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Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities

Due to an increase in the number of disabled people around the world, inclusive solutions are becoming a priority. People with disabilities may encounter many problems and may not be able to easily participate in various activities due to physical barriers, which may sometimes cause them to be frust...

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Autores principales: ElGibreen, Hebah, Al Ali, Ghada, AlMegren, Rawan, AlEid, Reema, AlQahtani, Samar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9695660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36433341
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22228746
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author ElGibreen, Hebah
Al Ali, Ghada
AlMegren, Rawan
AlEid, Reema
AlQahtani, Samar
author_facet ElGibreen, Hebah
Al Ali, Ghada
AlMegren, Rawan
AlEid, Reema
AlQahtani, Samar
author_sort ElGibreen, Hebah
collection PubMed
description Due to an increase in the number of disabled people around the world, inclusive solutions are becoming a priority. People with disabilities may encounter many problems and may not be able to easily participate in various activities due to physical barriers, which may sometimes cause them to be frustrated and embarrassed. Recently, the emerging telepresence robot technology has been proposed to enable people with disabilities to increase their presence by incorporating information and communications technology (ICT) into robotics platforms. Therefore, in this paper we conduct a comprehensive analysis using comparative and elicitation studies to understand the current state of mobile telepresence robot systems and to identify the gaps that must be filled. This paper further contributes to the literature by proposing a novel telepresence robot system that adapts text-to-speech (TTS) and ICT technologies with robotics for its use as an assistant. To the authors’ knowledge, the proposed system is the first MRP system that supports speech impairment and introduces emotion components into its communication function. It includes an operator site (mobile) and a remote site (robot) to allow users to control the robot from a distance and communicate with others in remote locations. It allows the user to physically interact with people and show certain emotions through the robot in remote locations, or it can accompany them to speak on their behalf. It can provide agency for both remote and in-class users through emoji-based communication and audio–video streaming with recording functionality. As shown at the end of this paper, the system was tested with 30 people, some of whom had mobility or speech disabilities, showing that the user acceptance score was above 95% and that people with disabilities liked to interact with other people using the proposed system. The users appreciated having the ability to control the robot from a distance and praised the capability to show their emotions through the robot emoji motions and to control the audio–video streaming. From this study, we conclude that the proposed telepresence system could be an asset to people with speech and mobility disabilities and could help them feel physically present in various places.
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spelling pubmed-96956602022-11-26 Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities ElGibreen, Hebah Al Ali, Ghada AlMegren, Rawan AlEid, Reema AlQahtani, Samar Sensors (Basel) Article Due to an increase in the number of disabled people around the world, inclusive solutions are becoming a priority. People with disabilities may encounter many problems and may not be able to easily participate in various activities due to physical barriers, which may sometimes cause them to be frustrated and embarrassed. Recently, the emerging telepresence robot technology has been proposed to enable people with disabilities to increase their presence by incorporating information and communications technology (ICT) into robotics platforms. Therefore, in this paper we conduct a comprehensive analysis using comparative and elicitation studies to understand the current state of mobile telepresence robot systems and to identify the gaps that must be filled. This paper further contributes to the literature by proposing a novel telepresence robot system that adapts text-to-speech (TTS) and ICT technologies with robotics for its use as an assistant. To the authors’ knowledge, the proposed system is the first MRP system that supports speech impairment and introduces emotion components into its communication function. It includes an operator site (mobile) and a remote site (robot) to allow users to control the robot from a distance and communicate with others in remote locations. It allows the user to physically interact with people and show certain emotions through the robot in remote locations, or it can accompany them to speak on their behalf. It can provide agency for both remote and in-class users through emoji-based communication and audio–video streaming with recording functionality. As shown at the end of this paper, the system was tested with 30 people, some of whom had mobility or speech disabilities, showing that the user acceptance score was above 95% and that people with disabilities liked to interact with other people using the proposed system. The users appreciated having the ability to control the robot from a distance and praised the capability to show their emotions through the robot emoji motions and to control the audio–video streaming. From this study, we conclude that the proposed telepresence system could be an asset to people with speech and mobility disabilities and could help them feel physically present in various places. MDPI 2022-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9695660/ /pubmed/36433341 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22228746 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
ElGibreen, Hebah
Al Ali, Ghada
AlMegren, Rawan
AlEid, Reema
AlQahtani, Samar
Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title_full Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title_fullStr Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title_full_unstemmed Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title_short Telepresence Robot System for People with Speech or Mobility Disabilities
title_sort telepresence robot system for people with speech or mobility disabilities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9695660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36433341
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22228746
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