The i-Walker: An Intelligent Pedestrian Mobility Aid - Computational Intelligence in Healthcare: Advanced Methodologies - page 115

devices, but also as rehabilitative devices during the rehabilitation program in order to
recover functions as gait and balance. In this context, the possibility to detect, trough
sensors, the performance of the user's hands and feet during gait, on smooth or uneven
surface, could provide crucial information from the medical perspective. The oppor-
tunity to collect such information is decisive in the definition of different patterns of
performance of different users in various scenarios; it could be also used - at an individ-
ual level - to modify and personalize the rehabilitation program and to follow changes.
This project will be carried out at the Fondazione Santa Lucia facilities in Rome with
the participation of inpatient volunteers.
There is a strong case for the use of the i-Walker inside the frame depicted by
SHARE-it and, therefore, for the use of intelligent agents to support mobility and com-
munication in senior citizens. Moreover, there is a clear evolutionary pathway that will
take us from current AT to more widespread AmI where MAS will be kernel for inter-
action and support for decision-making.
The positive effects of assistive technologies on quality of life of elderly disabled
people [11] have been largely argued and proven. The growing numbers of disabled
people will increase the demand for adaptive assistive devices in the elderly population.
As Prof. Pollack remarked in [22]:
To be useful to older adults, assistive technology needs to be flexible and adap-
tive. Extensive customization for each user will be economically infeasible,
and thus the systems we design need to be self-tuning . Advanced computa-
tional techniques, and in particular, Artificial Intelligence techniques, need to
be developed to make these systems work.
We believe that passive robots combined with a MAS, as the i-Walker is, offer a
decisive advantage to the elderly because they leave (almost always) final control in the
hands of the user. Our work seeks to help people who can and want to walk. In our view
the user should only be assisted according to his/her profile: not more, not less.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to acknowledge support from the EC funded project SHARE-it :
Supported Human Autonomy for Recovery and Enhancement of cognitive and motor
abilities using information technologies (FP6-IST-045088). The views expressed in this
paper are not necessarily those of the SHARE-it consortium. C. Barru´eandU.Cortes
like to acknowledge support from the Spanish funded project ASISTIR TEC2008-
06734-C02-02.
References
1. Branch, L.G., Jette, A.M.: A prospective study of long-term care institutionalization among
the aged. Am. J. Public Health 72, 1373-1379 (1992)
2. Bratman, M.E.: Intentions, Plans, and Practical Reason. Harvard University Press, Cam-
bridge (1987)