Fundació General/ESPAITEC
Avda. Vicent Sos Baynat s/n 12071,
Castellón de la Plana, España.
Telf: 964387597
MARCH 3, 2023
The main objective of the “Integrated Disability” project is to improve the accessibility of people with disabilities in public or private centres where personal attention is required, while at the same time maintaining their privacy and anonymity. Disability itself can often make personal interaction difficult, creating uncomfortable situations, especially if there is no prior knowledge on the part of customer service professionals. For this reason, the Mi Vida Más Fácil app has been developed and validated through the proof of concept of the initial prototype, carried out in a real environment that provides public service, such as the InfoCampus, the Information and Registry Office of the Universitat Jaume I.
The “Integrated Disability” initiative is a co-creative and multidisciplinary project promoted by Teresa Gallego, professor in the Department of Engineering and Civil Engineering, and Raúl Marín, professor in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science, and led by the UJI.>LAB, Espaitec’s LivingLab, with the participation of lecturers from the areas of Architecture, Computer Engineering and Economics at the Universitat Jaume I, and also with the collaboration of the Parkinson’s Association of the Province of Castellón. According to Gallego, “ideas are born out of needs, changes in your context and available resources”, adding that “intimacy has been the main condition of the project”. Marín highlighted that “it is a project born from a real need, directed by lecturers from different areas, developed at prototype level by students of the degree in Computer Engineering, and raised to pre-commercial quality thanks to the coordination of Espaitec, business collaboration, and validation by end users”.
The initial prototype of the application has been developed by the company Gen72, based on Bluetooth technology and supported by a set of sensors and receivers. The proof of concept was carried out with real users with disabilities, specifically three members of the Parkinson’s Association of Castellón tested, evaluated and validated the MyLifeEasier app. The proof of concept consisted of a simulation of the possible user-application interaction in a relevant environment by carrying out a procedure in the Infocampus of the Universitat Jaume, where the functioning of the application, the detection of devices, the range of the signal and the most appropriate procedure to follow in the presence of users were evaluated. Users performed different tests evaluating three different types of devices (Smartwatch, clinical bracelet and activity bracelet). The activity bracelet was confirmed as the most suitable device due to its affordability, added functionality, discretion and convenience
Yolanda Pascual, head of Infocampus, emphasises that “in the proof of concept carried out at InfoCampus I was able to see how easy the app is to provide attention adapted to the problems of each user with a disability, without the need for them to explain their disability every time they go to a public centre”. Carolina García, psychologist at the Parkinson’s Association of Castellón, highlights that “the participation has been very productive and enriching, as it has given us the opportunity to collaborate in the development of a tool that will facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities”.
The UJI.>LAB is an environment that Espaitec makes available to students, faculty and research groups at the Universitat Jaume I to boost the generation of innovative ideas, linked to the challenge-solution paradigm, with a multidisciplinary strategy, that is, under a 360º prism. To this end, it incorporates a set of mechanisms that will allow the proposals of the university community to materialise, such as the FabLab, a laboratory for prototyping initiatives that result in a tangible product. To achieve this, it has the most advanced technology in 3D printers, resin printers, laser cutters, cutting plotters, precision CNC and CNC for large formats.
In the words of Juan Antonio Bertolín, director of Espaitec, “the co-creative processes in university environments promote on the one hand the generation of talent, creativity, work in multidisciplinary teams and with proven methodologies, and can promote a certain entrepreneurial spirit in a natural way. Facing possible challenges allows us to discover how to address them, how to articulate the identification of solutions to these challenges and how to develop the so-called soft-skills necessary for entrepreneurship”.
UJI.>LAB has been made possible thanks to funding from the Valencian Agency for Innovation (AVI) from 2020 to the present.
