Elder Assistant Robot

Human Motion Analysis for Designing Elder Assistant Robot

Objective and Background

The aim of this study is to investigate the preferred human motions and their physical characteristics to design silver robots for the elderly. In the aging society, special cares for the elderly is needed these days. One of the alternatives for caring the elderly is the silver robot. Silver robots’ appearance, speech, and haptic elements are actively studied for improving the interaction with the elderly. However there are few studies regarding the robot's motions. Proper motions of silver robots could be designed through investigating the human motions preferred by elderly.

Method

Two-phased empirical study was conducted in order to investigate human motions preferred by the elderly. In the first phase, four representative human motions, such as ‘greeting’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘positive answer’, and ‘giving’, were captured through 28 body makers and video recording. 10 young (5 males, 5 females) and 6 elderly (3 males, 3 females) people participated in the motion capture process. In the second phase, the communication efficiency, emotion, and satisfaction of the human motions recorded in the first phase were measured by the questionnaire and 30 elderly people participated.

Results and Conclusion

In terms of communication efficiency and satisfaction, female motions were preferred and the elderly motion for ‘positive answer’ behavior was preferred, whereas the young motions were preferred for the other 3 behaviors. As for the emotion, female motions and young motions were preferred in terms of ‘friendliness’. Silver robots need to be designed reflecting the characteristics of human motions preferred by the elderly. Specifically female motions characterized by torso and shoulder motions, and young motions characterized by rapid and big motions need to be considered for the silver robots’ design.

Publication

• Yang, E., Hwang, W., Park, T., & Hwang, J. (2012) Emotional Analysis of Human Motion for the Silver Robots. Journal of Korean Society of Design Science, 25(3), 1-9.
• Yang, E. & Hwang, W. (2012) Human Motion Analysis for Designing of Social Robots based on Cultural Difference. Journal of the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, 38(2), 133-143.
• Yang, E. & Hwang, W. (2011) Motion Analysis of Human for Social Robots. Proceedings of 2011 Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers Fall Conference and Workshop (Seoul, November 5), KIIE, CD-ROM.
• Yang, E., Hwang, W., Park, T., & Hwang, J. (2011) Emotional Analysis of Human Motion for the Silver Robots. Proceedings of 2011 Ergonomics Society of Korea Spring Conference and Workshop (Jeju, May 26-28), ESK, CD-ROM.

Pharmaceutical Label

Simplifying Prescription Information on Pharmaceutical Label

Objective

The objective of this work is to simplify prescription drug information provided to patients in order to decrease confusion and enable patients to understand possible risks and side effects associated with their medication.

Methods and Approaches

The tests conducted focused on quantitative methods and results. In accordance to the objectives, two surveys were given to statistically measure the retention improvement generated from the implementation of visuals on the pamphlet and the interaction between the pharmacist and the patient. Each survey encompassed two tests as a source of comparison for each test group. In addition, this study considers the colors of each label. Generally, colors are used in warning sign and messages in combination with signal words to provide the attention of users and to communicate to them the risk and significant information in using a product. Griffith & Leonard (1997) investigated the relative effects of colors as signals of risk by using various colors such as red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. According to the outputs of Griffith & Leonard’s research, people consider that red means danger, yellow means caution, blue means attention, but orange and green did not significantly mean something in warning label. Thus, we adapted this results about color for our survey method in order to provide more efficient medicine label.

Conclusion

This project has considered some of the ways in which effective and efficient information on labeling might be applied to the label and package of medicines in order to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety. Even though the effects of the design variables on medication errors remain to be quantified, here an organizing framework has been provided that can be used to focus future research efforts in this direction.

Medicine labels often are the only print source of instructions. Given the tangible nature of the medicine bottle, these label instructions could be the effective guidance of informational support detailing how and when a patient should administer a prescribed medicine. Yet many of the common phrases used to describe medicine instructions are inadequately written and contribute to misunderstanding. This research investigates to evaluate the use of enhanced strategies of communicating instruction information for improving comprehension among patients across all medicine usage understanding. In the end, all patients would benefit from more clearly presented prescription drug information.