Hi, my name is Bingqing Zhang and I'm
honored to present our work:
Understanding interactions for
smart wheelchair navigation in crowds.
This work is a part of Crowdbot
Project and is collaborated
with Dr. Giulia Barbareschi,
Roxana Ramirez Herrera, Dr.
Tom Carson and Doctor Catherine
Holloway. Shared control wheelchairs
can help users to navigate through
crowds by by enabling the person to
drive the wheelchair while receiving
support in avoiding pedestrians.
To date, research into shared
control has largely
overlooked the perspective of wheelchair users.
This paper answers an important
research question:
What do power wheelchair users need
to be able to use a shared control
wheelchair in a crowded environment
and how can we design new interactive
systems that ensure safe and
empowering navigation experiences?
To address this question,
we conducted 2 studies,
study one explores the requirement
for smart shared control,
wheelchair navigation, in crowds.
To achieve this, we conducted a series of
Semi structured interviews with
15 power wheelchair users.
Interestingly,
although most wheelchair users
identified crowds as one of the
scenarios where frequent collisons happened,
they thought that the problem was
largely associated with pedestrians,
lack of awareness and understanding
of power wheelchairs rather than the
control of the wheelchair itself.
In addition,
participants often find that
power wheelchairs did not provide
any helpful feedback about the
surrounding environment.
As a result,
we summarize the need for
communication as internal:
the one between the wheelchair and the
User and external:
The one between the wheelchair user
unit and the pedestrians. In general,
collision avoidance is appreciated,
but users expressed a need
for balancing safety,
autonomy and social aspect.
For example,
the level of autonomy should be based on
the scenario and the users capability.
This first led to some interesting
reflections amongst the participants
about negotiating shared control
from an ethical point of view.
Participants also raised concerns about
the system overriding the users command.
By examining users point of
view in study one,
we highlighted the need for smart
wheelchairs to have a clear and
effective internal and external
communication system. To further explore
this aspect and identify potential
solutions for successful user
wheelchair and pedestrian interaction,
we conducted a second design focus study.
It was conducted virtually by Teams
where six adult power wheelchair
users and two designers have joined.
Participants were asked to design
the communication system
for a smart wheelchair
which would allow our character
Ann to navigate in two typical but
inherently different crowded scenarios,
crossing a busy street and reaching a
help desk in a crowded hospital.
Results indicated that the type of
internal information needed includes
what the wheelchair has perceived,
what the wheelchair has decided,
and the alignment or deviation
between the user and the wheelchair.
Externally,
the smart wheelchair and the user
should communicate wheelchair related
information to the surrounding pedestrians.
In terms of interaction modality,
there is a clear preference towards
a combined audio and visual feedback
system to manage internal and external
communication in the street scenario,
while inclination towards visual and
haptic feedback modalities rather
than the auditory ones has been
observed in the hospital scenario.
For the location, participants expressed
a preference for interfaces connected
to internal communication system
to be positioned on the wheelchair
itself or to be embedded in a
wearable device like a wristband or a
watch that could be worn by the user.
As for the external one, no specific
location preference was discussed.
However, providing auditory or haptic
feedback directly to pedestrians could
be perceived as "weird" invasion of one's
personal space. During the design workshop,
Participants worked together with the
designers to create their desired
interactions for the two crowded scenarios.
These two figures are sample design
outputs from the crowded street scenario.
On the left hand side,
traffic color coded projection is
used to indicate the wheelchair
speed. On the right hand side,
Wheelchairs trajectory and its
deviation from the user's intention is
indicated through "parking trajectory
alike system" either being projected
or pop-up in an add-on screen.
Short and long
Audio signals are used for warnings.
For the crowded hospital scenario,
designs are slightly different.
Expected path and locations of obstacles
Are projected in the left one. A switch is
used to turn this function on and off.
The right one shows that when the
wheelchair is getting close to pedestrians,
the user receives warnings
through wearable haptic device.
Based on the result from our
studies and the reflections,
we elaborated a series of design
implications that we believe would
be crucial to the development
of future smart wheelchairs.
First of all,
we notice additional requirements related
to the need to include element of empathy,
embodiment and social acceptance in
smart wheelchair interaction design.
Participants stated that they
would consider a smart wheelchair
as an extension of their body,
akin to what has been previously reported
for different types of assistive technology.
As such,
the way in which the smart wheelchair
provides feedback to the user
needs to feel appropriate.
Matching one's expectation for embodiment,
which might be different across individuals.
Moreover,
when it comes to the external communication,
the way in which the wheelchair
enables interactions between the
user and surrounding pedestrians
should incorporate considerations
around social acceptability
and empathetic communication.
Situation,
awareness and adaptability are
possibly the two most important
key features for smart wheelchair
interaction systems that we have
identified across the two studies.
In order to be effective in
a variety of environments,
the control and interaction system
need to have a great
degree of flexibility.
Moreover,
smart wheelchairs also need to be able
to respond to shifting capability
and the changing preference of users
adapting not only their mode of
interaction but also the degree
Of assistance is provided to the individuals.
Previous studies have shown that
being bombarded with excessive
information in a short space of
time can lead to overload,
which negatively affect
the individual's performance.
Similarly,
in our study participants expressed
a preference towards having
only selected information to be
provided at appropriate time so as
not to overload the user as well
as the surrounding pedestrians.
So in the end we would like to wrap
up by highlighting our contributions
as: First we presented an understanding
of requirements and challenges
for smart wheelchair use in crowds.
Secondly, we present the conceptualization
of an interaction interface for
smart wheelchairs, which helps to
manage interactions between user,
wheelchair and pedestrians
across different crowd scenario.
Third, reflections on implications
of findings highlighting the need
to create empathetic communication
between wheelchairs and other
pedestrians, promote situational
awareness to ensure adaptability and
manage information overload during
navigation in crowded environments.
That's all for our presentation.
Thank you.