Jack Shen-Kuen Chang, PhD | National Cheng Kung University; Ling-Hui Chang, PhD; Chien-Ju Lin, PhD; Hsiao-Feng Chieh, PhD; Chen-Hsun Weng, PhD; Kuan-Yuan Wang, MD, PhD; Chen-Hsun Weng
Competition Sponsor: Academia Sinica
Awardee Year: 2022
Community mobility is an important factor for older adults to sustain an independent yet connected life (which is an even more vital topic since the pandemic started). This factor is correlated to the mental and physical wellbeing of older people. One facet of community mobility is transportation. However, many existing transportation systems are designed in the decades-long past, barely serving well for the elderly in the present, and not likely to fulfill the needs for the future aging society.
As envisioned by many countries and companies, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will be advanced and available in the near future to support and transform the transportation system. While such future may happen, the current transportation system, and its upcoming integration with AVs, lack careful and systematic considerations for the elderly, a growing part of the population with special needs (e.g., deteriorated vision/hearing/driving skills). Therefore, we need to design for this AV-integrated future with the elderly in mind, now.
We propose to use iterative and participatory methods to design, develop, and evaluate mixed reality (MR) with, and for, older adults. We plan to engage the community elderlies with co-design activities to solicit stakeholder input. Then, using the input, we will develop a MR system that can provide a safe, low-cost, and flexible environment for the elderly to experience/explore AVs. We envision the outcome of this research to benefit the academia, policymaking, and the community.
To learn more about this proposal, email healthylongevity@nas.edu.