A paraeducator glove for counting disabled-child behaviors that incorporates a Bluetooth Low Energy wireless link to a smart phone

Abstract

Behavior tracking with severely disabled children can be a challenge, since dealing directly with a child's behavior is more immediately pressing than the need to record an event for tracking purposes. By the time a paraeducator (`para') is able to break away and record events, behavior counts can be forgotten. This paper presents a paraeducator glove design that can help to track behaviors with minimal distraction by allowing a paraeducator to touch their thumb to one of their other four fingers, where each finger represents a different behavior. Count data are packaged by a microcontroller board on the glove and then sent wirelessly to a smart phone via a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) link. A customized BLE profile was designed for this application to promote real-time recording. These data can be forwarded to a database for further analysis. This para glove design addresses basic needs of a wearable device that employs BLE, including local data collection, BLE data transmission, and remote data recording. More functional sensors can be added to this platform to support other wearable scenarios.