Author: Nadine

My research process for this infant documentation tool has been very layered like an onion and has almost felt like a thesis. But I’m almost there. 🙂

http://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UiafLampk8_oP7_WWWlWwxG0qX4RBUFW_g_Khn9ipGA/edit?usp=sharing

This weeks activities consisted of doing recruitment for interviews and feedback on my infant prototype system from parents, professors, medical professionals, and physical therapists.  So far I interviewed one medical doctor (pediatrician) and a parent about their experience of assessing development in infants and toddlers.

Here are the questions I asked the pediatrician and will ask other medical professions in the near future:

Here are some sample prototypes that I’ve built so far in this process….. more details to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaBOJoVNIk

http://www.youtube.com/embed/d8kwkDJttQ4

The ongoing google doc will be kept here:

http://docs.google.com/a/nyu.edu/document/d/1Ej4vCLvnTe4OFNBOSOtEbzO_sJwacg4CSyiy8cQND2Y/edit?usp=sharing

An infant’s development is usually broken down into the following categories: gross motor, fine motor, social, emotional, and cognitive. When designing products that assist in the tracking, recording, and promotion developmental milestones, it is important to keep these categories in mind in order to properly assess an child in the most holistic manner. However, recent literature shows that these developmental categories should not be viewed in isolation but suggests that the development or non-development of one aspect of development impacts all of the others. This is an important consideration to account for when designing assistive technology devices to children with special needs such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and just developmental delays in general. Additionally, the interconnectedness of infant development is also important to consider when data tracking and visualizing data regarding this matter.

Rivera, M. Campos, J. Spatial Cognition in Infants with Myelomeningocele Impact of Mobility.  University of California Berkeley Infant Studies Laboratory. 2012.
This article overviews the impact on an infant’s spatial cognition of using mobility via assistive technology devices such as wheelchairs and motor scooters on those infants suffering from Myelomeningocele, a form of spina bifida. It documents three spatial cognitive processes as infants grow: visual proprioception, joint visual attention, and form extraction. Good source for an overview of how one domain of infant development (motor skills), impacts others the cognitive domain.

Ragonesi, BS.  Chen, Xi.  Power Mobility and Socialization in Preschool: A Case Study of a Child With Cerebral Palsy.  Infant Motor Behavior Laboratory.   Wolters Kluwer Health. Pediatrics of the American Physical Therapy Association. 2010.

This is an article that presents a study showing the impact of a child using a motor chair in a pre-school classroom and how it impacted them cognitively, socially, and emotionally. It also presented data regarding the caretakers, educators, and parental perception of the impact of using the technology with the child. Overall, the chair impacted the child positively, but there was no impact on the child socially and how they interacted with other children. They said that may be it had to do with the child’s initial mental capacities and so could not necessarily attribute it to the scooter itself.

Huang, Hsiang-Han.  Galloway, James.  Modified Ride-on Toy Cars for Early PowerMobility: A Technical Report.  Infant Behavior Laboratory. Wolters Kluwer Health. Pediatrics of the American Physical Therapy Association. 2012.

This is an article presenting a study showing the impact of a child using a modified toy car at the University of Delaware. There were modifications made on the modified car ride regarding its seating, steering systems, and drive systems to accommodate infants and toddlers with special needs. Before the car was designed/modified, researchers surveyed current toy car’s that were on the market from Fisher Price and began implementing modifications grounded in research. These modifications are important in giving postural and trunk support, while giving a therapeutic experience that supports cognitive, emotional, and social growth. The results of the study demonstrate this growth.

Ostensjo, Sigrid.  Carlberg, Eva. Vollestad, Nina.  The Use and Impact of Assistive Devices and other environmental modifications on everyday activities and care in young children with cerebral palsy. 2005.

The article presents a broad study qualitative and quantitative study where 95 children aged 3 months old to 4.5 years old with cerebal palsy used assistive technology devices during everyday activities such as self-care skills, mobility, and social activities. Overall, the modifications benefitted the kids, but as in the other study, in the social realm, the children still experienced very little difference.

Uchiyama, Ichiro.  Campos, J.  Locomotor Experience Affects Self and Emotion. Developmental Psychology. Vol. 44, No. 5, 1225-1231. 2008.

This article goes in depth into how an infants ability to move independently and dependently impacts their awareness of self and their emotional state. It also impacts their cognition.  On the other hand, the article also notes that in order for cognition to take place, a child does not necessarily have to have yet experienced locomotion. However, in order for cognition to continue to grow at a steady rate, motor activity needs to take place in order to develop cognitive, emotionally, and socially.

