Abstract:

For years people with fragilities or any form of disabilities meet barriers of all types. Technology has helped to lower many of these barriers, including building robotic smart houses, health-record systems, speech recognition, semi-autonomous wheelchair navigation, and smart home technologies. By using computer technology for tasks such as reading documents and communicating with others, they are better able to handle a wider range of activities more independently. Both hardware and software assistive tools have been introduced to provide functional alternatives to standard operations.

The Interactive Personal Assistant Web-Application System (or iPAWS) provides assistance to individuals in performing desirable tasks through a simple interface that is supplemented with a variety of media types. Two main components provide user interfaces for utilizing iPAWS: the back-end Task Manager and the front-end Task Assistant. Along with a database, these components power the operation of iPAWS. The database holds all the data containing task instruction sets as well as account information for all users.

The supervisor is usually a parent or guardian or nurse who takes care of the user. The supervisor is responsible for creating (and managing) the tasks. The system targets users who wish to complete simple ordinary tasks by following step-by-step instructions. Each task contains main steps along with optional detail steps within each main step. Task instructions are entered by a supervisor from the Task Manager. The user is ultimately the person who performs a task by following instructions that are specified in the task’s main steps.

Example users who might benefit from iPAWS include:
• An individual on the autism spectrum who requires frequent supervision.
• An elderly person who needs step-by-step instructions to accomplish a chore.
• A person in mild stage of Alzheimer’s who requires a lot of care and attention.
• A person with dementia who is physically able to carry out daily tasks, but needs prompting to complete them.

The overarching goal of this research is to design and implement an easy-to-use system that supports the independence of the person who uses it. We introduce both Task Manager and Task Assistant in the context of this research. We will show an example of a user running through a task using Task Assistant. A secondary aim is to create an effective system that helps the user accomplish his/her job. Issues and complications encountered on initial testing are discussed. Future enhancements to the current design are explained.

Keywords:

Human computer interface, assistive system, user centered design.