A laser projection-based tele-guidance system embedded on a mobility aid

This paper presents a tele-guidance system for elderly people so that they can walk outdoors without an escort and their caregivers can monitor them or guide them from remote site when they are in a need of help. The feature point of the proposed system is to adopt laser projection with consideration for use outdoor. Because the laser projection shows the arrow, which indicates a direction, all a user needs to do is to follow it intuitively. The goal of this study is to realise a tele-guidance system, which provides easy understanding for elderly users with mild dementia, with laser projection. The whole system including this proposed system aims to make preparations for a super-graying society by connecting elderly people and caregivers effectively via ubiquitous network. As a first step, a prototype system was developed and a user test was conducted with elderly participants. In the result, some technical problems and visibility problems on the projected arrow were found.