REC-TEC

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Recreational Technologies and Exercise Physiology Benefiting Persons with Disabilities

Faculty from the University of Colorado have partnered with the University of Illinois at Chicago to develop and operate a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) focused on improving the health, wellness, and quality of life of people with disabilities by promoting and facilitating increased participation in physical activity and recreation. The RERC will promote the recreational opportunities available to people with disabilities through a series of research, development, and training projects. The two main engineering projects and one training project will be administered through the University of Colorado. They include the:

Virtual Electronic Environments to Facilitate Exercise Participation and Adherence project;
the Adaptive Exercise Machine Control for Persons with Disabilities project; and
the Graduate Innovation and Design Competition.

Professor John Bennett of the Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder will serve as director for all three projects. Co-Investigators include Professors Cathy Bodine (Assistive Technology Partners); Jane Mulligan, (Computer Science Department); Michael Lightner (Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE), College of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Colorado at Boulder); Thomas Hearty (Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver); James Avery, (ECE department, Boulder); and Melinda Picket-May (ECE department, Boulder).

Virtual Electronic Environments to Facilitate Exercise Participation and Adherence

Project Director: John Bennett
Co-Investigators: Cathy Bodine, Jane Mulligan, and Michael Lightner
Corporate Partner: Life Fitness Corporation

Project Overview:

Individuals who exercise regularly are healthier and tend to enjoy a better quality of life than those who are sedentary (Brandt & Pope, 1997). However, few fitness centers are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities and exercising at home can become boring for even the most dedicated exercise participant. Research has shown that individuals are more likely to engage in regular exercise if it is perceived as fun and if they have a partner with whom they regularly exercise (Johnson et al., 1996). For persons with disabilities, however, there are far fewer opportunities to exercise with a partner, and exercise may be perceived more as a chore than as a looked-forward-to part of the day's activities (Heath & Fentem, 1997; Ravesloot, et al., 1998; Rimmer et al., 1999).

To address this barrier, the "Virtual Electronic Environments (VEE) to Facilitate Exercise Participation and Adherence" project will use technology to bring engaging, entertaining, and motivating exercise opportunities to people with disabilities. The project will develop and evaluate the use of "virtual reality" technology to create virtual exercise environments. The aims of the project are to:

Make exercise more enjoyable and less repetitious;
Allow individuals who are not co-located to exercise together "virtually;"
Provide the means to easily set and track exercise participation and training goals; and
Provide opportunities for individuals to engage in "virtual" competition with others.

The project will be conducted over several years in 5 phases:

In Phase 1, baseline data will be obtained on both the exercise program and equipment. Measures will include ease of use, enjoyment, motivation, and perceived benefits of using the basic equipment without virtual electronic environments (VEEs).
During the second phase, the research team will begin to incorporate VEE elements into the exercise routine (i.e., a video monitor depicting a bike path will be displayed while riding the stationary bike). The machines will provide "force feedback" such as increased difficulty while pedaling uphill and decreased effort during descent.
The third phase of the project will introduce off-the-shelf virtual reality goggles to provide a more "real" environment. Work will also be conducted on "cybersickness" or "simulation sickness" that may occur in some participants.
Phase 4 will add head position sensors to the goggles so that as the user turns his/her head, the visual field will change accordingly. It is believed that this will increase the user's interest in and enjoyment of the exercise. Also during phase 4, the research team will begin to experiment with collaborative virtual exercise environments. Transportation is one of the most frequently reported barriers to community participation for people with disabilities. Providing a collaborative virtual exercise environment will address this barrier.
The fifth and final phase of the project will evaluate the results of the work through a combination of engineering evaluation and consultation with users. Both machine produced data (on distance, speed, etc.) and feedback from participants will be included in the evaluation.

Adaptive Exercise Machine Control for Persons with Disabilities

Project Director: John Bennett
Co-Investigators: Cathy Bodine, Michael Lightner, and Thomas Hearty
Partners: Life Fitness

Project Overview:

Often times it is the exercise equipment offered at a health or fitness club that makes a facility inaccessible. Since the needs of all persons, especially persons with disabilities, are potentially unique, it is important that exercise machines are able to "personalize" the exercise regime to adapt to the abilities of each user. Most of the machines offered at health clubs do not exhibit this capability.

The "Adaptive Exercise Machine Control for Persons with Disabilities" project will develop technologies that allow exercise machines to automatically identify and adapt to the needs and capabilities of persons with disabilities. Researchers will identify commercial exercise machines that can be modified to incorporate this adaptive exercise control capability. The ability of technologies such as "exercise smart cards" and personal digital assistants to store personal exercise configuration data will also be evaluated. These will allow machines to identify the individual, configure the device for his/her use, and collect and store personal exercise data.

The project will be conducted in two phases over a five year period. During the first phase, exercise machine configuration protocols will be developed. Information on ease-of-use and other qualitative aspects of the participant's experience will be collected. Once the initial configuration protocol has been developed, adaptation schemes will be developed for several machines. This draft protocol will then be distributed to manufacturers of exercise equipment for comment. In the second phase of the project, the technologies will be evaluated through randomized clinical trials.

Graduate Innovation and Design Competition

Project Director: John Bennett
Co-Investigators: James Avery, Cathy Bodine, Michael Lightner, and Melinda Picket-May
Partners: Life Fitness, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft

Overview:

The purpose of the "Graduate Innovation and Design Competition" is to bring together individuals with disabilities who could benefit from in-home exercise equipment with engineering students who have the knowledge and ability to design inexpensive custom exercise equipment. The specific aims of the project are to:

Increase awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities among engineering students;
Create an on-line library of design and construction information for inexpensive exercise equipment that can be accessed by persons with disabilities and their family, friends, and providers;
Serve as a technology transfer agent that puts designers of innovative exercise equipment for persons with disabilities into contact with potential manufacturers of that equipment.

Competition rules will be posted on the web in the summer of 2003. Submissions will be solicited from both independent students and student teams, as well as teams from formal design courses, e.g., Senior Capstone Design courses.