A Formulation of the Interactive Evaluation Model

Abstract

The development of highly technical devices for specialized users requires continual feedback from potential users to the project team designing the device to assure that a useful product will result. This necessity for user input is the basis for the Interactive Evaluation Model which has been applied to complex computer assisted robotic aids for individuals with disabilities and has wide application to the development of a variety of technical devices. We present a preliminary mathematical formulation of the Interactive Evaluation Model which maximizes the rate of growth toward success, at a constant cost rate, of the efforts of a team having the diverse expertises needed to produce a complex technical product. Close interaction is simulated by a growth rate which is a multiplicative product involving the number of participants within a given class of necessary expertise and evaluation is included by demanding that users form one of the necessary classes. In the multipliers, the number of class participants is raised to a power termed the class weight exponent. In the simplest case, the optimum participant number varies as the ratio of the class weight exponent to the average class cost. An illustrative example, based on our experience with medical care assistive aids, shows the dramatic cost reduction possible with users on the team.