Profil du membre

User experience (UX), including usability, should be formally assessed multiple times throughout the development process to optimize the acceptability and integration of a new technology before implementing it within the home environment of people living with cognitive impairments.

In Canada, 100,000 people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year. The prevalence of moderate to severe TBI is highest for young men, who will live an average of 50 years with this chronic condition associated with physical, emotional and cognitive deficits. Meal preparation, a complex activity with high safety risks, is one of the most significant activities impacted by TBI. Technology shows great promise to support their overall functioning, but no context-aware technology is available to support meal preparation for this population. The main goal of this study was to design and test a technology to support meal preparation with and for persons with severe TBI living in a supported-living residence.

This paper first sketches a living lab infrastructure installed in an alternative housing unit built to host 10 people with traumatic brain injury. It then presents the first research project in progress within this living lab. This interdisciplinary project aims at designing, implementing, deploying, and assessing a personalized assistive technology (PAT). Based on the needs and expectations expressed by the residents, their caregivers and their families, a cooking assistant appeared as one of the best suited PAT to foster residents autonomy and social participation. The resulting PAT will rely on pervasive computing and ambient intelligence. It will then be personalized according to each participant’s capacities and specific cognitive impairments. The impact of the assistant on autonomy and quality of life will then be measured. The overall organizational impact of such assistive technology will be also documented and evaluated.