Chang-Franw Lee

A controlled pilot trial of two commercial video games for rehabilitation of arm function after stroke

Objectives: To investigate the acceptability and potential efficacy of two commercial video games for improving upper extremity function after stroke in order to inform future sample size and study design. Design: A controlled clinical trial design using sequential allocation into groups. Setting: A clinical occupational therapy department. Subjects: Twenty-four first-stroke patients. Interventions: Patients were assigned to one of three groups: conventional group, Wii group, and XaviX group. In addition to regular one-hour conventional rehabilitation, each group received an additional half-hour of upper extremity exercises via conventional devices, Wii games, or XaviX games, for eight weeks. Main measures: The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of motor function, Box and Block Test of Manual Dexterity, Functional Independence Measure, and upper extremity range of motion were used at baseline and postintervention. Also, a questionnaire was used to assess motivation and enjoyment. Results: The effect size of differences in change scores between the Wii and conventional groups ranged from 0.71 (SD 0.59) to 0.28 (SD 0.58), on the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of motor function (d = 0.74) was larger than that between the XaviX and conventional groups, ranged from 0.44 (SD 0.49) to 0.28 (SD 0.58) (d = 0.30). Patient enjoyment was significantly greater in the video game groups (Wii mean 4.25, SD 0.89; XaviX mean 4.38, SD 0.52) than in the conventional group (mean 2.25, SD 0.89, F = 18.55, p < 0.001), but motivation was not significantly different across groups. Conclusion: Patients were positive to using video games in rehabilitation. A sample size of 72 patients (24 per group) would be appropriate for a full study.

Difficulties on small-touch-screens for various ages

Digital products with small-touch-screens are increasingly affecting daily life, and most especially that of the elderly population in Taiwan which, at present, is over 9.9%. As people age, they find it increasingly difficult to operate digital products with small-touch-screens. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and categorize these difficulties for three groups of adult users. The fifteen participants in the investigation were classified into three groups: young adults, middle-aged adults and elderly adults. All of the adults were requested to accomplish different tasks using three digital products with small-touch-screens and then to provide their opinions on the kinds of difficulties they had encountered. The experts classifying the results found that the elderly adults were the group confronted with the most difficulties in the operation of small-touch-screen digital devices. In the digital dictionary experiment, the greatest difficulty for the three groups centered on cognitive ability; the majority of problems were related to motion in the PDA. In fact, the most notable problems for each of the participants were related primarily to motion in the PDA and to cognition. The results also indicated the common operational problems with the three digital products with small-touch-screens, including the impact of space or position of handwriting and button size on motion ability; and the impact of the size and color of the fonts or icons and screen brightness on perception ability. Lastly, regarding the difficulties with cognition, most of the participants were confronted with complex information, inconsistent with the interfaces of the digital products. Results of this study were based on the opinions from the three adult groups and, could be used in future designs for small-touch-screen interfaces.

The effects of font size and page presentation method of e-book reading on small screens for older adults

It is predictable that the E-book market would attract more and more older customers, and has the potential benefits for older adults to interact with technology and enjoy the reading pleasure. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effects with font sizes and page presentation methods for the E-Book reading performance. 24 older adults, ages 62 to 70, participated in the study. Reading speed and accuracy were measured and subjective satisfaction assessment of older adults recorded. The results indicate that reading with flip page method of E-book caused significantly higher reading speed than reading with scrollbar page method. Subjective results showed that older adults preferred 14 font size and more positive comments showed a preference with flip page presentation method.

Developing a Digital Game for Domestic Stroke Patients' Upper Extremity Rehabilitation - Design and Usability Assessment

Digital games have been proven effective in upper extremity rehabilitation for stroke patients in addition to arousing higher motivation and feelings of pleasure. A well designed upper extremity rehabilitation digital game should intentionally meet the purpose of rehabilitation. Therefore, it is desirable to dmestically develop digital upper extremity rehabilitation games for the local hospitals as well as individual users. We are proposing this research to develop such digital games for rehabilitation and their feasibility assessment. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the usability and feasibility associated with using this game. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) the set of upper extremity rehabilitation game was named as upper extremity rehabilitation gardening game (UERG game). It is special designed for domestic stroke patients. (2) This UERG game uses Kinect’s skeletal tracking features and motion sensor to interaction with patients. (3) design features are as following: game contents include three difficult levels according to different upper limb motor function recovery stages; to record user’s motor performance; to provide feedback information (for example: to record the completed the task time and to detect whether the user has compensatory action, etc.). (4) A total of 10 patients to assess this set of games. The results showed that 90 % of patients reported that using UERG game in treatment increased their treatment motivation.; 70 % of them reported that this games is very interactive; 80 % patients considered this game is conducive to recovery their upper extremity functions; 80 % patients considered the feedback information provided help them to understand their performance in each session after training; 60 % patients indicated the game interfaces were easy to operate and learning; 90 % of patients reported that this game is enjoyment and satisfied with this game for rehabilitation. They are willing to continue to use.

