Health & Accessibility

IMTC researcher, Brian Jones, will join three other Georgia Tech Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI) researchers presenting on their AHRI research efforts at the Georgia Gerontology Society event on September 21, 2011 from 9:45-10:45. Mr. Jones will present information on a new testbed under development for evaluating the effectiveness of industry home health devices intended to help older adults live independently.

This workshop conducted at the Festival of Wisdom and Grace was intended to inform participants of the types of devices currently on the market as well as related research. During the workshop, groups of 4 participants developed a persona of someone they wished to help (real or fictional) and were to serve as that persona's advocate, determining which technological solutions might be a good fit for their needs.

Presented by Brian D. Jones
Aware Home Research Initiative Georgia Tech
Lake Junaluska, NC 
August 9-10, 2011 

Choi, M., Jones, B., Shim, J., Hong, K., Shah, D., Enabling Clinical Decision-Making Through Home Monitoring and Health Information Technology, INFORMS Data Mining and Health Informatics Workshop, 2010.

Sympathetic Devices is a project focused on designing communication devices for aging individuals across all levels of housing options in order to help these individuals maintain personal and social connections in their lifestyles. The overarching goal of the project is to address social isolation and depression by first understanding how individuals currently socialize and internalize during everyday activities, then designing devices to help them develop social relationships and support groups, as well as manage personal goals.

IMTC is instrumental in enabling the research and education projects related to the The Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI). AHRI is an interdisciplinary research effort involving numerous faculty members from several schools and other organizations at Georgia Tech. IMTC researcher, Brian D. Jones, is Director of the AHRI and manager of the Aware Home facility. Mr.

On November 26, 2001, The Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT), Georgia Tech, and Shepherd Center received a $5 million, five-year federal grant to develop applications of wireless technologies to enhance the independence of people with physical and cognitive disabilities."To promote universal access to mobile wireless technologies and explore their innovative applications in addressing the needs of people with disabilities." 

A collaborative project between Maribeth Gandy (IMTC) and The Gains Through Gaming Lab at NC State http://www.gainsthroughgaming.org (Dr. Anne McLaughlin and Dr. Jason Allaire) was awarded a 4-year, 1.2 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation.

The GTG Lab was awarded a 4-year, 1.2 million dollar collaborative grant (with Georgia Tech) from the National Science Foundation (PI: McLaughlin).

The grant, which will start in the fall 2009, consists of a series of studies that will have older adults play video games on the Nintendo Wii™ under various experimentally controlled conditions, such as varying levels of challenge, familiarity, and social interaction. Games were chosen for this intervention via a task analysis and approval from focus groups we conducted in 2008."

Brian Jones presented the Aware Home Research Initiative efforts and participated in the “Real World Lessons in Aging in Place Product and Services” panel at the Connected Home Research Council Family Ecosystem Forum, September 8, 2009. Attendees also enjoyed a tour of the Aware Home, showcasing the many connected home technologies under development.

#US7311675 : Systems and methods for mobile activity monitoring