Prototype House: Assessing What Seniors NeedWant in Their Home

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Prototype House Assessing What Seniors Need/Want
in Their Home
Kathy Segrist, Ph.D., Associate Director,
Gerontology Program Director, Fisher Institute
for Wellness and Gerontology, Ball State
University, Muncie, Indiana, USA _________________
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The Digital Home and Healthcare Facility is a
natural feeling domestic environment ideal for
researching relationships with media and
technology. Within this space, the digital life
is divided into four key areas

• PLAYING
• Fun
• Entertainment
• Music
• Video Games
• Movies
• Exercise
• Game Bike (exercise bike video game controller)
• General Exercise equipment
• Activity monitoring

• LIVING
• Health and Wellness
• Cooking
• Exercise
• Resource Acquisition

• WORKING
• Home Office
• Activities
• Telecommuting
• Additional Work Related Projects
• Equipment
• Computer
• Blackberry
• Software Applications
• Word Applications
• Visual Presentation Application
• Communication Application

• LEARNING
• Health Wellness Specific
• Diseases
• Health conditions
• Medications
• Nutrition
• Online Personal Trainer
• Exercise Equipment

Home-Medical Dynamics The healthcare industry
has been slow to adopt technology within its
business environment.  Physicians' offices,
hospitals, and home care agencies, including
nurses, still predominately rely on manual
methods for tracking patients and their health
care progress.  Consequently, the CMD is
exploring the home-medical dynamic and ways to
improve home health care processes like health
monitoring through digital media applications. 
Potential for Aging in Place Research Broadly,
the purpose of the Digital Home and Healthcare
Facilitys purpose is to provide a natural,
domestic environment for testing on all types of
media (devices, interfaces, applications, etc.).
Beginning with this broad scope, we are provided
with a wonderful foundation on which to build an
aging in place research agenda.

•  
• Healthcare Research
• Potential for research in the healthcare side of
  the facility focuses on task analysis of medical
  processes, activities and procedures followed by
  physicians, as well as nurse practitioners and
  other medical technicians. Research Interests
  Include
• Informing the improvement of processes with the
  help of digital media applications
• Innovative research related to patient room
  digital media entertainment and their usability,
  interface design and testing aspects.
• Usability testing of health chart equipment used
  by physicians and lab technicians (e.g. medical
  imaging and scanning).

Leveraging existing home automation technology to
support aging in place. Home Automation
technology has existed for some time however, it
historically has been implemented in high-end
homes as a luxury. There is a simple home
automation system in the Digital Home and
Healthcare Facility. This system functions using
a combination of sensors and computer scripts. A
sensor can be installed anywhere, such as a
cabinet door, window, etc. and a simple script or
code can be written telling the system what to do
if the sensor is activated. There are a
variety of ways that this technology could be
used to provide support and peace of mind to
those who would rather remain at home than move
to a nursing home. Application of this technology
would also ensure that the individuals privacy
is protected. While the technology necessary to
accomplish this is available, attitudes toward
use of this technology is largely unknown.

• NEXT STEPS
• FOCUS GROUPS OF BABYBOOMERS AND OLDER
• INPUT FROM COMMUNITY SERVICE PROVIDERS
• INPUT FROM LONG TERM CARE SERVICE PROVIDERS
• INPUT FROM HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

Research Perspective As mentioned, the
research is focused on usability and user
attitudes toward a given media or technology. The
crucial factor and our intended focus is to
explore and understand the attitudes and
perceptions of the aging population. The type of
research to be conducted would get at factors
associated with adoption. It could be that many
people in this population like the promise of
using technology to support aging in place, but
do not like the perceived complexity of making it
work or the potential loss of privacy and control
of ones home. The chief focus would be to
identify and address any barriers to adoption.
Home Research This Center for Media Design
(CMD) research focuses on the relationship
between human beings and technology in next
generation smart homes.  This research explores
the various social, behavioral, usability,
interface design and interaction issues of
emerging digital appliances for in-home living,
learning, working, and playing.  Research
interests include Interactive TV, console and PC
gaming Distance education Digital home
schooling and e-Learning Working from home
including networked home office and devices for
the home office Managing family and home health
fitness, kitchen aids, as well as home networks
and information