Electronic Location Reporting for Individuals With Cognitive Disabilities

描述（由申请人提供）：所提出的努力旨在开发和评估一种无线电子定位系统，用于报告可能流浪或私奔的自闭症和其他认知障碍患者的位置。这对看护者来说是一个非常令人烦恼和常规的问题，有时会对可能徘徊的个人造成身体和情感上的危险。该系统包括一个创新的可穿戴电子导航单元，它可以连续向护理人员报告个人的位置，无论是在室内还是室外，而不管GPS覆盖范围如何。该单元是专门为解决在非结构化的室内和室外环境中任意行人运动的复杂问题而设计的。该系统还可以与其他社区和国家安全网络（如Amber Alert）集成，并在紧急情况下快速定位个人方面非常有价值。在第一阶段，我们将在一个由家长、教师、自闭症风险管理专业人员和研究人员组成的焦点小组中评估初步设备。这旨在收集细化的用户需求、可用性建议和附加功能。第一阶段将改进硬件/软件设计。在第二阶段，将建立一套完善的设备，并在更大的用户群中进行测试，最后是大规模的试点项目。在第二阶段，将产生最终的可重新设计的设计。 公共卫生相关性：患有自闭症和其他认知障碍（如阿尔茨海默氏症）的人往往会经常离开他们的照顾者。这对看护者来说是一个非常令人烦恼的问题，有时会对流浪者造成身体和情感上的危险。所提出的电子位置报告系统由可穿戴电子导航单元组成，该电子导航单元在室内和室外位置都向护理人员连续报告个人的位置。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed effort is aimed at the development and evaluation of a wireless electronic location system for reporting the location of individuals with autism and other cognitive disabilities, who may wander or elope. This is a very vexing and routine problem for caregivers, and sometimes results in physical and emotional danger to the individuals who may wander. The system consists of an innovative wearable electronic navigation unit, which reports the position of the individual continuously to the caregiver, both in indoor and outdoor locations, irrespective of GPS coverage. This unit is specially designed for addressing the complicated issue of arbitrary pedestrian motion in unstructured indoor and outdoor environments. The system can also be integrated with other community and national safety networks (such as Amber Alert), and can be valuable in quickly locating individuals in emergency situations. In Phase I, we will evaluate a preliminary device in a focus group of parents, teachers, autism risk management professionals, and researchers. This is aimed at gathering refined user requirements, usability recommendations, and additional features. Phase I will result in a refined hardware/software design. In Phase II, a refined set of devices will be built, and tested in larger user groups, and finally, in a wide scale pilot program. In Phase II, the final manufacture-ready design will be generated. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Individuals with autism and other cognitive disabilities (such as Alzheimer's) tend to wander or elope from their caregivers routinely. This is a very vexing problem for caregivers, and sometimes results in physical and emotional danger to the wandering individuals. The proposed electronic location reporting system consists of a wearable electronic navigation unit, which reports the position of the individual continuously to the caregiver, both in indoor and outdoor locations.