Telewheelchair: A Demonstration of the Intelligent ElectricWheelchair System towards Human-Machine
Satoshi Hashizume*

Ippei Suzuki*

University of Tsukuba
pota1401@hotmail.co.jp

University of Tsukuba
1heisuzuki@gmail.com

Ryuichiro Sasaki

Yoshikuni Hashimoto

AISIN Seiki Co.,Ltd.
ryu-sasa@nbd.aisin.co.jp

AISIN Seiki Co.,Ltd.
hassy@its.aisin.co.jp

Kazuki Takazawa*

University of Tsukuba
1220kazu1412@gmail.com

Yoichi Ochiai

University of Tsukuba
wizard@slis.tsukuba.ac.jp

CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality;

KEYWORDS
Telepresence, virtual reality, nursing.
ACM Reference format:
Satoshi Hashizume*, Ippei Suzuki*, Kazuki Takazawa*, Ryuichiro Sasaki,
Yoshikuni Hashimoto, and Yoichi Ochiai. 2017. Telewheelchair: A Demonstration of the Intelligent Electric Wheelchair System towards HumanMachine. In Proceedings of SA ’17 Emerging Technologies, Bangkok, Thailand,
November 27-30, 2017, 1 pages.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3132818.3132834

1INTRODUCTION

Figure 1: Demonstration in the nursing home for the aged.

We present demonstration of a telepresence system [Suzuki et al.
2017] that is able to provide care from a remote location by implementing functions such as object recognition on a wheelchair.
In conventional remote control method for wheelchair, the operator controls the system while receiving feedback from cameras
mounted on the robot [Gundersen et al. 1996]. However, this operating method cannot capture the full environment around the system,
even if we use wide FOV cameras, such as omnidirectional cameras.
In order to utilize the telepresence system safely, it is necessary
to solve the problem of the blind spot of the user. Further, humanoperators are limited by their attention span. The reaction time of
the computer is greater than that of humans.
Telewheelchair is a telepresence system for an electric wheelchair.
It uses the control by the head mounted display (HMD), humanrecognition by YOLO, and environment recognition by SLAM. Thissystem allows the detection of the condition around the wheelchair
and the presence of pedestrians close to the wheelchair. It is also
possible for the remote operator to communicate with the person(s) near the wheelchair via a camera, microphone, and speaker
mounted on it.

The user can experience the Telewheelchair as a caregiver or a carerecipient (Figure 1). The user of caregiver side wears the HMD andoperates the wheelchair based on the omnidirectional image fromthe remote wheelchair. The user of care recipient side ride on thewheelchair. The wheelchair is operated by the user of caregiver side.
At the same time, the user of care recipient side can also operate thewheelchair himself. Whether remote control or direct operation, thewheelchair automatically stops when an obstacle such as a person
or a wall is detected in front of the wheelchair by YOLO or SLAM.
We demonstrate the Telewheelchair running in a wide space.
Obstacles such as walls and mannequins are placed in the demo
space. The user on the side of the care recipient remotely controls
the wheelchair while avoiding obstacles. Our demo can be experienced safely because the wheelchair automatically stops due toobstacle detection even if the operator can not avoid obstacles. The
presenter is always near the wheelchair and the presenter makes
an emergency stop when the wheelchair becomes uncontrollable.

* Three joint first authorship.

REFERENCES

SA ’17 Emerging Technologies, November 27-30, 2017, Bangkok, Thailand© 2017 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not forredistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Proceedings of SA ’17
Emerging Technologies, November 27-30, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1145/3132818.3132834.

2DEMONSTRATION

RT Gundersen, Stephen J Smith, and Ben A Abbott. 1996. Applications of virtual
reality technology to wheelchair remote steering systems. In Proc. of 1st Euro Confof Disability, Virtual Reality & Assoc. Technology. 47–56.
Ippei Suzuki, Satoshi Hashizume, Kazuki Takazawa, Ryuichiro Sasaki, Yoshikuni
Hashimoto, and Yoichi Ochiai. 2017. Telewheelchair: The Intelligent ElectricWheelchair System Towards Human-machine Combined Environmental Supports.
In ACM SIGGRAPH 2017 Posters (SIGGRAPH ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article
30, 1 pages. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3102163.3102238