Abstract
A novel Near Field Communication (NFC) based solution to support
medication management of vision impaired older users is presented in this
paper. The service concept allows older users with vision impairments to
manage their daily medications autonomously by providing them means to
identify medicines and retrieve personal medication information. In order to
demonstrate the feasibility of the concept, an early prototype called BlindNFC
was implemented. It is a NFC-enabled PDA with a basic functionality of
reading the medicine name and dosage information aloud by touching the
medicine package. The service concept was tested and evaluated with user
studies in Finland and Spain, where altogether 39 older people with varying
level of problems with their sight and other functional abilities participated
in the studies. Findings revealed that older users learned and used the basic
functionality of touch- and audio-based system quite easily. A set of design
issues to be taken into account was identified. Users showed a high degree of
satisfaction in the use of the BlindNFC device, together with the solution it
offers. They found potential value in the technology also in tagging and
identifying other everyday physical objects than medicine packages and using
their own self-recorded audio messages for marking objects. However, users
were not currently willing to adopt the system for continuous use, as many of
them had established over time methods for managing the medications, and were
therefore observed reluctant to change these ways.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications, RFID-TA 2011 |
Place of Publication | Piscataway, NJ, USA |
Publisher | IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers |
Pages | 244-251 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-4577-0027-9 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4577-0028-6, 978-1-4577-0028-6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
MoE publication type | A4 Article in a conference publication |
Event | IEEE International Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications, RFID-TA 2011 - Sitges, Spain Duration: 15 Sept 2011 → 16 Sept 2011 |
Conference
Conference | IEEE International Conference on RFID-Technologies and Applications, RFID-TA 2011 |
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Abbreviated title | RFID-TA 2011 |
Country/Territory | Spain |
City | Sitges |
Period | 15/09/11 → 16/09/11 |
Keywords
- User study
- RFID
- NFC
- medication management
- older users
- vision impairment
- touch-based interaction
- audio interface
- usability test
- Finland
- Spain