The Smart Bathroom: UD through Integrating Physical and Digital Worlds
Abstract
Although the abilities of people with disabilities are diverse, many accessible
toilets are fixed. As a result, they can only support some abilities some of the time. The
purpose of this project is to develop a smart bathroom capable of assessing an individual’s
abilities at any point in time and spontaneously adjusting supportive environmental features
to accommodate those abilities. Specifically, the study will: 1) observe simulated toilet and
shower/bathtub use in a state-of-the-art bathroom laboratory with embedded sensors and
automated adjustment of fixtures and hardware; 2) develop algorithms that predict support
needs; 3) integrate algorithms with the smart technologies to control the physical
environment; and 4) evaluate the effectiveness of the smart bathroom system.