Powerful Mobile Devices Research Articles

Parents' and Therapists' Satisfaction with Four Early Childhood Power Mobility Devices.

Background. Little is known about satisfaction with power mobility devices used by young children. Purpose. Parents' and therapists' satisfaction with four early childhood power mobility devices were examined. Method. A two-phased study, comprising Trial Phase cross-sectional design and Loan Phase one-group pretest-posttest design. Parents and therapists of children 9 months to 6 years with mobility limitations completed the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction of Assistive Technology 2.0 Device Subscale (QUEST8) plus an additional device Aesthetics rating. Findings. Seventy-four parents and 42 therapists from 18 child development and rehabilitation centres participated. Parent and therapist median QUEST8 and Aesthetics scores varied across devices when trialled and over the six-month loan. Favourable median ratings had no statistically significant differences between parents and therapists. Parent ratings decreased statistically over loan period although therapists' ratings did not. Device dimensions, safety, and aesthetics were highly rated. Implications. Similarities and differences exist among parent and therapist ratings.

Assessment and Intervention for Tool-Use in Learning Powered Mobility Intervention: A Focus on Tyro Learners

Young infants, children, and persons of any age who have cognitive limitations can be thought of as tyro learners, who are beginners in learning. For tyro learners, the self-produced mobility afforded by a powered mobility device offers opportunities, to explore tool-use learning and interact with the surrounding environment, thereby potentially enhancing development and learning, providing a foundation for future goal-directed, tool-use activities. The Assessment of Learning Powered mobility use tool, version 2.0 (ALP), developed with tyro learners, is a process-based implementation package, focused on assessing and progressing an individual’s understanding of how to use a powered mobility device. Although the ALP tool can be used with any powered mobility learner, research suggests that this process-based approach may be, especially, beneficial for tyro learners, who are in the early phases of learning how to operate a powered mobility device. This article aims to (1) explain tool-use learning in powered mobility intervention; (2) distinguish between the characteristics of process-based and task-based implementation packages; (3) provide an in-depth description of using the ALP tool in providing powered mobility intervention; and (4) highlight the benefits of using the ALP tool, with a focus on tyro learners.

Charging Mobile Devices in Indoor Environments

Wireless power transfer promises to revolutionize the way in which we use and power mobile devices. However, low transfer efficiencies prevent this technology from seeing wide scale real-world adoption. The aim of this work is to use quasioptics to develop a system composed of a dielectric lens fed by a phased array to reduce spillover losses, increasing the beam efficiency, while working on the antenna system’s Fresnel zone. The DC-RF electronics, digital beamforming and beam-steering by an FPGA, and radiating 4 × 4 microstrip patch phased array have been developed and experimented upon, while the lens has been designed and simulated. This paper details these preliminary results, where the phased array radiation pattern was measured, showing that the beam is being generated and steered as expected, prompting the lens construction for the complete system experimentation.

A Survey of Deep Learning on Mobile Devices: Applications, Optimizations, Challenges, and Research Opportunities

Deep learning (DL) has demonstrated great performance in various applications on powerful computers and servers. Recently, with the advancement of more powerful mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and touch pads), researchers are seeking DL solutions that could be deployed on mobile devices. Compared to traditional DL solutions using cloud servers, deploying DL on mobile devices have unique advantages in data privacy, communication overhead, and system cost. This article provides a comprehensive survey for the current studies of adopting and deploying DL on mobile devices. Specifically, we summarize and compare the state-of-the-art DL techniques on mobile devices in various application domains involving vision, speech/speaker recognition, human activity recognition, transportation mode detection, and security. We generalize an optimization pipeline for bringing DL to mobile devices, including model-oriented optimization mechanisms (e.g., pruning and quantization) and nonmodel-oriented optimization mechanisms (e.g., software accelerator and hardware design). Moreover, we summarize popular DL libraries regarding their support to state-of-the-art models (software) and processors (hardware). Based on our summarization, we further provide insights into potential research opportunities for developing DL for mobile devices.

