NEADL: Novel Electronic Aid for Daily Living System for People Who Cannot Use Their Hands

This project researches and develops natural support mechanisms to improve the quality of life for people who cannot use their hands and must use voice command or switch interfaces to interact with their environment. This project demonstrates the technical merit, feasibility, and cost efficiency of combining commercially available electronic aids for daily living (EADL) technology with an innovative design and state-of-the-art, intelligent wireless sensors to produce NEADL—a “Novel” EADL system that (1) gives the individual exceptional flexibility and interaction with their environment through the integrated control and status of appliances and items; (2) detects the status of specific factors in the environment, and dynamically adjusts the delivery of prompts and reminders to properly instruct and/or inform the individual based on these factors; and (3) enables monitoring and automatically generates alarms and nurse calls. Interactions with environment through the integration of feedback of the status of specific elements with control of the same or different elements, greatly facilitates freedom and independence without compromising safety.