Develop an Augmented Reality System to Promote the Service on Activities of Daily Living and Quality in Older Adults

Older adults may have problems of an underlying frailty or illness. Exercise may be a vital strategy for reducing frailty and fall incidence in older adults. Traditional exercise includes standing activities, cycling and treadmill walking. However, participation rates are low because these programs are often considered unattractive due to repetitive nature of the exercises. Therefore, this project will develop an augmented reality interactive exercise system that contains visual and auditory feedback component to enhance cognitive, muscle strength, postural stability, and activity of daily living in older adults. Several studies suggested that game-based, virtual reality or augmented reality exercise improved balance control, as well as self-reported balance confidence and mental health in healthy older population or in people with neurologic, orthopedic and other medical disorders. This augmented reality interactive exercise system is that it brings components of the virtual world into a person's perception of the real world to promote the training effects and motivation in people with or without neurologic, orthopedic and other medical disorders. The augmented reality interactive system contains four components: (1) the sensor for body actions (2) the audio output system (3) display screen and (4) the software of interactive video balance-based gaming exercise. The sensor for body motions can monitor the user’s actions using programming sensors. The audio output system is able to make a voice command to guide the users doing an action. The display screen will show the programs of action, the pattern of motions and duration of training. In addition, it’s able to record the scores of users. This interactive video program focuses on the activity of daily living and muscle strengthening exercise, for example arm reaching, stepping exercise, weight-shifting exercise, sit to stand and coordination training. We expect through this academic-industrial project would have Technology transfer and new market of products. Moreover, we expect that both members of academic institute and industrial company get benefit in knowledge and services. In addition, we hope this augmented reality interactive system can further promote fitness, strength, postural stability, daily activity and participation in older adults.