Completed Projects

WCBuddy

Project Details

Funding

FFG - benefit

Grant Number

868213

Duration

2019/08/01-2020/05/31

Contact

Jennifer Lumetzberger

Persons

Martin Kampel
Jennifer Lumetzberger

Investigation of behaviour modelling on the toilet for supporting the autonomous use via guidance

In the field of toileting (personal hygiene), there are surprisingly few AAL / supporting technologies and also few projects dealing with this topic. This is all the more surprising, as there is a great need and the visit to a toilet is part of the daily routine. Based on preliminary work (iToilet, fearless projects) and the products resulting from it, the idea and a first concept has been developed aiming to support people with needs on cognitive support (and relieving their caregivers) , e.g. at the onset of dementia. In contrast to the entire living environment a toilet on the one hand (technically) is a very well delimited area, on the other hand, personal assistance is felt to be uncomfortable there. Therefore, a great benefit and high acceptance is expected if it is possible to support by ICT people with cognitive challenges in the autonomous use of the toilet.

The concept envisages that by means of (suitably to be adapted) analysis mainly through the body-tracking device developed in the project “fearless” the actions of a user can be compared with the model of a “normal” use and from this suitable supporting information for the user about the correct sequence of actions can be given. This  guidance should be communicated to the user using and extending the dialog options developed in the “iToilet” project (screen, voice / sound output, voice input etc.).  Furthermore, in order to ensure safety despite autonomous use, the detection of exceptional  situations and e.g. also falls are integrated so that in emergency help can be called automatically.

The goals of this project are:

  1. Raise claims of users for such a system
  2. Feasibility analysis of a support system to use the toilet autonomously for people with cognitive impairment
  3. Suitability of daily use evaluation by experts

Watch the WCBuddy Demonstration Video on Youtube:

WCBuddy Youtube Link

In the course of an open innovation approach, we invite you to give feedback via email or leave comments directly on Youtube.

Project Partners

Publications:

  • Lumetzberger J., Kampel M. Using the toilet more autonomously via ICT. Proceedings of Smart Living Forum 2019. 
  • Panek P., Lumetzberger J., Kampel M., Mayer P. Ethische Analyse bei der Sondierung zu einem Kognitions-Unterstützungssystem in einem Demenz-Tageszentrum. Poster. Pflegekongress Wien 2020.
  • Lumetzberger J., Ginzinger F., Kampel M. WCBuddy: sensor-based toilet instructions for people with dementia. AHFE 2021