Retrospective Chart Review Examining Differences and Timelines in Recommended and Delivered Wheelchair Equipment in a Midwestern Dedicated Seating Department

ObjectiveTo compare recommended wheeled mobility equipment with delivered equipment, excluding custom seats and backs, considering demographic factors, such as sex, age, and funding source, as well as the timeline of the procurement process. DesignRetrospective chart review. SettingDedicated wheelchair seating department within a Midwestern rehabilitation hospital and associated complex rehabilitation technology durable medical equipment suppliers. ParticipantsWheelchair recommendations (N=546) made between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, to physician-referred wheelchair users of all ages and diagnoses. InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome MeasuresRecommended and delivered wheelchair equipment type and length of time between recommendation and delivery. ResultsDifferences were found between the recommended and delivered equipment in manual wheelchairs, power mobility devices, seat backs, cushions, and power option equipment groups (P≤.001). Delivered manual wheelchairs were 7% more likely to be different than the recommendation for each year decrease in age (P≤.001), although the model lacked sufficient predictive accuracy for clinical application. The average length of time from equipment recommendation to delivery was about 6 months (mean, 176d). Standard and complex power mobility devices were associated with longer timelines (median, 137d and 173d, respectively; P=.001), although only complex power mobility device timelines were significantly associated with public funding sources (P=.02). ConclusionsWheelchair bases, positioning accessories, and power options may be delivered differently than originally recommended, and the process for procuring complex power mobility devices with public funding sources should be studied further. Health care professionals should consistently follow up on delivered equipment to ensure that expectations and needs of the wheelchair user are met. Reducing systemic barriers to interdisciplinary communication postrecommendation may improve patient outcomes.

Relationships between Cognitive Functioning and Powered Mobility Device Use: A Scoping Review.

Background. Powered mobility devices (PMD) promote independence, social participation, and quality of life for individuals with mobility limitations. However, some individuals would benefit from PMD, but may be precluded access. This is particularly true for those with cognitive impairments who may be perceived as unsafe and unable to use a PMD. This study explored the relationships between cognitive functioning and PMD use. The objectives were to identify cognitive functions necessary to use a PMD and describe available PMD training approaches. Methods. A scoping review was undertaken. Results. Seventeen studies were included. Four examined the predictive or correlational relationships between cognitive functioning and PMD use outcomes with intellectual functions, visual and visuospatial perception, attention, abstraction, judgement, organization and planning, problem solving, and memory identified as having a relation with PMD use outcome in at least one study. Thirteen others studied the influence of PMD provision or training on users’ PMD capacity and cognitive outcomes and reported significative improvements of PMD capacities after PMD training. Six studies found improved cognitive scores after PMD training. Conclusions. Cognitive functioning is required to use a PMD. Individuals with heterogeneous cognitive impairment can improve their PMD capacities. Results contribute to advancing knowledge for PMD provision.

Design of a Dual-Loop Controller with Two Voltage-Dependent Current Compensators for an LLC-Based Charger.

A two-stage charger (PFC+LLC) is developed for Power Mobility Device (PMD) charging applications (i.e., power wheelchairs). The LLC topology is selected due to its ability to maintain ZVS operation over a wide range of load variations. This paper discusses the challenges of designing a dual-loop controller for an LLC-based charger with a wide operation region. It proposes modifying the inner current loop to maintain stable operation over a wide input and output range-the proposed internal loop control switches intelligently between two current controllers based on the output voltage level. A 300-W prototype is designed and tested with a resistive load. Moreover, simulation and experimental results are compared to validate the robustness and stability of the proposed controller.

Unlocking Independence: Exploring Movement with Brain-Computer Interface for Children with Severe Physical Disabilities.

Children with severe physical disabilities are often unable to independently explore their environments, further contributing to complex developmental delays. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) could be a novel access method to power mobility for children who struggle to use existing alternate access technologies, allowing them to reap the developmental, social, and psychological benefits of independent mobility. In this pilot study we demonstrated that children with quadriplegic cerebral palsy can use a simple BCI system to explore movement with a power mobility device. Four children were able to use the BCI to drive forward at least 7m, although more practice is needed to achieve more efficient driving skills through sustained BCI activations.

High quality recordings and transcriptions of speech via remote platforms

High quality recordings and transcriptions of speech are important to a wide variety of disciplines from linguistics and human language technology to biomedical screening, diagnosis and tracking. The wide availability of internet connections and powerful mobile devices offers low cost opportunities for collecting speech data at scale. But even in the era of open source software, numerous challenges remain. For example, video call applications such as Zoom have become widespread and allow for recording, but only provide lossy codecs with low frame rates, and often contain missing, repeated, or interpolated frames, as well as freezes, longer dropouts and other audio artefacts. LDC has recently developed a suite of tools to allow high quality internet-based audio recordings and transcription, with a premium on portability and flexibility, using secure cloud computing services for storage and back-end processing. We present here the current design and capabilities of our software, as well as availability in terms of open source code and app distribution. We also discuss future plans; planned capabilities include 2 + sided conversational recordings, connecting participants via the internet, a modern extension of Conversational Telephone Speech (CTS) collections.

