title: A novel mobile-cloud system for capturing and analyzing wheelchair maneuvering data: A pilot study.
abstract: The purpose of this pilot study was to provide a new approach for capturing and analyzing wheelchair maneuvering data, which are critical for evaluating wheelchair users' activity levels. We proposed a mobile-cloud (MC) system, which incorporated the emerging mobile and cloud computing technologies. The MC system employed smartphone sensors to collect wheelchair maneuvering data and transmit them to the cloud for storage and analysis. A k-nearest neighbor (KNN) machine-learning algorithm was developed to mitigate the impact of sensor noise and recognize wheelchair maneuvering patterns. We conducted 30 trials in an indoor setting, where each trial contained 10 bouts (i.e., periods of continuous wheelchair movement). We also verified our approach in a different building. Different from existing approaches that require sensors to be attached to wheelchairs' wheels, we placed the smartphone into a smartphone holder attached to the wheelchair. Experimental results illustrate that our approach correctly identified all 300 bouts. Compared to existing approaches, our approach was easier to use while achieving similar accuracy in analyzing the accumulated movement time and maximum period of continuous movement (p > 0.8). Overall, the MC system provided a feasible way to ease the data collection process and generated accurate analysis results for evaluating activity levels.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Computer Science , University of Central Oklahoma , Edmond , Oklahoma , USA.
authors.forename: Jicheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: b Department of Rehabilitation Sciences , University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center , Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , USA.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: a Department of Computer Science , University of Central Oklahoma , Edmond , Oklahoma , USA.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: c Department of Computer Science , Northern Kentucky University , Highland Heights , Kentucky , USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: d School of Finance , Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Yuqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: a Department of Computer Science , University of Central Oklahoma , Edmond , Oklahoma , USA.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: e Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, Computational Science and Engineering , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Champaign , Illinois , USA.
authors.forename: Yih-Kuen
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Jan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000067917:Cloud Computing; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D000069550:Machine Learning; D063731:Mobile Applications; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D000068997:Smartphone; D014910:Wheelchairs
keywords: Android; Google App Engine; activity level; cloud computing; mobile computing; wheelchair maneuver