Rachel Proffitt, OTD, OTR/L

Assistant professor and principal investigator, VR-Augmented Rehab Lab at the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri. Dr. Proffitt's research aims to improve the health and well-being of adults and older adults through the use of smart, home-based technology.

 

PROBLEMS

  • “ [it] allows you to better understand the person and be able to respond to she or he's needs. And I think that's the exciting part is creating an integrative intelligence using multi modes of data capture and to foster more of a natural communication between man and machine. So I think that's the exciting thing about AR/VR as it comes to market. Sure, we have it in mobile devices and augmented reality apps, which are exciting in and of themselves in terms of some of the new human computer experiences that they offer. But I think the next level of unlocking will happen with as we start getting form factors that people wear consistently and we're moving in those directions.”

  • “ (…) in terms of creating exoskeletons or creating artificial limbs that work very much like natural limbs, and even sensory systems like hearing aids, visual aids, all these types of things are going to advance by the mass adoption of consumer technologies and things that have these sensors, that then people can share their information that allows people to then understand how to identify if someone's having an issue. In the sense of rehab, you can create a persona about somebody that has a leg injury.”

  • “...where I'd like to get human intelligence is having an AI system that can actually follow you, understand you. It's yours. Right. And you can also teach it.”