For our Biomechanics assignment this week we had to choose three topics to do preliminary research on that were aligned with our own individual interests. My initial findings are below:

Topic of Interest #1: Optical Motion Capture 

I am very interested in motion capture systems and software to track motion, especially in children and infants in order to track their development. However, most of the research papers I found focused on adults, especially those who were older. A nice overview of this process of gait tracking via a depth camera I came across was a journal article entitled, ” Inexpensive Depth Camera for In-Home Gait Assessment”, during my research. The article can be viewed here:

http://www.eldertech.missouri.edu/files/Papers/StoneE/Eval%20of%20an%20Inexpensive%20Depth%20Camera%20for%20In-Home%20Gait.pdf

The article overviewed the benefits of using a depth camera to do this and how it can be used to track a person’s gait within their limbs and body parts and how the data can be used for preventative and actual care. Measuring gait in a person can provide data that can be used to predict the likelihood of a fall or accident and also assist in diagnosing existing conditions. If adequate and qualitative data is used effectively it can assist in allowing more members of the senior community live independently longer.

One of the interesting points that the article addresses is that since the image captured of a person is a depth image, rather than a video, it provides a degree of anonymity. Older adults in particular, many of whom are not a part of the public social media scene, would probably find this to be very attractive, since it is sensitive data and also would probably feel less invaded if a physician or other professional viewed the data.

Topic of Interest #2: Human Movement Visualization Tool (Created using processing) 

While the depth image camera can be used to capture gestures, movements, and measure gait, this data should be  analyzed and synthesized further via a visualization tool. This can be in both a human body as well as graphical form of representation.

I found a few videos and journal articles on the topic.

1) Human Movement Visualization done via laser scan – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mC3QN__Io

2) 3D visualization using motion capture system and then movement patterns 3D printed. http://datavisualization.ch/showcases/bodycloud/

I found a video of Greg Borenstein’s existing tool created in Processing to visualize walk data in a 3D space http://vimeo.com/35221911

Here are a few journal articles I found and read on the topic:

Source #1: http://people.stfx.ca/smackenz/Courses/DirectedStudy/Articles/AnnRevBiomedEng2001.pdf – Computer Modeling and Computer Simulation of Human Movement – This article covers: how the structures of the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems may be represented in a mathematical (computer) model of the body, how these elements may be integrated to simulate the dynamics of a motor task, and how model output can be analyzed.

Source #2: Single still style depth/2D motion image visualization, versus multiple images showing movement patterns: http://smart-art.org/PDF/MovementViz.pdf

Topic of Interest #3: Sensory Substitution 

Real-time Sensory Substitution to Enable Players who are Blind to Play Video games using Whole Body Gestures. — Using Tactile and Audio cues to prompt users on how to play the game via additional video cam.

http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2160000/2159385/p147-morelli.pdf?ip=216.165.95.79&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=184030550&CFTOKEN=26373987&__acm__=1361882449_233bfee546123979d728cb7cc0f36a7a

Autism is a disorder that I am interested in exploring as well. The interesting thing about autism is that it is more about perception than total loss of sense. I wonder if there is a tool that could be used to either monitor or assist those with autism have a more comfortable and functional perception of themselves in society.

Here is an article on the unique sensory perception that often accompanies autism below:

http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/different_sensory_experiences.htm

Topic of Interest #4: Child Developmental Milestone Tracking Via Toy Interaction, Measuring Gait, Strength, Pressure, Muscles

Monitoring Children’s developmental progress using augmented toys and activity recognition. This would be a continuation of the stuffed toy, ButterHugz, I began last semester. The toy is a stuffed animal designed for developmental milestone tracking.  I am interested in doing more research in different sensors that could be used to track motion data and creating a visualization for it.

http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2130000/2125155/779_2011_Article_386.pdf?ip=216.165.95.79&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=184030550&CFTOKEN=26373987&__acm__=1361883054_c6f38a72c73627ffa2cf5349ce07aa04

http://www.invetech.com.au/newsroom/viewpoints/user-centred-design-to-develop-better-safer-products/

The publication entitled “The effect of a new syringe design on the ability of rheumatoid arthritis patients to inject a biological medication” was a hallmark example of how great design can improve the quality of life for those with and without special needs. This particular study focused on the impact of using an innovative three fingered syringe designed by the Smart Design firm versus the traditional split two fingered design in rheumatoid arthritis patients. The study focused on the initial perception of the syringe as well as the actual usage of one syringe over the other. The difficulty of using syringes with rheumatoid arthritis is due to the “limited hand strength and dexterity, typically experience pain and functional limitations, and often have difficulty with performing the injection” (Schiff).

