User trials & tests

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=175 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> haptica</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Home</B></div> <div> <B>Smart walker: Guido</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id2_why_guido_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Guido smart walker">Why Guido?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2_who_is_it_for_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Guido smart walker">Who is it for?</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2_what_it_does.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Guido smart walker">What it does</A></div> <div> How it works</div> <div> Technology</div> <div> User trials & tests</div> <div> Recognition & awards</div> <div> EU support</div> <div> <A HREF="promis.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ProMIS surgical simulator"><B>ProMIS surgical simulator</B></A></div> <div> <B>Other R&D</B></div> <div> <B>Interaction engine</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=95 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #000066;" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>home</B><B>     </B><B>what we do</B><B>      </B><B>who we are</B><B>      </B><B>contact us</B><B>      </B><B>news</B></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=250 BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="04ea0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="04fa0760.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="118" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="05264960.jpg" border=0 width="100" height="150" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=385 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>User trials & tests</B></div> <div> Guido has been developed over six years with strong collaboration between universities, industry and user organisations. Throughout its development, seniors have contributed enormously by working alongside the developers, testing prototypes and giving feedback and suggestions.</div> <div> People from Clonturk House and St Mary's Centre for the Visually Impaired tested prototypes of Guido all through its development.</div> <div> Click here for more photos >>></div> <div> In developing Guido, Haptica also had valuable support and input from the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), Trinity College Dublin and the EU under the Telematics Applications Programme.</div> <div> <B>VA user trial</B></div> <div> Thirteen user tests have been carried out in the UK, Sweden and Ireland. An in-depth user trial is underway at the US Veterans' Affairs Rehabilitation Research & Development Center in Atlanta and in Pittsburgh. The trial is being led by <A HREF="http://www.shrs.pitt.edu/temp/rst/about/faculty/cooper.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.shrs.pitt.edu/temp/rst/about/">Professor Rory A Cooper</A> and <A HREF="http://www.varrd.emory.edu/bios/blasch.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.varrd.emory.edu/bios/blasch.h">Professor Bruce Blasch</A>.</div> <div> For more information about the VA and the Guido trial, click on the following links:</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.vard.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.vard.org"><U>www.vard.org</U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >; </FONT><U> </U><A HREF="http://www.va.gov/resdev/highlights/HighlightsArticle605.cfm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.va.gov/resdev/highlights/High"><U>www.va.gov/resdev/highlights/HighlightsArticle605.cfm</U></A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="recognition_and_awards"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Recognition and awards</B></div> <div> Guido won the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) design award at the annual conference of the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESNA) in 1999. </div> <div> It has been widely reported in the media: it was featured on BBC TV's Tomorrow's World programme and was reported in New Scientist and Discover magazines and more recently in Gerontechnology.</div> <div> People from Haptica have presented a number of papers on the device at conferences ranging from Machine Intelligence to the International Conference on Technology and Aging.</div> <div> Haptica has continued to build a network of strategic advisors comprising user groups and acknowledged experts in mobility, rehabilitation and low vision.</div> <div> <B>The inspiration behind Guido</B></div> <div> In 1994 Gerard Lacey, then a PhD student in Trinity College Dublin, was visiting relatives in a residential nursing home. He saw an elderly man being helped by two nurses to walk across the room. Gerard immediately saw the application for robotics technology that would enable this man and others like him to take a walk when they wanted to not just when the nurses were available.</div> <div> Gerard took the idea to the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) and in 1995, he was awarded a National Rehabilitation Board (NRB) research scholarship to continue his studies and to build a prototype smart walking frame, the PAM-AID.</div> <div> <B> <A NAME="eu_funding"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>EU funding</B></div> <div> Gerard assembled a project team from research labs around Europe to build and field-test a number of PAM-AID prototypes. From January 1997 to June 1999 the project was funded by the European Union (EU) under the Telematics Applications Programme. Apart from financial resources, EU involvement helped to build collaboration across disciplines and between user organisations, universities and industry. This collaboration was central to the success of the project.</div> <div> For current EU projects, click here >>></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>