A multimodal pervasive framework for ambient assisted living

Universal Access in The Information Society, 2013

The use of computing technology to improve everyday life continues at an exponential rate. Computer technology is becoming an integral part of environments addressing important social and healthcare issues . On the other hand, improving the quality of living environments to enable a person to reach his or her maximum potential becomes particularly important in an increasingly crowded and complex world in which inclusiveness and connectivity with the rest of the world are critical. Cognitive systems for assistive environments address the fact that people increasingly rely on technology in their own homes as well as in work environments. This special issue addresses aspects of intelligent and context-aware computer technology that is designed to assist persons with special needs. It focuses on the use of devices (e.g., different types of sensors), tools and methods that can monitor, assess and facilitate the functionality of a person's everyday routine. By using, for example, camera-based sensors, touch sensors, heat sensors, in combination with special databases, personal area networks, machine learning and other computing methods, the aim is to achieve ubiquitous connectivity, distributed intelligence and interactivity through adaptive and easy-to-use interfaces. This special issue comes after the successful organization of the 3rd and 4th International Conferences on ''PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments-PETRA 2010 and 2011,'' which were held in Corfu and Herakleion, Greece (). This UAIS special issue is focused on research related to the design, development, evaluation and use of cognitive and context-aware systems for assistive environments, taking also into account the target audience of the UAIS Journal. As a result, nine (9) papers describing systems, algorithms and methodologies from the area of cognitive pervasive systems comprise the special issue. More specifically, Kwan et al. [8] in their paper propose interaction techniques that can be used with mousereplacement systems to enable the creation of accessible graphical user interfaces. To illustrate these techniques, they created Camera Canvas, an image editing application that uses a sliding toolbar as its universal menu controller. The parameters of the toolbar automatically adapt to the movement abilities of the specific user. During the experiments, the authors observed individuals with and without disabilities and of a variety of ages using Camera Canvas and found that the proposed techniques worked across many different movement abilities and experience levels. They also investigated how these techniques could be used to ''retrofit'' existing Windows applications with new graphical user interfaces and they created a tool called Menu Controller that can automatically re-render the menus of some existing applications into adaptive sliding toolbars. The Wang et al.'s [9] paper is in the field of human emotion detection utilizing facial expressions, a field considered important in a variety of pervasive applications in

Proceedings of ERA 2004, …, 2004

The range of pervasive computing technology available for use in healthcare continues to evolve, allowing for an increasing variety of wireless sensors, devices, and actuators to be cost effectively deployed in smart, context-aware environments. One area that is of compelling interest for the application of this technology is independent living of the elderly. An independent living environment needs to support an individual's healthcare needs and activities of daily living (ADL), while extending social interaction, environment control, and information flow to care giver and family communities. This must be done without compromising an individual's medical care, safety, privacy, or security and should allow an individual to maintain maximal independence. Continuing variations in cognitive and physical capability must also be considered. Current context-aware pervasive computing environments only partially address these requirements. This paper surveys current pervasive computing research activities in this area and introduces research on an architecture for a pervasive computing infrastructure to realise independent living environments. The infrastructure will allow contextsensitive adaptive interfaces to assist individuals with tasks and provide alternate modes of interaction with common devices such as phones, microwaves, and televisions. It also considers the community policies that define what access rights, degree of control, and interactions, caregivers, friends, and family have with the environment in normal and extraordinary situations. These policies will influence the context-aware behaviour of the independent living environment and can be used to shape interface adaptation, trigger social or care specific interactions, guide daily tasks, and support health-care or other sophisticated independent-living applications.

INTED Proceedings, 2018

In this paper, we present the outcomes and conclusions obtained by involving seniors from three countries (Denmark, Poland and Romania) in an innovative project funded under the European Ambient Assisted Living (ALL) program. CAMI stands for "Companion with Autonomously Mobile Interface" in "Artificially intelligent ecosystem for self-management and sustainable quality of life in AAL". The CAMI solution enables flexible, scalable and individualised services that support elderly to self-manage their daily life and prolong their involvement in the society (sharing knowledge, continue working, etc). This also allows their informal caregivers (family and friends) to continue working and participating in society while caring for their loved ones. The solution is designed as an innovative architecture that allows for individualized, intelligent self-management which can be tailored to an individual's preferences and needs. A user-centred approach has ranked health monitoring, computer supervised physical exercises and voice based interaction among the top favoured CAMI functionalities. Respondents from three countries (Poland, Romania and Denmark) participated in a multinational survey and a conjoint analysis study.

