Group 3 (2006)
Student Members:
Scott E. Chilstedt
Daniel Corbera
Aaron R. Lawrence
Christopher M. Mitchell
Eric A. Theberge
Faculty Advisor:
Professor Robert Helgeland
Project Title:
G-Track Mobile
Project Description:
With the ever-increasing need for information and security, there has been a growing demand for all manner of location tracking systems and services. Existing companies offer a wide range of products, such as wristband tracking for small children and fleet tracking for the trucking industry. Another group of people who could benefit from location tracking are individuals with various forms of disabilities. Our project is targeted at this segment of location tracking, with a focus on wheelchair bound individuals who have difficulty with speech and motor control. Proposed by Dr. Lester Cory, Director of the UMass Dartmouth Center for Rehabilitation Engineering(CRE), The G-Track Mobile project seeks to design a tracking system that the center could provide to disabled individuals in the community. At the heart of the system is the device that will reside on the user's wheelchair. In the event of an emergency, the device will be able to transmit a message to a remote caretaker with the necessary location information. In addition, different messages can be sent and received to allow communications between the user and the caretaker. To accommodate the limited motor skills of our target users, the messages will be selected using a 'single switch scanning' interface. The interface will allow our device to interface with a wide range of user-specific switches that the CRE develops for its clients. In addition to designing such a system, our team was tasked with developing a "Proof of concept" prototype to demonstrate the system's functionality, and doing so within a $500 budget. To allow us to achieve this goal, the design team utilized a number of donated items and leftover components from previous design projects. Although direct replication of our prototype system would be impractical, the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering will be able to use the knowledge and ideas that evolved through our design process to develop a number of similar systems for their clients.
