I have been active in many national and EU-funded R&D projects in the area of rehabilitation engineering as a research assistant at the Vienna University of Technology. I concentrated on assistive devices for the disabled and old, electronics and informatics to help disabled persons. During the last years the focus of my work shifted to assistive robotics and smart assistive environments for the elderly (AAL).

My research interests include:

  • speech input and output technology and dialogue management for multi-modal, active user interfaces
  • platform overarching HTML5/Javascript techniques
  • smart sensors, open and privacy aware (embedded) platform solutions
  • transdisciplinary, applied research.
More about me

I am interested in making technology help people in real life, and love to develop solutions together with prospective users. My projects cover a wide range from Assistive Technology to Active and Assisted Living solutions, at the intersection of computer science, robotics, design, and social sciences.

Contacts
Selected publications
  • Panek, P., Mayer, P. (2022) Design and Implementation of Self-adapting Toilets for Semi-public Environments: Reflections on transferring a home solution to semi-public places, in: conf proc of INCLUDE 2022 Unheard Voices. 11th Inclusive Design Conf, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, London, UK, 22-23 Sept 2022, pp.121 - 132
  • Mayer, P., Panek, P. (2022) Design Considerations for Novel Self-Adapting Toilets for Semi-Public Spaces, Studies in health technology and informatics, 293, 119–120. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI220357 , Conf on Health Informatics meets Digital Health, 24-25 May 2022, Vienna, Austria
  • Lumetzberger, J., Mayer, P., Kampel, M. and Panek, P. (2021) Smart toilet seat configuration for more autonomy using an AI-based 3D depth sensor. In The 14th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference (PETRA 2021). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 111–112.
  • Panek, P., Mayer, P. (2021) Self-adapting Toilets to Raise Independence, oral presentation at (eng)aging! - Virtual Conference on Aging, Technologies for Active and Independent Living in Old Age, February 10-11, 2021
  • Weber, M., Rueger, B., Zagler, W., Jelinek-Nigitz, H., Mayer, P., Hatzmann, B., Rodríguez Conde, J. (2020) Lavatory4All - Technische Anforderungen an eine barrierefreie Flugzeugtoilette fuer Menschen mit eingeschraenkter Mobilitaet, Internationales Verkehrswesen, 72 (2020), 3; 98 - 102.
  • Panek, P., Lumetzberger, J., Kampel, M., Mayer, P. (2020) Ethische Analyse bei der Sondierung zu einem Kognitions-Unterstützungssystem in einem Demenz-Tageszentrum, Poster am Pflegekongress Wien, 26.-27. November 2020, Vienna, Austria
  • Mayer, P., Güldenpfennig, F., Panek, P. (2019) Towards Smart Adaptive Care Toilets, in: D. Hayn et al. (Eds.): Proc. of dHealth 2019 – From eHealth to dHealth, Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria 28.-29. May 2019, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol 260, IOS press, pp.9 – 16, doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-971-3-9
  • Güldenpfennig, F., Mayer, P., Panek, P., Fitzpatrick, G. (2019) An Autonomy-Perspective on the Design of Assistive Technology: Experiences of People with Multiple Sclerosis, ACM CHI Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019), May 4-9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300357
  • Fazekas, G., Pilissy, T., Sobjak, A., Toth, A., Rosenthal, R., Mayer, P., Panek, P. (2019) Assistive technology in the toilet ‐ Field test of an ICT‐enhanced lift‐WC, 15th Congr of the Europ Forum for Research in Rehabilitation (EFRR). Berlin, April 15-17, 2019 Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House, 2019, doi: 10.3205/19efrr072
  • Panek, P., Mayer, p. (2019) iToilet – Ein motorisiertes und IKT-unterstütztes Toilettensystem. Hilfe für das selbständige Leben zu Hause, Zeitschrift Orthopädie Technik, 02/19, Seite 46 - 52, ISSN: 0340-5591, eingeladen.
  • Mayer, P., Panek, P. (2018) Assistenzroboter mit „Persönlichkeit“ ausstatten?, Pflegezeitschrift, 71(7), 44-47, ISSN 0945-1129, DOI 10.1007/s41906-018-0593-7 (online first) (invited)
  • Pilissy, T., Tóth, A., Fazekas, G., Sobják, A., Rosenthal, R., Lüftenegger, T., Panek, P., Mayer, P. (2017) Towards a situation-and-user-aware multi-modal motorized toilet system to assist older adults with disabilities: A user requirements study, 15th IEEE Intern Conf on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), QEII Centre, London, UK, July 17-20, 2017, pp. 959-964, DOI: 10.1109/ICORR.2017.8009373.
  • Panek, P., Mayer, P. (2015) Challenges in Adopting Speech Control for Assistive Robots "Ambient Assisted Living", Advanced Technologies and Societal Change; R. Wichert, H. Klausnig (Hrg.); Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2015, ISBN: 978-3-319-11865-9, S. 3 - 14.
  • Fischinger, D., Einramhof, P., Papoutsakis, K., Wohlkinger, W., Mayer, P., Panek, P., Hofmann, S., Körtner, T., Weiss, A., Argyros, A., Vincze, M. (2014) Hobbit, a care robot supporting independent living at home: First prototype and lessons learned Robotics and Autonomous Systems, DOI: 10.1016/j.robot.2014.09.029.

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