Exploring Opportunities to Improve the Quality of Life (QOL) thorough Expertise Exchange Between Space and Welfare Fields; Ranging From Rehabilitation Science To Elderly Care and Assistive Technology.
- Paper number
IAC-05-E5.1.05
- Author
Dr. Hisaichi Ohnabe, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Rory A Cooper, University of Pittsburgh, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Diane M Collins, University of Pittsburgh, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Atsushi Nakajima, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (IAT/JAXA), Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Tokuji Okada, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Yoshinobu Maeda, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Yoshiko Taya, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Satoshi Fukushima, University of Tokyo, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Yoshihiko Asai, Japan
- Coauthor
Senior Researcher Shiro Mitsumori, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Osamu Okamoto, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISTA/JAXA), Japan
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Many industrialized countries, such as Japan, US, and European countries, are rapidly accelerating toward an aged society. In the face of this aging demography, quality of life (QOL) and self-sustaining support for persons with disability and the elderly have gotten a lot of attention recently. On one hand, frontier technologies as typified by information technology (IT), space development, and robotics continue to evolve at a rapid pace, and the interaction between human and technology in our aging societies is emerging as a formidable challenge. Among frontier technologies, space as a cross-cutting technology area has traditionally played a unique role in welfare engineering disciplines such as rehabilitation engineering and adaptive engineering through technology spin-off products. Robotic equipment to assist with therapeutic gait training and cushions for pressure sore prevention are examples of such spin-off products derived from NASA technology. In recent years, a Belgian company developed a new type of pajamas for infants and children based on space technologies transferred by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Space Agencies, which could help in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), commonly known as cot death. In Japan, for example, a braille display for computer users with visual impairments, originally developed by NASDA (present JAXA), is in the marketplace. Conversely, the possibility of applying rehabilitation technologies (e.g., increase of bone density) to space rehabilitation being examined jointly by rehabilitation researchers and JAXA engineers. These initiatives are hoped to result in new conceptual frameworks for the transfer and sharing of educational and technological advancements. Along with the progress of human space activities, further expansion of collaboration between space development and rehabilitation engineering is expected in various fields. As a front-runner of aging societies, Japan should take a leading role in exploring a range of possible areas for collaboration between space and welfare fields.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-E5.1.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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