Inauguration of Prof Fitri Utaminingrum, The Second Professor of Filkom who Invents Smart Chair for Disability

Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Brawijaya (FILKOM UB) is proud to announce the inauguration of a professor in the field of Computer Vision. The inauguration procession was proudly held on Monday (26/6/2023) at the Samantha Krida Building.

The inaugurated professor is Prof. Dr. Eng. Fitri Utaminingrum, S.T., M.T and is listed as the 171st active professor at UB and the 2nd at FILKOM. Prof. Fitri was inaugurated with Prof. Dr. dr. Sri Rahayu, M.Kes from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) UB.

Prof. Fitri, who is a graduate from Kumamoto University, Japan, in her scientific oration brought about an innovation entitled “Multi-feature Smart Wheel Chair Based on Computer Vision”, which is a special smart wheelchair for people with disabilities.

Prof. Fitri revealed that one of the most common types of disability is physical disability, which refers to limitations or obstacles to the feet, hands, or both that can be caused by congenital abnormalities or injuries. This is what later inspired her to innovate this smart wheelchair.

“Efforts are needed to develop wheelchairs that are inclusive and easy to operate. The safety of wheelchairs also needs to be evaluated because there are often accidents related to wheelchair use,” said Prof. Fitri.

Through several long and perfect phases. Starting from the creation of the first to the second generation of wheelchairs, now, she is determined to introduce the third generation of wheelchairs. The third generation has started to be minimalist, but the weakness is still using seats in wheelchairs in general.

“There are nine features that I created, namely remote features, head movement features, voice recognition features, eyeball features, semi-autonomous features, ladder detection, human following, and road surface detection features,” he continued.

The remote feature works if the user is going somewhere, no longer needed, just control with a mobile phone. So it can be controlled remotely. Regarding the head movement feature, you can navigate by moving your head to the right or left. Eyeball movement, used navigation by eye. The voice recognition feature functions to capture the user’s voice. Detect stairs down and stairs up for wheelchair users who sometimes fail to handle it. Human following that this wheelchair does not need to be pushed later, so it can follow the navigator in front of it.

The advantage of this smart wheelchair is that it has good maneuverability by prioritizing the safety and comfort of its users. Features in smart wheelchairs apply Deep Learning algorithms to get maximum accuracy and fast computation time.

Universitas Brawijaya Rector, Prof. Widodo, S.Si., M.Si., Ph.D.Med.Sc. praised the smart wheelchair innovation by Prof. Fitri. He said that the work of the two inaugurated professors showed an increase in the downstream and commercialization of research products with good quality. Research from these two professors can be applied in industry and society in general.

Inauguration of Prof. Fitri as a professor is expected to strengthen FILKOM UB’s reputation as a center of excellence in computer science in universities in Indonesia. Prof. Fitri is also committed to continuing to innovate and contribute to the development of computer science in order to answer increasingly complex future challenges.[drn/Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]