« return to listing

Project Details


Keywords: [Alarms and Alerters] [Brain Injury] [Memory Aid]
Name: GUIDE - General User Interface for Disorders of Execution
Start Date: 18th Feb 08
End Date: 30th Sep 08
Total Project Fund: 49,096UK Pounds
Background: Many people with cognitive impairments such as those caused by brain trauma, dementia or learning disabilities, struggle to remember the steps involved in familiar tasks and have difficulty learning new tasks. They also have difficulties planning and correctly sequencing every day tasks and dealing with problems arising during a routine task. These are referred to as disorders of behavioural execution, or 'dysexecutive syndrome'. Such difficulties can be extremely disabling and necessitate a great deal of formal and informal support from family, friends and health / care professionals. They can make the difference between someone living an independent life or requiring long term residential or hospital care.
Description: GUIDE is a memory aid device which allows a user to be �talked through� the component steps of a given task by a human voice. The user interfaces with the deployment of directions by way of simple voice commands such as 'yes', 'no', 'back', 'what', 'done' etc. This natural interaction emulates what takes place if someone is being talked through the steps of a task by a teacher, family member, or other support person. It thus provides a scaffold for a complex task similar to that offered by a real carer. GUIDE is a combination of bespoke software and protocols developed by the researchers, used in conjunction with off the shelf technologies such as speech recognition software, a standard laptop, and headset. The software and protocols are tailored to a particular task or a particular user of the system and implemented under the supervision of the research team.
Objective: GUIDE is being used to teach patients rehabilitation exercises. The aim is to develop a protocol to help with the putting on of a prosthetic limb.
Progress: Dec 2008: Researchers have run 8 single case studies using an alternating condition design, showing statistically significant reductions in errors and omissions of sub-steps in 6 of the 8 cases.

Organisations Involved In This Project


Participants:

Organisation Name Type Tel Town Contact
Dept of Psychology - University of Stirling
 Academic
 01786 467640
 Stirling
 Dr Alex Gillespie

Funding for this project includes a contribution from:

Organisation Name Type Tel Town
Chief Scientist Office
 Grant Making Body
 0131 244 2248
 Edinburgh