Cloud-based recognition of complex activities for ambient assisted living in smart homes with non-invasive sensors

BACKGROUND Loneliness and social isolation can have severe effects on human health and well-being. Partial solutions to combat these circumstances in demographically aging societies have been sought from the field of information and communication technology (ICT). OBJECTIVE This systematic literature review investigates the research conducted on older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and physical ICTs, namely robots, wearables, and smart homes, in the era of ambient assisted living (AAL). The aim is to gain insight into how technology can help overcome loneliness and social isolation other than by fostering social communication with people and what the main open-ended challenges according to the reviewed studies are. METHODS The data were collected from 7 bibliographic databases. A preliminary search resulted in 1271 entries that were screened based on predefined inclusion criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies were coded, and the results were summarized to answer our research questions. RESULTS The final data set consisted of 23 empirical studies. We found out that ICT solutions such as smart homes can help detect and predict loneliness and social isolation, and technologies such as robotic pets and some other social robots can help alleviate loneliness to some extent. The main open-ended challenges across studies relate to the need for more robust study samples and study designs. Further, the reviewed studies report technology- and topic-specific open-ended challenges. CONCLUSIONS Technology can help assess older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and alleviate loneliness without direct interaction with other people. The results are highly relevant in the COVID-19 era, where various social restrictions have been introduced all over the world, and the amount of research literature in this regard has increased recently.

Download Full-text

Review of user interface devices for ambient assisted living smart homes for older people

Gerontechnology ◽

10.4017/gt.2010.09.02.199.00 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

Author(s):

B.A. O'Mullane ◽

R.B. Knapp ◽

R. Bond

Keyword(s):

User Interface ◽

Older People ◽

Assisted Living ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Smart Homes ◽

Interface Devices

Download Full-text

Session details: Ambient assisted living and smart homes

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments - PETRA '14 ◽

10.1145/3246789 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Panagiotis Papapetrou

Keyword(s):

Assisted Living ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Smart Homes

Download Full-text

Development of Audio Sensing Technology for Ambient Assisted Living

Digital Advances in Medicine, E-Health, and Communication Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2794-9.ch009 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 148-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Michel Vacher ◽

François Portet ◽

Anthony Fleury ◽

Norbert Noury

Keyword(s):

Assisted Living ◽

Smart Home ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Smart Homes ◽

Noisy Environment ◽

Audio Analysis ◽

Sensing Technology ◽

Smart Home Environment ◽

Tactile Interfaces ◽

Analysis System

One of the greatest challenges in Ambient Assisted Living is to design health smart homes that anticipate the needs of its inhabitant while maintaining their safety and comfort. It is thus essential to ease the interaction with the smart home through systems that naturally react to voice command using microphones rather than tactile interfaces. However, efficient audio analysis in such noisy environment is a challenging task. In this paper, a real-time audio analysis system, the AuditHIS system, devoted to audio analysis in smart home environment is presented. AuditHIS has been tested thought three experiments carried out in a smart home that are detailed. The results show the difficulty of the task and serve as basis to discuss the stakes and the challenges of this promising technology in the domain of AAL.

Download Full-text

Using Data from Ambient Assisted Living and Smart Homes in Electronic Health Records

Methods of Information in Medicine ◽

10.3414/me14-10-0003 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 53 (03) ◽

pp. 149-151 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

L. Schöpe ◽

P. Knaup

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Electronic Health Records ◽

Assisted Living ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Smart Homes ◽

Health Data ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Health Records ◽

Electronic Health ◽

Using Data

SummaryIntroduction: This editorial is part of the Focus Theme of Methods of Information in Medicine on “Using Data from Ambient Assisted Living and Smart Homes in Electronic Health Records”.Background: To increase efficiency in the health care of the future, data from innovative technology like it is used for ambient assisted living (AAL) or smart homes should be available for individual health decisions. Integrating and aggregating data from different medical devices and health records enables a comprehensive view on health data.Objectives: The objective of this paper is to present examples of the state of the art in research on information management that leads to a sustainable use and long-term storage of health data provided by innovative assistive technologies in daily living.Results: Current research deals with the perceived usefulness of sensor data, the participatory design of visual displays for presenting monitoring data, and communication architectures for integrating sensor data from home health care environments with health care providers either via a regional health record bank or via a telemedical center.Conclusions: Integrating data from AAL systems and smart homes with data from electronic patient or health records is still in an early stage. Several projects are in an advanced conceptual phase, some of them exploring feasibility with the help of prototypes. General comprehensive solutions are hardly available and should become a major issue of medical informatics research in the near future.

