BACKGROUND

Self-tracking technologies, like Fitbit wearables, smartwatches and mobile phone apps, allow people to monitor physical activity, health conditions and sports performance. In the health sector, self-tracking has shown benefits for encouraging healthy lifestyles, evaluating (physical) therapy, diagnosing health problems and self-management of long-term medical conditions. In sports, tracking technologies are routinely used to support training of athletes, by evaluating training load, and developing individual training routines. However, despite the fact that wheel chair users need to use their physical capacity more consciously, no wheelchair self-tracking products are currently available.

PROJECT AIM

The aim of this project is to prototype a smart, connected wheelchair that enables users to gain insights about their physical activities and improve physical fitness. Specifically, the objectives are:

1. Enable continuous sensor data collection related to wheelchair use, movement and body posture
2. Enable continuous, real-time data analysis in a secure cloud environment
3. Realise a usable wheelchair user interface that displays meaningful live data insights