Design and development of a gait training system for Parkinson’s disease
Author/s
Garzo, Ainara; Silva, Paula Alexandra; Garay-Vitoria, Nestor; Hernandez, Erik; Cullen, Stephen; [et al.]Date
2018-11-12Keywords
Parkinson’s disease
Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS)
Freezing episodes
BeatHealth
Abstract
Background. Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is an effective technique to improve gait and reduce freezing episodes for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD). The BeatHealth system, which comprises a mobile application, gait sensors, and a website, exploits the potential of the RAS technique. This paper describes the tools used for co-designing and evaluating the system and discusses the results and conclusions.
Methods. Personas, interviews, use cases, and ethnographic observations were used to define the functional requirements of the system. Low fidelity prototypes were created for iterative and incremental evaluation with end-users. Field trials were also performed with the final system. The process followed a user centered design methodology defined for this project with the aim of building a useful, usable, and easy-to-use system.
Results. Functional requirements of the system were produced as a result of the initial exploration phase. Building upon these, mock-ups for the ...
Type
article