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National Resource
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Description
The RERC TechSAge at Georgia Tech Research Corporation conducts programs of advanced rehabilitation engineering and technical research and development (R&D) to increase knowledge about, availability of, and access to effective, universally-designed technologies that enable people to sustain independence, maintain health, safely engage in basic activities of daily living at home and the community, and participate in society as they age with disability.
Services Provided
The RERC conducts nine R&D projects. Research projects include: R1. User Needs. This project uses a multi-faceted approach to provide converging evidence to support development of integrated technology that meets the needs of older adults with disabilities. Specifically, it develops a taxonomy of everyday support needs, assesses user needs for home-based activities, and creates an integrated dataset to predict task performance and technology need; R2. Effects of Age-Related Hearing Loss. This project investigates the ancillary impact of age-acquired hearing impairment on the use of mobility-related assistive technology (AT) and outdoor mobility among visually-impaired older adults to identify impacts on AT use, mobility, and community participation, resulting in design and practice guidelines; R3. Telewellness Technologies. This project identifies the requirements of telepresence technology interventions to compensate for activity limitations and participation restrictions among older adults with disabilities through an understanding of telerobot acceptance by the target population, determining the effectiveness of telerobot exercise interventions for enhancing self-efficacy and social connectedness, and assessing the usefulness and ease-of-use of a telerobot. Development projects include: D1. App Development. This project develops mobile applications to support successful aging by older adults with a disability. Three apps are planned: cognitive training to prevent functional decline, route planning to promote community mobility, and gait analysis to predict activity limitations; D2. Smart Bathroom. This project develops a system of smart bathroom technologies and fixtures, such as grab bars and adjustable toilets, that adapt to user’s needs and functional abilities based on an analysis of gait, balance, posture, grip strength, and other factors; D3. Mobile Manipulator Robot. This project develops an open-source code, open hardware robotic system that performs common actions with its hand (e.g., tool use) and is capable of adapting to changes in a user’s abilities and preferences to provide better assistance. Project activities result in universally-designed interventions that support successful aging with disability.