Maintaining and modifying pace through tactile and multimodal feedback

Abstract

a b s t r a c tOlder adults are recommended to remain physically active to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and to maintain psychological well-being. At the same time, research also suggests that levels of fitness can be raised among this group. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a mobile technology, which enables older adults to monitor and modify their walking habits, with the long-term aim of sustaining appropriate levels of physical activity. An empirical study was conducted with twenty older adults to determine the feasibility of the proposed solution, with results indicating that tactile signals could be perceived while in motion and could support participants in walking at a range of paces. However, the effects were difficult to discern due to limitations of the hardware. In response, a novel low-cost prototype was developed to amplify vibrations, and effectiveness of redundant auditory information was investigated with the goal of enhancing the perception of the cues. A second study was conducted to determine the impact of multimodal feedback on walking behavior. Findings revealed that participants were able to maintain a desired level of pace more consistently when redundant auditory information was presented alongside the tactile feedback. When the visual channel is not available, these results suggest that tactile cues presented via a mobile device should be augmented with auditory feedback. Our research also suggests that mobile devices could be made more effective for alternative applications if they are designed to allow for stronger tactile feedback.

Mobile technology and forgotten consumers: the young‐elderly

“…Moreover, Qian et al . () used mobile phones and a pedometer to study how an older person can monitor and modify his or her walking habits, the research results showed that tactile signals could be perceived while in motion and could support an older person in walking at a range of paces. Still, there have been other attempts to understand how an older person perceives the reminder system as part of assistive technology.…”

‘HighChest’: An Augmented Freezer Designed for Smart Food Management and Promotion of Eco-Efficient Behaviour

“…Sometimes, technology is used to monitor or held the people attention, to improve the teaching/learning in the educational field [29]. In particular, many commercial devices exist for virtual coaching [30] and researchers investigated a number of solutions to assess user’s stress or induce positive emotions through biofeedback [31], improve the quality of life, promote healthy life, prevent chronic disease [32] or support seniors in daily life [28]. Most of this works rely on established psychological theories [33,34] on how people may be, are being, and will be influenced through the information technology (IT) designs.…”

Investigating the Usability of a Socially Assistive Robotic Cognitive Training Task with Augmented Sensory Feedback Modalities for Older Adults

“…Some studies have suggested multimodal interactions can yield higher performance and preference over unimodal interactions. For instance, Qian et al [35] found incorporating multimodal feedback (auditory and tactile, in this case) both improved walking behavior and was easier for older adults to process compared to unimodal feedback. However, this can be task dependent.…”

“…This aligns with Wickens and Liu's Multiple Resource Theory [13], developed in 1988, where the areas of the brain that process visual and spatial information (those required for the drag-and-drop task) use different resources than auditory processing. In summary, while multimodal applications have shown to be beneficial in relation to preference and reducing workload (e.g., [35]), this is highly dependent on the nature of the task.…”