The i-Walker: An Intelligent Pedestrian Mobility Aid - Computational Intelligence in Healthcare: Advanced Methodologies - page 100

providing mobility, aids for mobility can be equipped with an autonomous navigation
architecture to assist the user in the control of the aid (like the i-Walker , see Figure § 1).

- real environments are hard to predict and highly dynamic (people move around,
doors open and close, schedules change, emergencies arise, etc .);
- platforms should be such that they can be easily reused and adapted to already
available resources; and
- it is of key importance to adapt to the users needs and to avoid providing more
support than necessary or to disregard his/her wishes to prevent emotional distress;
hence, in most cases control is shared between the user and the autonomous nav-
igation system and the amount of control exerted by the system depends of the
users condition, which may change depending on his/her actual physical/mental
condition.

2.1 Acceptability

Finding the right assistive device for each person is not an easy task. Assistive tools have
the potential to narrow the gap between an individuals capacity and their environment,
and therefore to make it easier for people to remain in his/her preferred environment.
The extent to which these tools can narrow the gap depends on elders willingness to use
it [18]. The extent to which AT can narrow the gap depends on older peoples willingness
to use it, which in turn depends on several complex factors :

- the needs that people perceive,
- safety, may be the most important the perceived usefulness of the AT,
- soundness and,
- degree of autonomy that the assistive tool guarantees to the user

That is why among the SHARE-it objectives we pursue the idea of personalization.
Personalization implies a large amount of knowledge about the user's abilities and lim-
itations, his/her environment, his/her clinical information, etc in order to identify which
elements of the aiding tool have to be adapted, when and by whom. Personalization
should be a sound, safe and easy and adaptive process. Agents have shown to be a solid
option to accomplish this aim.
An open research topic is the acceptability of this technology among elders [19].
Senior citizens facing some disabilities need to find this technology easy tolearntouse
as well as be confident with its usage in their preferred environment. This implies an
effort to provide the appropriate infrastructure elsewhere. Also, it should be easy and
affordable to adapt these technological solutions to different existing environments.

3 Shared Autonomy: A Vision

Autonomy for the elderly or people with disabilities does not only rely on mobility
terms, but on a set of domains influenced by functioning, activity limitations, partic-
ipation restrictions and environmental factors [28]. Life areas related to activities and
participation are such as learning and applying knowledge, general tasks and demands,