gms | German Medical Science

15th Congress of the European Forum for Research in Rehabilitation (EFRR)

15.04. - 17.04.2019, Berlin

Assistive technology in the toilet – Field test of an ICT-enhanced lift-WC

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Gabor Fazekas - National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation, Budapest, Hungary
  • Tamas Pilissy - National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation, Budapest, Hungary
  • Anna Sobjak - National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation, Budapest, Hungary
  • Andras Toth - National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation, Budapest, Hungary
  • Ramona Rosenthal - Caritas Socialis GmbH, Vienna, Austria
  • Peter Mayer - Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria
  • Paul Panek - Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

15th Congress of the European Forum for Research in Rehabilitation (EFRR). Berlin, 15.-17.04.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2019. Doc072

doi: 10.3205/19efrr072, urn:nbn:de:0183-19efrr0722

Veröffentlicht: 16. April 2019

© 2019 Fazekas et al.
Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). Lizenz-Angaben siehe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Gliederung

Text

Background: The iToilet project of the EU aimed to develop an intelligent assistive toilet system so as to make the toilet use safer and more comfortable for people with physical disabilities.

Aim: Testing the iToilet in everyday use.

Method: 50 primary users (potential end-users), 17 secondary users (caregivers) and 10 tertiary users (decision-makers at care organization or health insurance) tested and commented on iToilet at an Austrian day-care centre and at a Hungarian rehabilitation hospital. Primary users were asked to use the iToilet as their main toilet (12 usage at least), while secondary and tertiary users got a live demo about the functions. Evaluation was made by filling of a questionnaire.

Results/findings: The height and tilt settings and the integrated bidet were found as the most useful functions. The user identification with custom settings and the comfort of the iToilet were highly appreciated. The highest recommended add-on function was the toilet cleaning. Speech control and the ergonomics of the toilet seat need further improvement. The biggest part of the primary users prefer to use bidet, the mechanical part of the toilet and the safety related ICT functions (fall detection, inference engine, emergency call) at home, but they consider, they would not use the speech recognition at home. The opinion of the secondary and tertiary group was quite similar to the primary users.

Discussion and conclusions: iToilet system in its complexity (by the high level of the opportunity of personalisation) can assist users first of all at home, but some of its parts could be advantageous in an institutional environment as well. The direction to the goal - developing a reliable, smart, assistive device - is good, but the prototype needs further improvement based on the users' assessment.


References

1.
Pilissy T, Toth A, Fazekas G, Sobjak A, Rosenthal R, Luftenegger T, Panek P, Mayer P. Towards a Situation-and-user-aware Multi-modal Motorized Toilet System to Assist Older Adults with Disabilities: a User Requirements Study. Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR); 2017 Jul 17-20 July; London, UK. p. 959-64. DOI: 10.1109/ICORR.2017.8009373 Externer Link