2017 Illinois-NTU Global Issues Forum: Keynote Address by Wendy Rogers
All. Right good afternoon. How. Was lunch. What. Time is it right now in Taipei well no don't answer that don't answer that, don't, think about that. Don't. Think about it please. Yeah. You're looking at really good for 2:00 a.m.. Hey. Let's. All give a shout-out to. President. Emeritus Robert. Easter, who's here, with us. Bob, is probably, our most internationally. Traveled, the president, from the University of Illinois he's he has. He. Has great, connections. In. Asia and. It's. I think, I ran into you in Taipei two. Or three times while you were president. So. You great. Great connections, to end to you so it's wonderful to see here. This. Afternoon, we're, gonna work so, hard. We're. Gonna have this lovely lecture, by, wendy rogers and, then after, that we're gonna go to back to our breakout sessions when. When, that's all we're gonna meet right back here and. One. Person, from each of. The breakout sessions, is going to be responsible for giving a short report. So. For instance in the session i'm in, dunya. And young will give the report. Thank. You thank, you for volunteering. So. Good of you would anyone else like to volunteer. Mark. You'll find someone in your I mean you'll elicit. A volunteer, in your section, and others, will do the same thing okay. I'm. Not going to introduce our speaker, Elizabeth. Liz Stein, morale liz, is my. Co-conspirator. In this effort. She's, been on the steering committee she's, a professor of educational, psychology, she. Is an. Expert. In healthy, aging in indeed she's has been the associate, editor of. The. Psychology, of Aging since 2011. That's. A plug for the journal. Yes. It's, a great pleasure to introduce wendy, rogers i think, of wendy as my little sister because. We came out of the same graduate program she's, just a little younger than i but. But it's just been a really great pleasure, to watch wendy grow up in the field you, know i watched her as a wunderkind. Doing. Really wonderful. Experimental. Work and and really influencing, the field and i've watched her to grow, up to become a force of nature in the, field and. So now she is. An. Endowed chair so, she's the khan professor, of applied Health Sciences. And. And apply in Applied Health Sciences and, in the Department of kinesiology and, community health she's, the program director, of chart which stands for collaborations. In health aging research and technology. And the, director of the human factors in aging laboratory, she. Is a fellow, of the American Psychological Association, the gerontology chol Society of America, and the human factors and ergonomics Society.
She. Has been the editor of, Journal. Of Experimental, Psychology applied, and now she has transitioned, into being, my chief adviser as. The, chief editorial, advisor for it for APA, so, I've, heard, Wendy give talks and you're in for a great treat so. Please help me welcome Wendy Rogers. Thank. You. Thank. You everybody I'm really delighted to be here, and to have been asked to speak to this group today I have. Had the opportunity to visit your beautiful, country I went, to Taipei. For, the Geron technology. Conference, that was held there in 2014. And. I had had a graduate, student visit. Me from. Taiwan. And he's now in the faculty, at fo Guang University. And he, invited me there to speak so there I am with his. Students, in the industrial, design program and I, can echo what we heard this morning I ate very, well when I was there. My. Research, goal I, classified. Just in a one sentence, is to provide support for successful. Aging and, this, slide really, demonstrates. Why. This is, so critically, important, so the blue line is children. Under the age of 5 and what you see is that that's relatively, flat out through, the year 2050. The, green line is people over the age of 65. And you see, that growing, in a remarkable. Way and by, the year 2050, that's going to be 1.5. Billion, people, which is obviously, a huge number and, this, population. Aging, is going to have wide-ranging. Effects on our healthcare system, our social, systems, and our economic, systems. This. Graphic is showing, a similar, pattern but, for different, countries, the. Red line here at the top is Japan, I want, to highlight Taiwan. Because, what you see is, this is the Green Line and that is showing, the fastest. Increase. In the, number of older, adults right. Now it's roughly, 4.7. Million and, it's. Going to nearly, double by, eight to eight point eight million dollars by the year five million dollars, that's wedding. Ah that's, a that's a funny slip because it does translate, to economic, challenges, eight point eight million people by, the year 2050. What's. Also a, positive though, is that the life expectancy in. Taiwan, is continuing, to grow so, the orange. Lines we still live longer than the men the orange are the women. And the, blue are the men but it's a positive, trend so and, people are continuing, to live longer, in Taiwan, and screamy and elsewhere. In the developed world. So. When I think about supporting, successful, aging I think of different categories of things. Functioning. Effectively and independently. Maintaining. Personal autonomy. Retaining. And enhancing, abilities, managing. Health both, chronic, conditions, and wellness, and, importantly, remaining. Socially, engaged and, participating. In one's community. So. The theme of this, conference is, about aging, in urban environments. And so one aspect, that's very relevant to our discussion is this idea of Aging, in Place and this is the definition that I borrowed, from the CDC, an idea.
