heard in the news that patients are getting less good at remembering going to rehabilitation and that there is a city in which the rehbalitation are cancelled if appointments are forgotten.

Progress report.

• Had a talk about adventures during easter
• Finished a questionnaire
• Send said questionnaire to relevant people
• Posted before mentioned questionnaire on facebook in hopes of reaching people with dissabilities unknown to us
• Had lunch
• Had email correspondence with future interview subjects
• Solved a number of rubix cubes
• Went home

Narrowing it down

We have chosen to focus on Rehabilitation and prevention

Our target group is people aged 13-25 and possible problems can be knee/back injuries

Waiting patiently

Last night I, Mathias, send a message to my cousin who is a physiotherapist, asking if he would meet with us, to talk about what he and if he maybe could help us see our ideas in a new light. Unfortunately he haven't answered yet.


Here is the message:


"Hi Thomas.
I am doing a project about welfare, which can either deal with the prevention /rehabilitation or help to manage chronic conditions.
In this context, I would inquire whether there was a possibility that my group and I might come over and talk to you. We are currently working with an idea that could help people with either back pain or knee injuries, and we'd like to see aphysiotherapist's view on the matter.
Kind regards Mathias"

Real world info gathering

We have just visited Charlottehøj Fysioterapi and inquired for an interview - we are to send them an email and they will then confer with each other whether they have time for an interview




Just saw this - we should consider if we are to implement this!

http://katrinebjerg.au.dk/news/artikel/net4care-platform-version-01-skal-vaere-katalysator-for-dansk-telemedicin/

http://www.net4care.org/

European network of interest

There is a network, a coalition of parties that specialises in eye/voice solutions to help impaired people.
It is called COGAIN(COmmunication by Gaze INteraction).
Following institutes are partners in COGAIN,  DTU in Bisbebjerg Hospital, Risø, Hjælpemiddelinstituttet and IT-universitetet in Copenhagen

http://www.cogain.org/
http://www.cogain.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.cogain.org/wiki/Eye_Trackers

Brainstorming

So we tried to brainstorm today as well.
It did not produce much usable material.
We have narrowed our alternatives to back problems, amputees, sports injuries.
There is still room for more ideas - but we have to focus in the near future (tomorrow or close to).

I have read some articles regarding elderly socialising and dementia, it provided some interesting opinions but I am not sure if we are going to use it.

We have agreed upon that we shall post at least one blog each in the easter holiday - to keep the creative fire burning.

A danish article regarding eye tracking:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CCsQFjAAOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fviden.jp.dk%2Fbinaries%2Fan%2F7986.pdf&ei=gel6T47NGYOE4gSAlPCHBA&usg=AFQjCNEI8SPYzBj4ySvqJCHfq3a_kxjj3g

Time goes by so slowly

Time seems to go by so slowly
As if time itself was manifested in a solid piece of ice
hopefully we will find
the equipment to un-thaw
and thus unleashing the potential
of our creativity and minds

Struck gold..I think

Found a webpage containing, what appears to be, very usefull information about eye tracking software and hardware alike.

http://thirtysixthspan.com/openEyes/

Still not locked on the idea of eyetracking though.

Eye tracking

We have been given a green light for going after an eyetracking device to help paralyzed persons. Despite of this, we are going to do some further brain storming regarding whom to help and with what.

Things to think about if we are to be using the eye tracking:
What about expressing emotions?
Using pictograms  and symbols instead of classic ABC?
How precise does the system have to be in order to be fulfilling to the user?