Cognitive Orthosis with Interactive Task and Planning

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Patients with acquired cognitive impairments such as those associated with traumatic brain injury or stroke experience difficulty maintaining daily schedules and performing the sequential steps required to complete the activities that comprise those schedules. In order to address the needs of these persons, we propose to develop a cognitive orthosis system, called Solo, to aid cognitively impaired clients and their caregivers in managing their daily tasks. Solo will allow a caregiver to organize a client's tasks into a daily schedule and will instruct the client in how to perform tasks in the schedule. Solo will offer a number of innovations compared to currently available cognitive orthotic technology. For the caregiver, Solo will provide a greater capability to specify the individual steps within an activity, and to perform management and monitoring of the client's performance. The client will experience a greater ability to interact with the device, providing information about his or her situation and receiving instructions that are pertinent to the client's context and problems which he or she may be experiencing. Solo will also provide automatic assistance in revising the client's schedule as situations change (e.g., appointments run over expected times or need to be rescheduled). This research builds on the investigative team's previous experience with the design and evaluation of cognitive orthosis technology, clinical experience with individuals who have cognitive impairments, and experience with interactive activity guidance systems for people with typical cognitive abilities in extraordinary conditions (i.e., astronauts). Evaluation of the Solo system will be conducted through focus groups and usability tests with clinicians, and clinical trials with individuals who have cognitive impairments.