Is That we need the ability to live in one's own home and, community. Safely. Independently. And comfortably. Regardless. Of age income or, ability, level and it's, important for us to remember that people live in a lot of different places so, here are just a couple of pictures of homes, in the u.s. they, vary widely I also found some pictures of homes in Taiwan, and they, also vary, widely, I love this one here this looks really cool. So. We need to think about where are people living the environment, that they're living in and even, people who are living quote, independently. May. Receive, assistance so, these, data are from the US a number, of people who receive, home care what, they're getting help with, and it's, what we call activities. Of daily living so, think, fundamental. Things bathing, dressing toileting. Walking. Transferring. In and out of the better the chair and then eating so these are basic, fundamental. Kinds of activities, that people who are still living alone in the community, are getting, some assistance, from maybe, it's informal, assistance, from their family members these data are people who are getting formal, assistance, from, home health care providers, we. Also, have to recognize that many people over the age of 65, are going, to be dealing with chronic health conditions, again, these data are from the US but they're fairly, generalizable. And most, common, are heart disease hypertension, arthritis. Diabetes. And. Any form of cancer so older adults may be dealing, with these health conditions. So. One thing we might think about is how might we use technology. For. Aging in place so I like this definition, this is from a British. Colleague of mine Sebastian, Peake and he, talks. About different. Parts of what technology for, Aging in Place might, do and I want to highlight a couple one. Is, alleviating. Or preventing. Functional. Or cognitive, impairment, so alleviating. It for those people who are already are experiencing. Some changes, but then also thinking, about how could we prevent it so that it doesn't occur or doesn't get worse. Another. Aspect. Of where technology might, play a role is, limiting, the impact, of chronic diseases, and, third. Which i think is really important, that we sometimes forget about is the, importance of enabling. Both social, and physical activity. We're learning more and more these days the importance of social, connectivity. Social. Engagement, and how relevant. That is to, mental, health but also physical.
Health And long-term. Outcomes. So. I try, to take a very broad view of. Successful. Aging and, I, think about, activities. Of daily living which we've already discussed bathing. Eating drinking, and mobility I like. To my parents are no longer with me but they're in all of my presentations so that's my dad and that's my mom say hello. Another. Category, is what we call instrumental. Activities of, daily living, so, preparing, meals paying. Bills, managing. Medications, and maintaining, the home environment so these are very important, components of, being able to live, independently. Or to age in place whether. You're doing it yourself or getting some support from somebody these are things that have to be done. But. We also talk about another, category, which we call enhanced. Activities. Of daily living and this is more what I think of as the quality of life types of things so social. Communication. Hobbies, new, learning, continuing. To work or volunteer and being, engaged in the community, so when we think about what kinds of technologies, we're developing, to support successful, aging we should be thinking about all of these different categories of activities. So. I direct, as was mentioned the human factors in aging laboratory, and human. Factors is, the study, of the characteristics. Of people and, their. Interactions. With products, or environments. Or with equipment, it's. Thinking, about their, needs and capabilities when. We're designing systems or, devices or when we're designing training, programs or instructional, materials, or entire. Environments. Thinking, about that interaction, between the person and what, it is we're trying to develop so, the shorthand term for human factors is designing. For human use and, I'm. Not sure what is the more common term in Taiwan, but the. Term organ ahhm --ax is also, used to refer to human factors in the United States human factors is a more common and in, Europe for sure ergonomics. I'm not sure about Asia maybe a few people nodding okay so when you see human factors think economics. My. Lab is focused on human factors in aging, and so here, we, want to understand, the, abilities, the limitations.
