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.