8th International Conference on Body Area Networks

Research Article

uLocate: A Ubiquitous Location Tracking System for People Aging with Disabilities

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/icst.bodynets.2013.253584,
        author={Ke-Yu Chen and Mark Harniss and Justin Lim and Youngjun Han and Kurt Johnson and Shwetak Patel},
        title={uLocate: A Ubiquitous Location Tracking System for People Aging with Disabilities},
        proceedings={8th International Conference on Body Area Networks},
        publisher={ICST},
        proceedings_a={BODYNETS},
        year={2013},
        month={10},
        keywords={location; tracking; indoor; outdoor; disability; wearable},
        doi={10.4108/icst.bodynets.2013.253584}
    }
    
  • Ke-Yu Chen
    Mark Harniss
    Justin Lim
    Youngjun Han
    Kurt Johnson
    Shwetak Patel
    Year: 2013
    uLocate: A Ubiquitous Location Tracking System for People Aging with Disabilities
    BODYNETS
    ACM
    DOI: 10.4108/icst.bodynets.2013.253584
Ke-Yu Chen1,*, Mark Harniss1, Justin Lim1, Youngjun Han1, Kurt Johnson1, Shwetak Patel1
  • 1: University of Washington
*Contact email: kychen@uw.edu

Abstract

Researchers have developed different kinds of location technologies for observing daily activities. However, there are very few systems that are able to ubiquitously monitor an individual's location, especially for people aging with disabilities. In this study, we developed a location tracking system, uLocate, capable of both indoor and outdoor tracking. The system was evaluated in real homes by 11 participants aging with different types of disabilities. Based on our evaluations, we believe uLocate and the findings of this case study will benefit designers and rehabilitation researchers who require location-based tracking technologies for health-related studies.