The Needs and the preferences of older adults and use. That information to. Design and, I think this is important, we don't just design for older it as older, adults we design with, them so, they're very involved, in the design process and, the, goal is both. Usable, and useful, products. And systems making. Sure that we provide appropriate training, and instruction, and then, we've, designed it we can teach people how to use it how do we get it out there right I think we don't always go to that level thinking, about deployment, and introduction. Into. People's lives so that they're able to integrate, it into the way they want to do things. My. Lab is funded, by the, US government and, it's. Part of two different centers so, one Center is called create, this. Group has been together since, 1999. So it's psychologists. And industrial, engineers working together and, it's, focused, on research and education. On Aging, and technology, enhancement. Most, of our focus is on what we call normative, aging what we can expect to happen to all of us as we get older in designing, technologies. To support those, individuals. The. Other Center is a relatively, new initiative, that started in 2013. And this. Is technologies. To support successful. Aging with disability. And here, are the focuses, on people we have three categories people, who are blind people, who are deaf or people who are mobility, impaired, for, most of their lives and then they're now getting, older, and how might we design technologies. To support them it's a very underserved. Segment. Of the population. So. I know one of the things we want to talk about today is collaboration, so note. We're always looking for collaborators in. These two different centers. What. I want to do is just briefly go over, a couple of different research projects, that we're currently working on. First. Is the category, called extra, games which. You can think of as a game that supports physical. Activity. So. They're video games that might, promote physical activity and, as a result, may have physical cognitive, or, emotional benefits. So, in this first study we looked at extra. Game programs that were developed for the Microsoft, Xbox. 360. With Kinect one. Of which was a Taichi we heard a little bit about Taichi earlier Taichi, game and we brought older, adults in so. Here's one of our participants, and she's, trying. She's playing the game and we, videotaped. Their interactions. One, was a camera, behind them so we could see what was on the screen so this is what they're supposed to be doing this is what the fellow is doing and then, one was looking at them to see what their reactions, were. We. Found that the older adults that participated, in our study loved, it right they thought that these were great, I could. See doing this for physical activity, this is a great way to keep active, I can do it at home really. Very positive about, the potential, usefulness of, these. Technologies. But. They. All had a lot of difficulty. Starting. And playing the, game so we had everything set up for that but just getting it going and knowing, what to do and that particular, difficulty, with the gestures, and understanding, what they were supposed, to be doing so. My team was, an interdisciplinary team, so we had human factors aging, and an, industrial. Design PhD, student and she, said well, I can, develop something to help them so, she developed, a, Quick, Start Guide. That. Provides, troubleshooting. Tips and steps, for getting started but, then most importantly, which she wanted to focus on in her study was how do you teach them how to do the gestures, so. This study is in process, right now but what she's designed, to compare, is three, different ways of teaching people about gestures.