Correlates of Self-Reported Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire Scores of New Mobility Scooter Users

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To describe the self-reported scooter-skill scores of new mobility scooter users and to identify significant correlations with other characteristics and measures. <h3>Design</h3> Survey, cross-sectional. <h3>Setting</h3> General community of Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. <h3>Participants</h3> Participants were a convenience sample of 22 new scooters users (with less than one-month experience using their devices) who were able to transfer in and out of a scooter independently. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> Participants completed the Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire (WST-Q) Version 4.3 [1] for scooters users. It measures the users' perceived capacity (what they can do), performance (what they actually do), and confidence (or self-efficacy). Participants completed standardized measures of cognition [2], hearing, vision [3], life space mobility[4], visual attention and task switching [5], and confidence negotiating the social environment [6] using their scooters. Their scooter skills were also measured objectively with the Wheelchair Skills Test (WST). <h3>Results</h3> Mean total WST-Q capacity scores were 83% and performance scores were 25%. WST-Q capacity scores were significantly positively correlated with WST-Q performance (r=0.321) and confidence scores (r=0.787), WST capacity scores (r=0.488), and confidence negotiating the social environment (r=0.463). WST-Q capacity scores were significantly negatively correlated with visual attention and task switching (r=-0.591) and age (r=-0.531). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Most correlations between WST-Q scores and other variables are similar to those found in studies of experienced scooters and power mobility device users. However, the gap between capacity and performance scores highlights the potential need for additional skills training in this population, which should be evaluated in future intervention studies. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.

The Implications of Power Mobility on Body Weight in a Veteran Population.

The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the United States. A common concern among health care providers is that prescribing a power mobility device (PMD) may decrease physical activity and lead to obesity and increasing morbidity. This study analyzes the effect of PMD prescriptions over a 2-year period on body mass index (BMI) and body weight in a population of veterans both as a whole and in BMI/age subgroups. Prosthetics department medical records of veterans who received PMDs for the first time between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012 were reviewed. Of 399 records reviewed, 185 veterans met criteria for data analysis. The primary outcome measure was the change in BMI and body weight from time 1 (date of PMD prescription) to time 2 (2 years later). There was a significant decrease in BMI and weight in the first 2 years after receiving a PMD prescription. However, age moderated the relationship between BMI and time. PMD use does not seem to be associated with significant weight change. Further studies using control groups and assessing comorbidities are needed.

The impact of a power mobility device on occupational participation and quality of life for people with chronic diseases: A scoping review

Introduction The aim was to explore occupational participation and quality of life (QoL) for power mobility device users with chronic disease. Methods Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for scoping reviews was used. Six data bases were searched using keywords: wheelchair, scooter, QoL and participation. Data were extracted with coding and thematic analysis performed. Results Forty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. An overarching theme of enhanced QoL was identified with subthemes of (i) independence, (ii) enabling participation in instrumental activities of daily living, (iii) enhanced social participation and leisure, (iv) environmental barriers to occupational participation, (vi) power mobility device (PMD) performance concerns impacting occupational participation and (vii) overcoming risk of harm through PMD training. Conclusion The scoping review identified a heterogeneity of study designs and outcome measures, which makes comparison between studies difficult. For people with chronic diseases, PMDs improve independence in occupational participation, particularly in IADL, social participation and leisure. Unfortunately, improved QoL was often inferred, without the use of an outcome measure. Areas which impacted occupational participation for PMD users were environmental barriers and a lack of PMD training. Further research is needed to understand the impact of a PMD on QoL and occupational participation for those with chronic disease.

