Developing quality of life technologies (QoLT) poses unique challenges to engineers and computer scientists. This paper provides a roadmap for design, development, and evaluation. We begin with a definition of quality of life and identify key attributes of QoLT. This is followed by a discussion of methods for identifying target populations and needs. Next, we describe the process of user-centered iterative design and development and conclude with evaluation strategies to assess the impact of QoLT. A central theme of the paper is that successful technology development in this arena is highly dependent on collaborative interdisciplinary teams involving social scientists, clinicians, engineers, and computer scientists.

We present a robotic walking aid capable of learning models of users' walking-related activities. Our walker is instrumented to provide guidance to elderly people when navigating their environments; however, such guidance is difficult to provide without knowing what activity a person is engaged in (e.g., where a person wants to go). The main contribution of this paper is an algorithm for learning models of users of the walker. These models are defined at multiple levels of abstractions, and learned from actual usage data using statistical techniques. We demonstrate that our approach succeeds in determining the specific activity in which a user engages when using the walker. One of our proto-type walkers was tested in an assisted living facility near Pittsburgh, PA; a more recent model was extensively evaluated in a university environment.

This paper describes a robotic walker designed as an assistive device for frail elderly people with cognitive impairment. Locomotion is most often the primary form of exercise for the elderly, and devices that provide mobility assistance are critical for the health and well being of such individuals. Previous work on walkers focused primarily on safety but offered little or no assistance with navigation and global orientation. Our system provides these features in addition to the stability and support provided by conventional walkers. A software suite of robot localization and navigation combined with a shared-control haptic interface achieves this capability. The system has been tested in a retirement facility near Pittsburgh, PA, USA.