A cell phone-based electronic personal profiler for care and support information

A new communication tool called the electronic personal profiler has been developed, which is intended to enable care staff to obtain multimedia care information using a cell phone, and the potential of the use of the system was investigated. Comments on the prototype were collected from care staff at three nursery homes for elderly people and a residential institution for people with disabilities. While the staff accepted the benefit of multimedia information which the latest cell phone technology incorporates, some of them were reluctant to use the system due to their unfamiliarity in the use of a cell phone. A qualitative study was also conducted at a special school for children with intellectual disabilities. University student trainees were asked to support students at the school after reading care/support information of each student on the cell phone-based system. The results of the experiment suggested that the system increased the comfort of trainees in helping their students. These young trainees showed no major difficulty or hesitation in using the cell phones and navigating the system.