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Development issues and proposed therapeutic seat framework

Published: 22 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Prolonged sitting can have an adverse effect on elderly people, especially those with limited mobility and reduced sensation. It usually results in various medical problems and complexities, with formation of pressure ulcer being one of the most concerned due to its prevalence, harm and high cost for treatment. Various seating systems have been developed to enhance functional ability, provide protection from tissue breakdown (arising from pressure ulcers) and relieve the concentrated interface pressure for these patients. A design based on air inflation of the cushion has been evaluated and verified to be efficient in pressure management and is adaptive for other functional extensions. Some key issues in developing effective air-inflated cushions are identified in this paper, including the interface pressure, sitting condition discrimination, inflation pressure, alternating pressure and some other problems. Efforts made in these aspects and some novel achievements are summarized. The framework of a Computer Controlled Adjustable Seat System (CCASS) is proposed. Specifically the CCASS adopts a structure with multiple air cells incorporating a sensing system. It is suitable as a research tool to identify the various seating factors for the design of a therapeutic seat. The general design and development process of an intelligent air cushion will also be briefly introduced, with the main design concept validated with prototype testing.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
i-CREATe '09: Proceedings of the 3rd International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology
April 2009
222 pages
ISBN:9781605587929
DOI:10.1145/1592700
  • Conference Chairs:
  • Wei Tech Ang,
  • Wantanee Phantachat
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 22 April 2009

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Author Tags

  1. air inflated cushion
  2. elderly
  3. pressure
  4. wheelchair

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View all
  • (2025)Elastic robotic structures: a multidisciplinary framework for the design and control of shape-morphing elastic system for architectural and design applicationsConstruction Robotics10.1007/s41693-024-00128-89:1Online publication date: 13-Jan-2025

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