A constructive factor analysis of innovation competency ∼ taking Taiwan students enrolled in design programs as an example

This study was conducted to identify the relationship among some intrapersonal factors such as professional competency, interdisplinary ability, social skills capability, and team cohesion. The validated questionnaire was delivered to 296 students in the design programs of universities as research samples. Consequently, the SPSS 18.0 and AMOS statistic software were used to analyze the collected data undertaking t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in order to answer the research questions. These conclusions inspired several suggestions for the practitioners, organization administrators, and, whats more important, for school educators in the relevant fields. Consequently, two suggestions were finally provided for the future research in order to pursue better research qualities and further understand the improvement strategies in the design education.

The predictive model of imagination stimulation from web environment

The ACG website for creative artifact work sharing supports artists at every level by offering a range of services to connect, inform, educate and promote digital artists worldwide together. A total of 347 digital multimedia design students majors related with ACG works from universities of north Taiwan served as research subjects. The findings of this study provided empirical evidence to support the indicators of imaginatin, and engagement influenced by user perceived web interactivity effects. The hypothesis of the study that the variables of engagement mediat the effects of web perceived interactivity and imagination—was supported. The structural model also showed that user perceived three web interactivity traits have direct effects on imagination, while have partially effects on engagement.

A Preliminary Exploration of Technology Necessities Among Elderly Living Alone

There were three in five of the elderly living alone in Taiwan considered continue living alone would be an ideal way of living in the future. Products and services not only support elderly living alone have the ability to live independently, but also to influence social network to the elderly living alone. Due to the lack of product and service targeting especially for elderly living alone that related to care and assist them to live independently, this research was designed as a preliminary exploration of technology necessities to provide insight into the issue. The findings suggest that (1) Life of living alone need to be simple for the elderly. (2) Sharing behavior might be the most opportunities to care . No matter how form of the product or service was, only in association with the encourage from stakeholders that elderly living alone would have more courage to try new things or to accept assistance.

The study in the design of pregnant women's underwear

Along with the change of time, women in maternity still remain in workforce in order to sustain the household income. As the alteration takes place during the pregnancy, the psychological effect comes along, especially, when a pregnant woman is required to be multitasked, the pressure is obvious. Once the inappropriate underwear is worn, a tremendous impact will arise both in physiology and psychology, it is vital to select a personal apparel which meets the physiological needs of pregnant lady. In the market today, it is rare to find any underwear which is designed to meet the physiological needs of pregnant women, and few studies have conducted related to this issue, hence, this study aims to understand the experience, physiological trait and expectation of pregnant women through the Qualitative research, and use the result from the interview and the Grounded Theory to assort and probe the needs of pregnant women so as to provide a reference for the design of any related clothing.

Improvement Design of the Clinical Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Product for Stroke Patients

The purpose of this study was to survey the usage problems and needs of the traditional UERE and commercial digital videogames applied in rehabilitation, and summarize a guideline for improvement design of the digital UERP. According to the guideline, this study was to design a Hand-rehab product design with treatment needs, and evaluate its acceptability with a questionnaire. The hardware design features includes: (1) the shapes and sizes of the operation objects can be chosen by the users to fit their own hand dimensions, (2) weight of the object can also be adjusted accordingly. The software design features are: (3) it displays visual and verbal cues, game scores, and operation times to the patients in each stage, notifying whether or not their action succeeded, (4) it allows adjustments of the reaction time to movements and the scope of sensing area of the objects. (5) The scope size of sensing area of the object can be adjusted. A total of 52 post-stroke patients were invited to assess the acceptability of Hand-rehab product. For the acceptability, most patients, after a trial with this product, reported had a positive and high satisfaction (mean 6.7, SD 0.6) with Hand-rehab product for rehabilitation.

HCI Design of Technological Products for Eco-tourism

With the travel industry entering the experience economy era, improving tourism experience has become more important than ever. Technology is a good tool to improve traveling in ways such as weather predicting or tour guiding. However, the environment of eco-tourism is different from the general using environment of traditional tourism. Therefore, in order to apply technological products to eco-tourism, this paper proposes some HCI design suggestion from the perspective of UX like usability, information architecture and interaction design. We define two main design target groups as ‘Normal tourists’ and ‘Narrators’. Expert system can be applied to the illustrating system for normal tourists while narrators need only a clear view of the system to make sure they find out the information of species they already know to give information to tourists.