It was concluded that the three fingered design provided a greater isometric force regardless of the starting point of the plunger, when compared to the traditional two fingered split design. This can be attributed to the users having a better grip and therefore power of exertion. Human factors engineering in product design is especially important when developing products for all users, especially for health care application. It can make a difference between a patient being able to properly administering their medication or injuring themselves due to the design of the apparatus that they need to use in order to operate it. From the newly designed syringe from SmartDesign, patients are at less risk of sticking themselves due to the three finger asymmetrical design and the design of the cap.

I decided on mapping the range of motion for the neck: flexion, extension, and twisting because I feel like the neck is an understated part of the body that is capable of conveying physical and emotional responses to various stimuli. These responses can be measured and analyzed.

Check out the animation this address: http://vimeo.com/59458377 .

I used Poser 6, a 3D graphics and animation program, in order to map the motion. In this particular version of the animation, I did not include the angle of rotation, however, I found the average angle for range of motion for the neck, according to the Working Postures and Movements: Tools for Evaluation and Engineering text I found on Google Books. The preview can be found at : http://books.google.com/books?id=FL2eOeomjxoC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=neck+twist+angle&source=bl&ots=QVu-9IzsqF&sig=VC8CJs7keNYcL3yDBxI6Cj1m0H4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fpAZUfSdFYiw0QHC2ICQDA&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=neck%20twist%20angle&f=false . It discusses the angles for the neck beginning on page 83. According to the source the usual comfortable range of motion t for a neck flexion and extension is about 45 degrees and can go up to 60 degrees….with slight discomfort. On the other hand neck twisting, can have a comfortable range of motion between 20 and 60 degrees.

Overall, this book is an excellent biomechanics resource that goes into detail when it comes to movement of various limbs and joints.

The principal article used to learn more about Dr. James Wells Research was  found at: http://www.jaoa.org/content/102/6/313.full.pdf+html . The full citation is: Wells, James P. Hyler-Both, David. Danley, Tabitha. Wallace, Gregory. Biomechanics of growth and development in a healthy human infant: a pilot study. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. June 1, 2002 vol. 102 no. 6 313-319. <http://www.jaoa.org/content/102/6/313.full.pdf+html>

Children are a demographic that I am very passionate and excited about. Therefore, I wanted to learn more about the research of individuals  that specialize with biomechanics in pediatrics, in particularly child development.  Therefore, I looked at several papers that Dr. James P. Wells, professor and researcher at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisberg, West Virginia. Much of his research concerns the implications of biomechanics in developing infants. He performed several studies in order to obtain a better understanding of the biomechanics of a normal developing infant. I felt that since I am interested in learning how to design technology and interfaces for children and parents of children with developmental delays, that it would benefit me greatly to first learn more about the biomechanics of those without them.

What I find the most compelling and captivating  about his research is how originally, he didn’t work with human infant subjects, but instead worked with rheesus monkeys because their infant development is very, very similar to those of humans. A link to the study can be found here: http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0047248484710293/1-s2.0-S0047248484710293-main.pdf?_tid=3e8dcc0e-6f5b-11e2-ac48-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1360045025_3270021dd2642a31abbf8019a5ae665d He dissected semi-frozen monkeys in order to closely examine their joints and limbs and their growth and development over the course of 18 months. From this research process, he was able to gain a better understand of how the “center of mass” shifts as the body’s limbs proceed to grow. Years later, he moved on to human subjects, and confirmed that his comparisons were valid.

The basic methodology of the study was done as follows: 168 infant subjects participated in the study and their “body-segment length, diameter, circumference, and skinfold thickness” measurements were taken at several segment locations. One of the major points within the publication is that limb length and circumference increase with age. In turn, postural and locomotor skills are gradually acquired such as sitting up, standing, crawling, and walking as the body grows and the center of mass shifts from the head, and more evenly distributes itself throughout the body. This is usually most apparent, during the first 18 months of a child’s life. The child was observed and recorded performing the following positional behavior: lift head, bear weight on legs, roll over, pull to sit, sitting, and other common developmental milestones. The biomechanics of the subject was then cross compared with a non-human counterpart’s development: A Rheesus Monkey .

It was found that increased fat deposits in the pelvis are related directly to the acquisition of advanced locomotor and postural skills. Forelimbs and shoulder girdles cause the arms center of mass to migrate and as a result infants are able to stand on two legs and walk, as a result.