One. Is what she called self identification. And this is her name is Kristina Harrington, the person who did this work and she, developed photo. Images, of other older adults so if I see other older adults doing it maybe it would be easier for me to understand, what I'm supposed to do, second. Was she's. Labeling, this when a simplicity, version. Where you just have an outline, of an avatar, showing. You what you're supposed to do and then she's comparing, this to. Things. That are often in, instructional. Materials, which are more animated, hand images, these may be familiar because you see them but that doesn't mean they're necessarily good, at teaching people what they're supposed to be doing, the. Other challenge, if you're developing a user guide. Well. These people are up there doing stuff right they can't be holding it in their hand so she designed, a tabletop. Version. Big. Print, so it's over here, and they can be looking at it so, this study is as I said in process, but I think it's important, to remember whenever we're talking about technologies. They, love the idea but, the implementation. Wasn't. Working well and so we may need to mediate that by. Providing some kind of instructional, support. The. Next project I want to tell you about is called the meds REM system. Which stands for medication. Education. Decision. Support, reminding. And monitoring, and we're. Focusing, in this initial, round on hypertension, medicine, and. We're. Designing it to be a coach and, so, it provides a personal, reminder, scheduled, medication. Specific. Education. So if you go online and say hypertension, medication, you get a whole bunch of them I don't need to know about all of them I need to know about mine so it's very specific, kind of education and, then it provides decision. Support, in real time so, maybe because, I'm at this meeting today I forgot to take my medicine at 10:30, it's now you, know 1:15 what should I do and it gives you guidance about what you should do. So. This too is an interdisciplinary team, we, have a nurse a pharmacist. Human, factors and aging researchers, as well as people who are designing, the app itself. So. We're currently developing. It, so we have a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research and. We just had a meeting yesterday where we're talking about how to then move this forward to do a larger, randomized. Clinical trial, to look at the benefits of this kind of a system. Another. Project is televideo, technology. And this is focusing, on older adults who have mobility, impairments, and we're looking at, basically. Off-the-shelf. Technology. So technologies, that are available today, Skype.
This, Is something called the Kuby robot, it's a tabletop robot, that can turn around and look at different perspectives. And then a mobile, robot. That can actually move about in space. We're. Interested, in using, these technologies for supportive, social connectedness, as well, as physical, activity and this, set. Of studies has. Different, phases first, is understanding. What are people's attitudes, towards these kinds of technologies these, particular, people older, adults who have mobility impairments. And what, are some of the usability challenges. Much like we found with the extra game study and anybody, that's ever had a bad Skype experience, can relate to this right it's supposed to be easy to use but it isn't, always and. Then, ultimately. We want to use the one of these technologies. To support group, exercise, at home so, having a physical therapist, there having, multiple people doing a class basically, all at the same time physical. Activity and social support. Again. Interdisciplinary. Team you see my theme here, we, have human factors in aging but also people, who know exercise, psychology, and physical. Therapy. We've. Completed, phase one we're, finishing Phase two and we're planning phase three to look at the potential for this technology. Another. Category is what, are referred to as digital home, assistant, technologies. Things like the Amazon, echo or the Amazon dot and, these. Technologies, are not specifically. Designed for older adults and, they, don't really address their user needs, very, well and so here again we're taking a similar phased, approach where, we're, first doing an interview study with, people who currently, use the echo what are they using it for what, do they like what don't they like what are some of the challenges they're experiencing. We're. Then going to be doing the usability assessment. With novice older adults who haven't, used it at all can, they get it to do simple, things turn. On the light turn on the TV or, more complicated things and then, ultimately we, want to use this technology, it's it's a tools where anta said earlier it's a tool to use. Technology. For something, well in this case it's to support social. Interaction, and physical, activity, is what we're moving towards, and, our. Team here is exercise psychology, also electrical, engineering, and our, human factors in aging group. And. We're. In phases. One and two we're basically, doing those simultaneously, and then planning a grant to be able to do phase three so all of these part, of why I'm telling you about what we're planning is those, are opportunities for. Collaboration. The. Last in this a big category is, design. Of robots so I do I have a program of research on human, robot, interaction. I don't design the robot but I look at how, can robots, be used by older adults and if we're thinking about that we need to think about a series, of questions well. What does the robot need to do what will door delts want robots to do may. Need to communicate with the humans in some way maybe. It's important that it show emotions, maybe, it needs to perform specific, tasks. I showed you some of the tasks, older adults have difficulty, with maybe, they want the robot to perform those tasks. They, have to be able to trust it if it's going to be doing things for them that are important, if. Parents, turns out to be super important, and what's interesting is what people want their robot to look like depends, on what the robot is doing if, it's doing chores I want to look one way if it's playing a game with me I want it to look a different way.
