Authors:
Meng-Chieh Yu
;
Cheng-Chih Tsai
;
Shih-Ta Liu
;
Hao-Tien Chiang
;
Ying-Chieh Tseng
;
Wei-Ting Chen
;
Wan-Wei Teo
;
Mike Y. Chen
;
Ming-Sui Lee
and
Yi-Ping Hung
Affiliation:
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Keyword(s):
Smart Shoes, Walking Meditation, Visual Feedback, Slow Technology.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Signal Processing
;
Clinical Problems and Applications
;
Cognitive Informatics
;
Data Engineering
;
Data Management and Quality
;
Data Manipulation
;
Data Visualization
;
Development of Assistive Technology
;
Devices
;
Distributed and Mobile Software Systems
;
Health Engineering and Technology Applications
;
Health Information Systems
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Mobile Technologies
;
Mobile Technologies for Healthcare Applications
;
Neural Rehabilitation
;
Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics
;
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
;
Pervasive Health Systems and Services
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Practice Based Research Methods for Assistive Technology
;
Sensor Networks
;
Software Engineering
;
Wearable Sensors and Systems
Abstract:
i-m-Walk is a mobile application that uses pressure sensors in shoes to visualize phases of footsteps. Through a mobile device, it will raise the awareness for the user to improve his walking behaviour. As an example application in slow technology, we use i-m-Walk to help beginners to learn “walking meditation,” a type of meditation where users aim to be as slow as possible in taking pace, and to land every footstep with toes first. In our experiment, we asked 30 participants to learn walking meditation over a period of 5 days; the experimental group used i-m-Walk from day 2 to day 4, and the control group did not use it. The results showed that i-m-Walk could effectively assist beginners in slowing down the walking speed and while decreasing the incorrect rate of pacing during walking meditation. To conclude, this study may serve as a key in providing a mechanism to assist users to better understand his pacing and walking habits. In the future, i-m-Walk could be used in other applic
ations, such as walking rehabilitation.
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