CO:Wireless Enabled Remote Co-presence (WERC) Project/08-09 Project Planning Article

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WERC Project



Contents

Stakeholders

Sponsors

  • Group - Communications
  • Client - SymBionyx

Team members

Project update

Progress report

Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) Funded Research - Summer 2008 Humanities Side (Tyler Smith): The humanities side of the project consisted of three major components that were explored. The following is a culmination of the progress and findings. 1. The 10-week program began with a review of literature on general information on Autism, employment for individuals with Autism, and current issues that prevent individuals with Autism from competitive employment. Annotated bibliographies were filed for each resource reviewed. The review of literature revealed a number of findings that further directed the work and research for the humanities end: (1) OVR (Office of Vocational Rehabilitation counselors and job coaches are not well enough informed to be counseling/coaching individuals with autism spectrum disorders (IASDs), (2) there is no common way of assessing whether or not an IASD is capable of getting and keeping a job, (3) IASDs function most effectively in the workplace when they are doing something that interests them, but this seldom happens, (4) expectations of the different players (i.e. coach, counselor, employee, employer, family.) are often vague; players often fail to fulfill their respective expectations and duties leaving the IASD jobless, (5) IASDs often fail to obtain employment because they do not know where to start, (6) IASDs do not learn the same way as neurotypicals; job coaches and employers do not recognize this; they treat IASDs the same as neurotypicals and when this fails, they fire the IASD, (7) the ultimate goal in employing IASDs is helping them find a career that (A) they are interested in and (B) they can autonomously succeed in, (8) another goal in employment is that IASDs will effectively resolve conflict and de-escalate without the physical presence of a job coach, and (9) while IASDs will eventually achieve a degree of autonomy in the workplace, many of them will still need support down the road. Findings were derived from a myriad of sources, including books, studies, websites, videos, conferences, and personal communications. 2. These nine findings contributed to the composition of the preliminary draft of a manual that is designed to train job coaches and counselors in coaching clients with autism spectrum disorders through the job application, acquisition and retention processes. The training manual includes three sections on basic information on autism, a job coach’s role, and a step-by-step procedure to assist unemployed individuals with ASDs in attaining competitive employment, respectively. Although the manual is a preliminary-stage document, it is comprehensive and includes a glossary of terms, contacts of Autism- and employment-related authorities in PA, and numerous references. 3. The technical end of the project included the integration of various devices that enable real-time, wireless, and remote video and audio communication. The last part of the project for this summer was conducting a field test that evaluated the technical and social/personal effects of the technology on neurotypical persons. Before the test was conducted, a proposal for the research to be conducted was submitted to the Messiah College Institutional Review Board. This included a detailed description of the study, copies of informed consent forms and copies of data collection sheets. The research proposal was approved by the IRB and conducted a day later. The findings of the study indicate that several adjustments need to be made to the equipment to improve performance and quality. The findings also suggested that several special considerations would need to be made on the coaching end (i.e. prepared scripts for various tasks and situations and planned responses/affirmations/corrections). Considerations will also have to be made regarding the client’s comfort with wearing the equipment and being under surveillance. Technical Side (Adelani Osunsakin): The aim of this project was to develop a prototype of a Wireless Enabled Remote Co-presence (WERCware) focused on increasing the employability of the autistic population. The WERCware at this stage has been developed as an internet-based device that uses the VLC player to stream video and audio one way from the client to the coach, while the coach communicates back to the client the other way through Skype, an internet-based phone system. WERCware is intended to serve as an assistive technology that provides a last mile coaching opportunity for these socially and/or cognitively challenged individuals. WERC permits a remote coach or trainer to see and hear what their client is seeing and hearing, in real time. The prototype was designed, constructed and tested in various locations and under different conditions. Two principal investigators played the role of the coach, while three investigators played the role of the client. The three investigators took turns wearing the wireless camera/mic and ear bud audio monitor for four hours duration each, while the coach observed. In another experiment conducted separately, the coach communicated the steps of a specific task to the client and observed the outcome. The three researchers playing the role of the client made the following observations. Comments from researcher one: "There was a one to two second delay in the audio/video from the client to the coach. This was determined by the “watch test”. Although the system was easy to use, there was a lot of background noise from the ear bud." Comments from researcher two: "There was one to two second delay usually but sometimes no delay. There was a lot of background noise and the wireless camera/mic with the transmitter generated a lot of heat which made the device uncomfortable to wear." Comments from researcher three: "There was a lot of background noise and the camera looked weird." From the above results, we can conclude that we have a working hybrid communication system which met some of the aims of the project: the ability of a remote coach or trainer to see and hear what their client is seeing and hearing, in real time. During the course of our testing outside the Messiah network, which involved streaming across two different networks, the VLC running at maximum rate occupied the whole bandwidth available on the network. As a result every other computer on the network froze. Therefore: *WERC must have a dedicated line for VLC at the client end with sufficiently high bandwidth *WERC must provide an adequate computer *Future research may identify a way of using the same system (e.g. Skype or other) for both the audio and the video from both the coach and client instead of the hybrid system of VLC and Skype, each performing half duplex (one-way) only.

Status assessment

The WERC prototype needs improvement based on concerns expressed by the researchers playing the role of the client and coach in the preliminary study described above such as: reducing background noise, reducing heat dissipation from the wireless camera/mic transmitter pack, improving the method of miniature camera attachment to the client's clothing. We can provide more detail after 9/6 meeting with SymBionyx

Work needed

See Status Assessment.

Annual plan

Methods and deliverables

In the 2008-2009 school year we plan to make extensive research into the possibilities for an improved version of our prototype. This prototype 2.0 will potentially integrate consumer products such as PDAs, smartphones, bluetooth cameras, and bluetooth headsets. The end goal will be to find products that best fit our needs and stream the appropriate data with as few wires as possible. At some point during the year, we hope to obtain approval from Messiah's Internal Review Board to do testing of the initial prototype with students who have Asperger's Syndrome. This testing will provide us with better information on the effectiveness of our current prototype, and help in the design of version 2.0. Towards the end of the year, we will prepare a complete project presentation for the Student Scholars' Expo in May. This presentation will include an update of the project from inception up to its current phase.

Time line

September- Evaluation of Summer Testing and Research into possible improvements October- Continued Research November- Small-scale testing of topics of interest found through research December- Evaluation of testing done in November February- Preparation for project testing; Continued research into possibilities for 2.0 prototype March- Project Testing with Asperger's Clients April- Analyze results from project testing May- Prepare for Student Scholars' Expo

Personnel

Students:

  • Adelani Osunsakin
  • Tyler Smith
  • Jason Shortall

Faculty:

  • Dr. Harold Underwood
  • Dr. Nancy Patrick
  • Dr. David Gray

Facilities

  • Communications Group Office - Frey 253 *Some lab/project space including one or two internet-connected computers *SymBionyx workspace (as needed) *IU training space (as needed)

Housekeeping

  • Have you updated your project article? -
  • Have you updated project photographs on the cumulus database? -

Budget


For more information about this template, please read Help:Project planning article and Help:Template.

Approved on 2009 03-03

Leaders Committee: 2009 03-03
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