Walking Master: Disabled Elderly Walking Empowerment Products

Abstract

For a civilised society, how to treat their elder citizens and achieve healthy and active aging is a significant issue. This paper tackles the great need for walking aids for elderly people with movement difficulties, and designs two possible products for the target population. To truly meet their demands and satisfy the technical requirements, we analysed the literature and existing cases and conducted a questionnaire survey and simulation experiment. The results show that muscle function degradation and severe disease are the main causes for walking difficulties. The results also reveal that security and convenient operating mechanisms are priority concerns to the customers. Based on these, we have done several sketches and designed two concept products with a computer vision module. This paper confronts the urgent needs of elderly people and proposes a possible blueprint for better walking aids.