As sensors and other pervasive computing technologies are increasingly penetrating ambient assisted living applications researchers, engineers and application architects are starving for tools, techniques and frameworks for building and integrating added-value applications. In this paper we present HERMES, the architecture and implementation of a pervasive computing platform, which supports the development of ambient assisted living applications for the ageing society, with a particular emphasis on memory aids and cognitive training. The platform is integrated in the sense that it enables combined support for memory aid and cognitive training applications. It is also accessible via ergonomic interfaces developed on top of multitouch surface devices. Furthermore, the platform is modular and extensible since it provides Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the flexible development of additional applications. Along with the middleware architecture of the platform we also present representative trial deployments, which manifest that the presented platform is an attractive option for building pervasive applications for the ageing society.

Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences, 2014

A Multi Agent System that provides a (cared for) person, the subject, with assistance and support through an Ambient Assisted Living Flexible Interface (AALFI) during the day while complementing the night time assistance offered by NOCTURNAL with feedback assistance, is presented. It has been tailored to the subject's requirements profile and takes into account factors associated with the time of day; hence it attempts to overcome shortcomings of current Ambient Assisted Living Systems. The subject is provided with feedback that highlights important criteria such as quality of sleep during the night and possible breeches of safety during the day. This may help the subject carry out corrective measures and/or seek further assistance. AALFI provides tailored interaction that is either visual or auditory so that the subject is able to understand the interactions and this process is driven by a Multi-Agent System. User feedback gathered from a relevant user group through a workshop validated the ideas underpinning the research, the Multi-agent system and the adaptable interface.

E-Health, Assistive …, 2010

E-health, assistive technologies and applications for assisted living: challenges and solutions / Carsten Röcker and Martina Ziefle, editors.

usuario.cicese.mx

2012

This paper presents an application that allows mobility impaired and elderly users to interact with Internet-based audio-visual communication services, using multimodal natural user interaction. This platform, referred to as Living Home Center, operates on a large Windows-based touchscreen and also on a Windows Phone 7 smartphone. The platform is aware of user characteristics, such as the user's visual or hearing impairments levels, as well as environmental characteristics, like environmental noise or lighting conditions, self-adapting Graphical User Interface (GUI) components, screen brightness, audio volume and other application interface details that affect the user experience, according to these characteristics. The goal of this application is to improve the target users' interactive experience with audio-visual communication services, thus contributing to the reduction of their social isolation and improving their digital inclusion.

Older adults have a growing desire to remain independent and age in their own home environment. Policy makers support this wish, as the quality and quantity of institutional care cannot be guaranteed with the present health care budget. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies can meet the interests of both parties, by facilitating healthy and active aging in the home environment. However, those technologies are still in their infancy and the likelihood of their adoption remains uncertain. By conducting a literature study and a user-requirement study for a conceptual AAL application called SONOPA (Social Networks for Older Adults to Promote an Active Life), benefits and barriers to the adoption of AAL technologies, as perceived by the elderly user, were identified. The user-requirement study consisted of focus groups and interviews with older adults and elder care professionals, conducted in the UK, France and Belgium. Together, the literature study and the user-requirement study led to several design guidelines which direct the future development process of SONOPA and related AAL applications.

Signal and Information Processing Association Annual Summit and Conference (APSIPA), 2014 Asia-Pacific, 2014

Elder care poses an increasingly demanding issue that every aging society has to address. The notion of Ambient Assisted Living aims to solve the issue by promoting the idea of ageing at home through innovative ICT technology. The core technology relies on the real-time identification of occupant's status and prompt notification to supporting service providers before pertinent measures can be taken. This study proposes an enabling solution that converts general household setting into a context-aware environment geared for elder care: normal activities are automatically updated at Facebook news feed, and alerting conditions are instantly notified to emergency contact by Google Cloud Messages. I.