Scenario description
Fig. 1 shows the scenario the demonstrator was built for. The doctor and nurse teams move around without paper, laptop or filing card. The doctor identifies the patient by means of his RFID reader on his wrist. The relevant patient files appear on the screen, attached to the bed, which at other times could be used as a television or an internet terminal. The doctor immediately gets an overview of all the important data concerning the patient, most recent results, current medication, x-rays or operation reports. With the inertial sensor attached to his wrist, he can navigate through the application without a mouse or keyboard. This is keeping his hands sterile and free to examine the patient at any time. Via his headset, the doctor can record new findings about x-ray requests related to his patients. The nurse, next to him, receives the information on her PDA from where she can view the diary of the x-ray department and arrange an appointment for the patient directly.
For navigating through the patient record, the following gestures have been selected:
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arm up – navigate one entry/document up
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arm down – navigate one entry/document down
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arm right – open selected document
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arm left – close document
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turn arm right – activate gestures
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turn arm left – deactivate gestures
System description
The system in the first phase consists of three main subsystems; the doctors system, the bedside system and the nurse system, see Fig. 2.
The doctor’s system consists of an unobtrusive wearable computer (QBIC) worn on a belt, an interaction wristband, a headset for audio input/output and a proximity sensor for doctor/nurse authorization.
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Wearable Computer. The wearable system is the doctors ‘personal information gateway’. It controls the input output devices, controls all sensors and performs most context recognition tasks and provides network connectivity (which ensures connectivity with the nurse, the bedside system and all hospital databases).
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Interaction Wristband. The interaction wristband is used for patient identification using RFID reader and will provide a simple gesture interface. It will also house sensors that could be used for context recognition and simple gestures.
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For speech recording a wireless headset was used. Where a headset is not possible (because of the need for a stethoscope) a chest worn microphone will be used.
The bedside subsystem has be used for displaying information to be shared between the patient and the doctor(s). In the first showcase it is also an interface to the hospital information system which will provide and store all the relevant information. It consists of:
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A bedside display. Such private displays are increasingly part of hospital equipment, so that using them for shared doctor/patient data is the logical choice.
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A server that retrieves the patient relevant data from the hospital information system (HIS) and displays it on the bedside display using the standard SYSTEMA data browser.
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An interface between the system browser and the doctors/nurse system that will allow the doctors wearable to control the information and display it.
The nurse subsystem allows the nurse to:
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enter and retrieve parts of the information relevant for her tasks.
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operate those features of the system, which are too attention consuming and require too much hands use for the doctor to perform.
At the current stage the nurse’s system consists only of a PDA envisioned.