It. Could provide social, support and so we've, been focusing, right now on three different categories of robots first, is what we call a personal, service, robot, this, is a robot's, name is Gatsby, and, this. Is with my colleagues at Georgia Tech so this is the Georgia Tech service. Bot with, interactive. Intelligence. So. It can do a lot of different things and these are the graduate students and two of our older adult participants, one project is we're working with a fellow who has, quadriplegia. And he's. Been working with us to, teach. The, robot to help him with things that his wife to have to help with like shaving. Another. Category is social. Robots so this is me, with our friend Paro Paro is a robot, seal which, is adorable and, people. It, reduces. Feelings, of stress for. Some people, and so, we're looking, at the potential. Benefits, of this, kind of a relatively, simple robot, that, can reduce feelings, of stress maybe. Social isolation if, you can't have a pet could this substitute. For, some of the things that we get from having a pad. Third. Category is the one that I, resent. Robots we're looking at the potential of these in, a variety of situations so, here. That somebody else is visiting, the older person with their telepresence. Robot in this, example this is Henry here, and, he takes his robot out for a walk he. Goes to, museums. He, just goes outside because he's stuck at home so, he takes the robot so the robot can go visit the older adults or the, older adults can use a robot to go out into the world. So. All of this is, research. In progress again, open, to collaborations. So. I briefly, have just a few minutes left I want to talk about the importance, of translation. In a couple of different ways so I talked. About some of this work a few years ago when I was in China and so, my one slide that I just showed you was they, translated, my entire presentation into. Chinese which, I thought was great and so you. Know the value of, being, able to share our findings. So I was presenting, in English and, the slides in English and then they had all of the slides in Chinese as well and one of the pictures it's not shown here but one of the pictures was one of my graduate students, facetiming. With his grandparents, and, on that slide was Shawn and his grandparents, in the Chinese translation well, as grandparents were just thrilled that they had been on the screen in China you know that this was an exciting opportunity for them. So. Related. To translation, one of the things we also do, is thinking, about how do we translate, our findings, into. Practice so, I'm the editor of a book series, and, the idea, is to, take everything, we are learning in, the, more academic, environments. Translate. That into. News. You can use so to speak for, designer, so, it's bulleted, lists, its guidelines its, what to do very. General, this one was published in 2009, we're, currently working on the next edition, specific. To displays, telehealth. Training, and then this is the most recent one is introducing, technologies, into. Continuing, care retirement communities. Our. First book was actually translated, into Japanese. So. If anybody has some free time and they would like to translate it, into Chinese, that would be lovely I. Want. To mention briefly. Part. Of the reason I moved I just moved to the University of Illinois in January, to, start, this new, program, that, we're calling chart, which, is collaborations. In health aging. Research and technology, and it's, at the intersection, of the things that I've been talking about healthcare aging. Human factors and technology, and our mission statement. Really, aligns, with what I've been presenting to support, successful. Aging, through, research through, technology. Development, also through educators. Education. Rather of researchers, and developers and healthcare, professionals.
