Development of walking assistance and promotion system using real-time emotion recognition from physiological signals

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H04505
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90150:Medical assistive technology-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Tanaka Eiichiro 早稲田大学, 理工学術院(情報生産システム研究科・センター), 教授 (10369952)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 弓削 類 広島大学, 医系科学研究科(保), 教授 (20263676) ; 莊 俊融 早稲田大学, 理工学術院(情報生産システム研究科・センター), 助手 (70824283)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 歩行補助 / 感情評価 / 運動促進 / ディープニューラルネットワーク / 感情評価に基づいた歩行補助

Outline of Final Research Achievements

For the purpose of promoting exercise in elderly or mild patients, we constructed a system that estimates walking emotions from biological signals such as brain waves and heartbeats and automatically assists walking based on the results. Emotions were evaluated using a deep neural network on the two axes of pleasant and arousal. For walking, the walking ratio, which was a straight line on the gait map showing the horizontal axis as the walking rate and the vertical axis as the stride length, was used. The system decided to automatically adjust the magnification ratio of the related ankle angle movement. It was confirmed that when walking using this system, exercise was performed while leading emotions to a pleasant and arousal state, suggesting its effectiveness.

Free Research Field

福祉工学，機構学，機械要素学，機械設計

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来，様々な歩行補助機が提案されてきたが，その多くは物理的に補助するのみであった．しかし，特にニューロリハビリテーションなど場合，脳の活性化が重要であり，当人のやる気を引き出す快かつ覚醒状態に感情を導く本研究方法は，学術的に意義があり，また本システムのコンセプトは，歩行だけでなく勉強，仕事，運動，リハビリなど，様々な自己啓発に活用できることは社会的に意義があるといえる．