Children's Progression of Control of a Powered Mobility Device Using a Joystick

Abstract Date Presented 04/23/21 Currently, there is limited information available to therapists to help them in advising parents about possibilities for very early powered mobility use in infants and very young children. Presenters will discuss the results of a pilot study that examined the progression of joystick driving skills in typically developing children from ages 12 to 24 months. Possible implications of the findings from this study for evidence-based practice will be considered. Primary Author and Speaker: Jennifer Iglthaler Contributing Authors: Erika Dalida, Caitlin Maclang, Eunice Cho, Hekanne Simbolon, and Marielle Santiago

ON THE ACTIVATION OF STUDENTS THROUGH AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCES

AbstractOver the last ten years, several stakeholders from the higher education sector have been involved in the area of student activation. This is due to the fact that, among other things, lecturers can get better feedback from the learners through active learning and thus can make the lecture more goal-oriented. Due to technological progress and currently available learning platforms, interactive methods are often used, which can be carried out with the help of online tools. Among the most commonly used methods are Peer Instruction (PI) and Just in Time Teaching (JiTT).All kinds of Mixed Reality are increasingly used in industrial and social context, such as product development processes. Through Augmented Reality (AR) technology and the constant availability of powerful mobile devices, 3D-based content can be virtually linked to the real environment. This enables teaching complex content efficiently, which is otherwise difficult to achieve using conventional methods.This paper shows an example on the creation of an AR-Experience to activate students even in a situation, that prevents attandence learning. The procedure is explained along the design and calculation of a non-switchable clutches within the lecture "machine elements".

International research priorities on the role of cognition in power mobility device use: In pursuit of informed clinical practices and knowledge translation

ABSTRACT Cognition is an important factor affecting power mobility device (PMD) use. However, a gap in knowledge on the role of cognition in PMD use limits evidence of best practices for screening, assessment and training. The overall goal of this research activity was to identify strategic research priorities to delineate the next steps in research. Following the Collaborative Prioritized Planning Process (CP3), a 1.5-day meeting was held with an interdisciplinary and international team of assistive technology users, clinicians, service providers, and researchers with expertise in PMD use and cognition. Our four-stage process included: knowledge synthesis; identification and prioritization of challenges; identification, consolidation, and prioritization of solutions; and action planning. Five of 14 challenges for research on cognition and PMD use were prioritized, and five solutions (of the 100 generated) perceived to be the most impactful were selected as the focus for the remainder of the meeting. The resulting prioritized solutions included, improving knowledge translation of existing and new evidence, profiling and addressing individualized needs, creating and evaluating training tools, development of practice guidelines, and validating and developing evaluation tools or toolkit. Preliminary action planning facilitated discussion of potential future projects, initiated new research collaborations and partnerships, and provided a foundation to build a program of research for investigating the role of cognition in PMD use.

Factors associated with injury severity among users of powered mobility devices.

ObjectiveTo examine the features of powered mobility device-related injuries and identify the predictors of injury severity in such settings.MethodsEmergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance data from 2011 to 2018 were used in this retrospective study. Participants were assigned to the mild/moderate and severe groups based on their excess mortality ratio–adjusted injury severity score and their general injury-related factors and injury outcome-related factors were compared.ResultsOf 407 patients, 298 (79.2%) were assigned to the mild/moderate group and 109 (26.8%) to the severe group. The severe group included a higher percentage of patients aged 70 years or older (43.0% vs. 59.6%, P=0.003), injuries incurred in the daytime (72.6% vs. 82.4%, P=0.044), injuries from traffic accidents and falls (P=0.042), head injuries (38.6% vs. 80.7%, P<0.001), torso injuries (16.8% vs. 32.1%, P=0.001), overall hospital admission (28.5% vs. 82.6%, P<0.001), intensive care unit admission (1.7% vs. 37.6%, P<0.001), death after admission (1.4% vs. 10.3%, P=0.034), and total mortality (0.7% vs. 9.2%, P<0.001). The odds ratios (ORs) for injury severity were as follows: age 70 years or older (OR, 2.124; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.239–3.642), head injury (OR, 10.441; 95% CI, 5.465–19.950), and torso injury (OR, 4.858; 95% CI, 2.495–9.458).ConclusionThe proportions of patients aged 70 years or older, head and torso injuries, injuries from traffic accidents and falls, and injuries in the daytime were higher in the severe group. Our results highlight the need for measures to address these factors to lower the incidence of severe injuries.

Modelling on mobile devices

Modelling is central to many disciplines in engineering and the natural and social sciences. A wide variety of modelling languages and tools have been proposed along the years, traditionally for static environments such as desktops and laptops. However, the availability of increasingly powerful mobile devices makes it possible to profit from their embedded sensors and components (e.g. camera, microphone, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope) for modelling. This has promoted a new range of modelling tools specially designed for their use in mobility. Such tools open the door to modelling in dynamic scenarios that go beyond the capabilities of traditional desktop tools. For example, modelling in mobility can be useful to design smart factories on-site, or to create models of hiking routes while walking along the routes, among many other scenarios. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study to identify the state of the art and trends in modelling on mobile devices. The study covers both research papers and modelling apps from the Android and iOS stores. From this analysis, we derive a classification for mobile modelling tools along three orthogonal dimensions, discuss current gaps, and propose avenues for further research.

