Developing the WeWALK Smart Cane's Novel Mobility Tracking System for the Monitoring and Diagnostics of Age-Related Mobility Problems

英国有1200万老年人，其中许多人可能因身体、认知或感官障碍而行动不便。有些人甚至可能同时出现几种症状。为了解决这个问题，在2019/20年度，地方当局在成人社会护理方面的总支出为233亿英镑。其中一半以上用于65岁以上的老年人，其中大部分用于需要身体支持的人。然而，每个人在日常行动中得到支持的程度仍然未知，老年人继续面临定向，行动和无障碍挑战。基于10多年来为视障人士开发的各种辅助技术，WeWALK（SME）发明了一种传感器丰富的智能手杖和智能手机应用程序，以帮助人们在户外导航。该应用程序具有语音和书面说明，以及全屏阅读器兼容性和低视力颜色过滤器和文本大小。它计算出最佳的旅行路线，当使用公共交通工具时，它会找出最佳选择，检查时间表，引导到最近的车站，并确保乘坐正确的交通工具。WeWALK还可以自动描述旅程中附近的地标。而且，整个WeWALK应用程序可以通过配套的WeWALK智能手杖进行控制，该智能手杖还可以通过超声波传感和触觉提供障碍物检测，WeWALK系统现在能够从WeWALK的传感器收集运动数据（加速计、陀螺仪、指南针）和连接的智能手机，包括步行速度、手杖滑动和访问的地点，但需要进一步发展，通过分析这些数据来积极跟踪和诊断移动模式。这是必要的，因为没有准确的模型来描述老年人如何移动以及他们的移动性如何全面演变，特别是在接受社会护理、康复或定向和行动训练之后。因此，医疗保健，政府和移动专家无法有效地确定干预是否有益。WeWALK的新系统旨在通过日常使用有机地实现和扩展。然而，首先需要进行严格的数据收集和用户测试，其次是数据处理和分类。通过以人为本的设计方法，彻底审查老年人和其他人的行动问题的指标，WeWALK将开发和完善其智能手机和智能手杖在日常使用中识别这些问题的能力。这最终将使老年人或任何遇到移动挑战的人能够更好地了解他们的进展，帮助医疗保健和最终用户。

There are 12 million elderly people in the UK, many of whom are likely to experience reduced mobility resulting from physical, cognitive, or sensory impairment. Some may even experience several conditions at the same time. To combat this, In 2019/20, the total expenditure on adult social care by local authorities was £23.3 billion. Over half of this was spent on people over 65 years old, the majority of this going to those who need physical support.However, the extent to which each individual is supported in everyday mobility remains unknown and older people continue to experience orientation, mobility, and accessibility challenges.Building on 10+ years of developing various assistive technology for visually impaired people, WeWALK (SME) have invented a sensor-rich smart cane and smartphone application to help people navigate outdoors. The app has both voice and written instructions, as well as full screen reader compatibility and low vision colour filters and text sizes. It calculates the optimal route for a journey and, when public transport is to be used, it finds out the best options, checks timetables, leads to the nearest station, and ensures taking the right transport vehicle. WeWALK can also automatically describe nearby landmarks on a journey. Moreover, the entire WeWALK app can be controlled through the companion WeWALK smart cane, which also provides obstacle detection through ultrasonic sensing and haptics.The WeWALK system is now capable of collecting motion data from WeWALK's sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, compass) and connected smartphone including walking speed, cane swipes, and places visited, but requires further development to actively track and diagnose mobility patterns through analysis of this data.This is necessary as there are no accurate models for how an older person moves and how their mobility holistically evolves, especially after receiving social care, rehabilitation, or orientation and mobility training. Therefore, healthcare, government, and mobility specialists cannot effectively determine if intervention has had benefit. WeWALK's novel system aims to be implemented and expanded organically through daily usage. However, there will first need to exist rigorous data collection and user testing, followed by data manipulation and classification.Through a human-centred design approach to exhaustively review the indicators of mobility problems in older people and beyond, WeWALK will develop and refine its smartphone and smartcane's ability to recognise these through daily usage. This will ultimately allow older people, or anyone experiencing mobility challenges, to better understand their progression, assisting healthcare and the end-user alike.