Enhancing eye-hand coordination in older adults: A nature-inspired drone training approach
K. Chaitika, Z.-L. Wu, H.-F. Chieh, C.-J. Lin, K.-N. An, F.-C. Su
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AbstractAging society has become an unavoidable issue globally. Therefore, healthy aging emerges as an effective long-term solution that can help older adults maintain their abilities to perform daily activities, particularly requiring good eye-hand coordination (EHC). While various innovative EHC training tools have been developed, most are computerized, either in a two-dimensional platform involving tapping a rapidly appearing object on the screen or a three-dimensional platform simulating immersive experiences in a virtual reality headset. From the authors' perspective, the existing EHC training tools still lack essential information for users, such as depth perception and realism, which might enhance their training. In this study, we designed and developed a nature-inspired system for EHC training using a palm-size drone as a medium for users to practice their EHC skills. Participants engaged with the drone as if catching insects like a fly or butterfly. The drone featured a ball-shaped object hanging beneath it for participants to catch as it flew away. At this preliminary stage, we conducted a one-time experiment to investigate the phenomena when older adults interact with our proposed system in various challenging conditions, which would benefit our future training study. We set three simple drone leaving directions (forward, rightward, and upward) to observe participants' responses to a rapidly moving object in different directions. Additionally, we varied the drone's leaving speeds (0.8 m/s and 1.0 m/s) to challenge participants and validate the impact of direction on their performance. Since participants were unaware of the drone's fly-out direction and speed beforehand, this would challenge their cognitive-motor coordination and EHC throughout the experiment. We believe that this training system can assist older adults in developing their EHC skills, upper limb movement, and balance control abilities.Keywords: healthy aging, eye-hand coordination, playing catch exercise, indoor drone
K. Chaitika, Z.-L. Wu, H.-F. Chieh, C.-J. Lin, K.-N. An, F.-C. Su (2024). Enhancing eye-hand coordination in older adults: A nature-inspired drone training approach. Gerontechnology, 23(2), 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.s.871.opp