Influencing. Policy, and, then, translating. All of these efforts to, positively. Affect the lives of older adults. Those. Of you who are on campus I just want to highlight we're going to be hosting an event here. At. The University, of Illinois on November, 6th, there'll be more information forthcoming, but, it'll be a symposium, on chart1. Of, the things that we're doing is we're partnering with a local. Continuing. Care retirement community. Called clark lindsey village and we have what's called the chart apartment, so, we're able to do research right. There, in the facility. Enabling. Older adults to interact with some of these technologies in, an actual home environment. What. We're planning is, to, build a larger. Home, environment, here at the university that we're calling the life home so, living, in interactive. Future, environments. And, this, is going to be a multi-function. Space that will provide. A simulated. Home, environment, for research it, will have classroom, and learning event space it'll, enable, community, involvement, industry. Partnerships, and collaboration. With healthcare professionals, so we're very excited about, this. New initiative, the, current status is we're just finalizing. The location, it will be on campus, we. Are getting, input from people, who might use the home so different stakeholders, and we're, iterating through the design so, these, are just some of our initial floor plans to think about how to lay this space out have the home part classroom. Part interaction. Part so just some initial, drawings. Of our space. So. I'd like to end my remarks by, just. Talking, about a report. That, was put out by the. White House Conference, on Aging so. There they, talked in the report about, technology. For successful, aging and this. Was their take-home message. Technology. Has transformed what, it means to age in America, web-based. Technologies. Robotics. And mobile, devices help, older adults access, the services, they need stay. Connected to family and friends and remain, independent. When. I read that first. I was excited that they talked about technology in, this report but then I thought we're. Not there, yet they're, stating this as if it's a fact as if all these technologies, that are out there are, helping, older adults to do all of these things they. Don't do, that yet we, still, we still have. A lot to do so, this remains a challenge this, may be the goal where. We want to get to but, we have to make sure that the technology is designed to support their, needs, useful. And usable. Efficacious. In the long term does it really help them in some way it. Needs to be integrated into, the family and into healthcare, and into, people's lives that's, our goal, but we're not there yet. So. Shhh. Any. Questions. Comments. That's. A great question, so. We. Should, be finalizing, the location. Very soon within, the next couple of weeks and then, the, drawings, that I showed you were actually started. For us by a master, student in architecture, so she helped, us generate, some ideas then, we'll be hiring. Professional. Architects, to help us with the with the layout so I really, don't know I would say 12 to 18 months would be a reasonable, estimation. And I. Really want to at some point have that specific date so we can start using that one of writing grants and say we're going to have this facility to do research in oh. Absolutely. So we are hosting, we've hosted events. On. Campus to. Get input from various stakeholders. On campus but I'd be happy to talk, about this this afternoon if we have time to, get input from other people one, of the things that I'm planning to do is to have a visiting, scholars program, so once this gets set up people, can come spend, time and, use that facility for, research. So. That's a good question is how to use technology, also, to connect, families and, friends, so we do have a couple of different systems that we're, looking at that focus on social connectivity, and social engagement I mean that's really important, one. Relatively. Simple one is to make better use of Skype, which is available teach. People how to use it and they can share, you, know in in a meal so you can be on skype, and be having dinner, with your children, and and your grandchildren so what, I try to think about in my research is how to use current technologies. Better. At. The same time as we're designing the future technologies. Yes. So, privacy, is a very important, issue and we've, done some, early. Studies about. Older, adults attitudes.
Towards Having technologies. In their home and what's. Interesting is, there. First. Of all they don't always understand. Where. The information is going so, I think part of what we have to do is make sure they're well educated, about. How. How. Their information is being shared so some of my colleagues at Indiana University, we're looking at developing, a display, that shows, you what's on at any moment in your home and where it's going the. Other part is the older adults are okay. With sharing it if they can decide who it gets shared with so. Also enabling, them to maybe share it with family members but, even we had one woman say well I will share with my son but I don't want to share with my daughter or vice versa you know so giving. Them the control and I think that's really important, making sure they have control over what's being done what's, being watched, and what they can what people can do with it. Yes. Absolutely. I'm looking around the room to see if my colleague Lynn is still here she had to go teach oh there she is so Lynn Dearborne is, doing that in the College of Architecture here. At the University of Illinois, with, respect to the physical, infrastructure, and the environment but. Also looking, at other. Kinds of what you might think of as lower tech kinds, of solutions, that might be supportive. And, I think one, of the things I want to do with the chart program, is to, learn more about what other people are doing so I've mostly talked about what we do in my lab but. To find out what are other people doing in this space and and bring them together to talk to each other because you're absolutely right there's a whole breadth of things that we could be focusing, on. Yes. Very. Good question we do pay attention to, things like, socioeconomic. Status, and, what. Is available, in terms of Technology. Also. Living. Circumstances. People who may be at risk for social isolation. We've. Done some research looking at urban versus rural environments. I personally. Have not done a lot yet on cultural, differences, but, I think they're really important. When. I visited. Singapore a few years ago I was talking about what US older, adults wanted their robots to do and it was very different than, what the Singaporean, older adults wanted their robot to do so I think we need to pay more attention to that. You.
2017-12-21 18:31
