Development of Assessment Method of Elderly Cognitive Functions and Technology of Supporting Activation of Elderly Daily Life

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25350686
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Meijo University
• Principal Investigator: NAKANO Tomoaki 名城大学, 理工学部, 教授 (70329770)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHIGEMATSU Ryosuke 三重大学, 教育学部, 教授 (60323284) ; YAMADA Muneo 名城大学, 理工学部, 教授 (70509653)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): DOI Shun'ichi 香川大学, 工学部, 教授 (00380147)
• Research Collaborator: YAMAMOTO Shin 名城大学, 総合研究所 ; NISHIMURA Yoshihiro 株式会社豊田中央研究所
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 健康・福祉工学 / 超高齢社会 / 高齢者支援 / 日常生活 / 自動車運転 / 認知機能 / 健康運動 / 運転シミュレータ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we made a simple driving simulator and we propose methods to evaluate the elderly cognitive functions during driving by their driving performances using a simplified driving simulator. The scenery in driving scenes, which is similar to those in local road driving in reality, incorporates features of typical accidents of the elderly. Evaluation and measurement of driving performance were commonly done throughout the four functions (attention, visuospatial cognition, planning and working memory) and were classified into five categories.
This study establishes whether daily exercise habits, which are known as a square-stepping exercise, have a beneficial effect on improving the elderly cognitive functions. The result of this past year's experiments shows that the weekly exercise for two years affects the elderly driving ability to drive safely.

Free Research Field

人間工学，認知工学，画像工学