Wearable Auditory Biofeedback Device for Blind and Sighted Individuals

Author

Matsubara, Masaki ; Oba, Takahiro ; Kadone, Hideki ; Terasawa, Hiroko ; Suzuki, Kenji ; Iguchi, Masaki

Author_Institution

Univ. of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

Volume

22

Issue

1

fYear

2015

fDate

Jan.-Mar. 2015

Firstpage

68

Lastpage

73

Abstract

This study discusses the feasibility of a reference-tracking task of ankle-joint exercise with interactive sonification for sighted and blind individuals in terms of both objective and subjective evaluations via our wearable auditory biofeedback device using the instrumented ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) called GaitEcho. Our experimental results suggest it offers similarly adequate functionality for both blind and sighted participants.

Keywords

feedback; gait analysis; handicapped aids; hearing; orthotics; AFO; GaitEcho; ankle-joint exercise; blind individuals; instrumented ankle-foot orthosis; interactive sonification; reference-tracking task; sighted individuals; wearable auditory biofeedback device; Auditory systems; Biofeedback; Biological control systems; Feedback; Legged locomotion; Multimedia communication; Patient rehabilitation; Sonification; Tracking; Visualization; Wearable computing; assistive technology; auditory biofeedback; interactive sonification; multimedia; playful rehabilitation; wearable footware device;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

MultiMedia, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-986X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MMUL.2015.20

Filename

7030220