Summary of Achievements

The findings of this thesis suchas ideas, designs and implementations of the distance sensors for obstacle detection and alarming modality that have been reported in related publications are

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS 115

listed in the ‘List of Peer Reviewed Publications’ section of selected chapter. Finally, the research carried out in this work has specifically achieved the followingresults:

1. So far, the mobility assistive device involves the use of canes, walkers and sophisticated robotic wheelchair. These devices prohibit the user to move freely in real world environment. For the first time, hands-free wireless obstacle detection system is proposed to help the elderly in navigation.

2. Various distance sensors are analytically investigated to identify the one that is most suitable for obstacle detection. The most suitable sensors are ultrasonic and infrared sensors, which are not just proven to be low cost, but also in terms of response performance and high speed detection rates.

3. While ultrasonic and infrared sensors are generally optimized for many other applications, there is no reported work in the literature that includes specific analysis result performed to identify and propose an optimized wireless obstacle detection system for the elderly.

4. This research is the first to come up with the design, modelling and implementation details of a combination of two distance sensors for effective obstacle detection. This relatively new mobility assistive device which is proven to be hands-free, wireless compatible and miniaturized supports the realization of highly mobile on-shoe real world navigation.

5. This research has proposed, designed, optimized and produced a prototype for obstacle detection that assists the elderly to move from one place to another with multiple warning feedbacks.

6. This research has also successfully designed and produced a hands-free obstacle detection system that could be attached to the shoe.

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS 116 7.2 Discussion and Overall Performance

This research developed a hands-free device which is applicable for obstacle detection and gives warning signal to the user during navigation. The capabilities of the proposed system were not optimized in this thesis since the designed prototype was not installed to the insoles of the shoe due to the large size of the device. One way in which this might be realized is by converting the hardware transmitter to integrated circuit (ICs) through the chips fabrication process and using miniatures with IR and US sensors for obstacle detection. The obstacle detector has been integrated with the FSRs sensors to avoid false detection occurring during walking. The strategy used for avoiding false detection of the obstacles is implemented by putting theFSR sensors at the sole of the shoes. TheFSR sensors serve as a digital switch and control the function of the sensor.

The ultrasonic and infrared sensors start to sense the front obstacles only if all the FSR sensors are experiencing high pressure. The real pathway obstacle is considered true when the entire foot touches the ground and real signal would be sent to the transmitter. Then the user will be steered towards the pathway journey, overcoming different additional navigation problems, such as detecting and escaping from trapping zones or walking in relatively unknown environments. Additionally, a newly smart shoe should be designed for installing the transmitter. The results of this research suggest that the transmitter section should be miniaturized as an integrated circuit in order to be integrated in the shoe sole and the algorithms presented in this research should be extended to make them more robust for both indoor and outdoor environments.Future work can easily integrate the sensor on microchip.

This research has high potential to be applied to the healthcare industry for the development of navigation aids (obstacle detector) with multiple modalities feedback for the elders and visually impaired people. The implementation of the developed obstacle detection

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS 117

system does not affect the nature life of the surrounding area due to the sensors used are identically safer. In terms of design aspects and suitability, it is more convenient to use because the system could be embedded to the outsole (e.g., US and IR sensors) and insole (e.g., FSR sensors) of the shoe. The proposed system will not be affected by the environment. Therefore it is suitable for obstacle detection applications in the walking route for both indoor and outdoor environment when compared to other assistive devices such as Le Chal, (A. Sharma, 2010), Smiling Shoe (D. Simsik et al., 2012), VitaliSHOE (Project VitaliSHOE, 2010) and Project Biosensing (F. Vlaskamp et al., 2011). The SMILING shoe is a complex mechatronical system that requires interaction of various sensors data, mechanical components, and human activity in order to keep body balance while walking to avoid falls. Specific training should be provided to the user for better performances and only suitable for gait training. Whereas, VitaliSHOE and Project Biosensing are specifically designed to aids the user in rehabilitation process during walking. Specifically, VitaliSHOE is developed for patient movement monitoring during walking which is aim to prevent fall and injuries. Instead, the biosensor project is designed to assess the gait characteristics of patients during rehabilitation exercises such as body acceleration, angle of the knee, foot pressure and repetitive loading patterns of the knee joint during the execution of daily activities.