A lightweight wearable biomechanical energy harvester

Human body energy harvesting has the potential to replace batteries to power wearable and mobile devices. However, the human body energy-harvester may impede human motion, be too heavy to carry, and increase the metabolic cost. In this paper, we present a lightweight device that generates electricity by harvesting energy from the negative muscle work of the human ankle and does not interfere with the natural motion of the human body. The energy harvester mounts on the leg and selectively engages to generate power in the terminal stance phase, during which the calf muscles are doing negative work. The engagement and disengagement are done by a simple but effective passive mechanism design. The modeling of the energy harvester was developed using the Lagrangian method and the energy-harvesting process was simulated to guide the device design, specifically choice between torsional stiffness, inertia, and damping terms for energy harvesting as well as human comfort. A test participant walking with the 100 g device on a treadmill at 4.8 km h−1 produced an average of 0.3 of electric power from the negative-muscle-work phase. Electromyography and torque measurement verified that the energy harvested comes from negative muscle work.

People-centric collective intelligence: decentralized and enhanced privacy mobile crowd sensing based on blockchain

Smart phones have changed the way we interact with this world and our peers. They have not only become powerful, but they have become affordable. In this current day and age, smart phones are getting smarter with every subsequent iteration. Every aspect of today’s smart phones is far more efficient and powerful than the computers we had a few years back. Mobile crowd sensing (MCS) is the recent attractive research area that follows the crowd’s basic principle wisdom. Complex tasks can be performed easily with (MCS) network using the enormous amount of human involvement and powerful mobile devices. Even though there are a plethora of options available to users in terms of services to choose from, the one thing that remains a concern is security, privacy & data breach. Mobile crowd sensing -centralized design approach can give a lot of durable services. However, the trust of centralized service providers cannot be assured within the real world, owing to the profit-driven facts of service providers, when the privacy policy goes into conflict with their profit, they’re most likely to perform dishonest work, going against the work ethics and even performing malicious activities for gaining more profit. The prime example is Mark Zuckerberg providing their Facebook User data to third parties for monetary benefits. Besides the emergence of assorted attacks, particularly for inner attacks, service providers cannot offer full protection for task information, attribution information, or collected knowledge. Therefore, a decentralized design approach for mobile crowd sensing is strongly required. This paper aims to design and implement a real-time privacy-preserving data aggregation distributed-scheme to mobile crowd sensing called SMARTEE. Our design uses elliptic curve-based Public Key Encryption and digital signature for data encryption and verification, which performs faster computations, uses less storage and employs a shorter key. The digital signature ensures integrity and privacy-preserving of the data. We incorporate blockchain technology with the traditional (MCS) to process and analyze obtained crowd sensed data that ensures automotive security and privacy. Our proposed architecture with the features of blockchain protects the user information's privacy and increases the security of the (MCS) environment.

Enhancement of Wireless Power Transmission Efficiency and Flexibility via an Optimized Three-Dimensional Coupled Magnetic Resonance System with Double Transmitter Coil

Wireless power transmission (WPT) has gained considerable attention in recent years due to its convenience. Moreover, various research especially 3D coil structure studies in WPT are emerging through continuous research. However, most of these power sources are too volumetric to charge mobile devices, and the recently proposed 3D couple magnetic resonance system (CMRS) represents not only a lower power transmission efficiency (PTE) than the 2D system, but the PTE decreases sharply as the distance between the coils increases. To improve these drawbacks, this study proposes a novel approach to power mobile devices using a 3D spiral coil structure and a double transmitter coil system simultaneously. The mathematical model is presented, and three different coil structures are designed to evaluate the most power-efficient 3D coil structure. The proposed model is obtained and verified based on the simulation and experiment results. The result showed that when the distance between coils is the closest (8 mm), the PTE was 55.77%, which is improvement compared to that of the pervious 3D CMRS studies. Moreover, the PTE did not decrease sharply since our proposed system has the double resonance frequencies. Mathematical model, simulation, and experiment are provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed model.