Download Full-text

Privacy and Data Protection towards Elderly Healthcare

Human Rights and Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6433-3.ch038 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 682-698

Author(s):

Ângelo Costa ◽

Francisco Andrade ◽

Paulo Novais

Keyword(s):

Assisted Living ◽

Elderly Population ◽

Daily Life ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Personal Data ◽

The Elderly ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Elderly Healthcare ◽

Living Area

Developed societies are registering a dramatic change in terms of population evolution, the most important fact being the ageing population. An alarming fact is that the birth-rate is dropping very fast, inverting the ageing pyramid that used to have a higher incidence on the young population, now having a higher incidence in the older population. In the quest to provide answers to some problems the elderly population has, applications and projects arise from the Ambient Assisted Living area, providing services that help the user in his daily life, providing the needed help and trying to be as non-invasive as possible. The fact is that these systems operate optimally by using information about the user, assisting him according to his preferences. The data gathered for such events is highly personal and sensitive. This can cause a loss of privacy and affect personal data. In this chapter, the authors present an Ambient Assisted Living project towards assistance to an elderly population. The problems and possible solutions in the legal area towards loss of privacy and personal data and information use is also covered.

Download Full-text

Privacy and Data Protection towards Elderly Healthcare

Handbook of Research on ICTs for Human-Centered Healthcare and Social Care Services ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-3986-7.ch017 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 330-346 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ângelo Costa ◽

Francisco Andrade ◽

Paulo Novais

Keyword(s):

Assisted Living ◽

Elderly Population ◽

Daily Life ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Personal Data ◽

The Elderly ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Elderly Healthcare ◽

Living Area

Developed societies are registering a dramatic change in terms of population evolution, the most important fact being the ageing population. An alarming fact is that the birth-rate is dropping very fast, inverting the ageing pyramid that used to have a higher incidence on the young population, now having a higher incidence in the older population. In the quest to provide answers to some problems the elderly population has, applications and projects arise from the Ambient Assisted Living area, providing services that help the user in his daily life, providing the needed help and trying to be as non-invasive as possible. The fact is that these systems operate optimally by using information about the user, assisting him according to his preferences. The data gathered for such events is highly personal and sensitive. This can cause a loss of privacy and affect personal data. In this chapter, the authors present an Ambient Assisted Living project towards assistance to an elderly population. The problems and possible solutions in the legal area towards loss of privacy and personal data and information use is also covered.

Download Full-text

Age-sensitive eHealth Applications in Smart Homes

10.20944/preprints201607.0022.v1 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Wiktoria Wilkowska ◽

Philipp Brauner ◽

Martina Ziefle

Keyword(s):

Assisted Living ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Smart Homes ◽

Chronically Ill ◽

Well Being ◽

Living Environment ◽

Demographic Shift ◽

Use Of Technology ◽

The Future

Based on the demographic shift and the related challenges resulting from the growing number of elderly and persons with chronic diseases, the idea of smart home that supports its inhabitants in the daily life, gains importance. The purpose of this paper was to examine in a prototypic Ambient Assisted Living environment if users after interaction with different health-supporting applications intend to use such in the future. Two experimental studies exemplary show possible applications of home-integrated technology that can support, assist and accompany the target group in different contexts, and examine to what extent participants are willing to future use such sophisticated technology at home. The results show that people in general, but especially the old and chronically ill ones are quite fascinated of health-supporting ambient technology and the majority intends to use such ambient assistance in the future (study I). Moreover, serious games for healthcare are shown as a hedonic use of technology in smart homes that have a great potential to retain or improve the physical health, mobility and the overall well-being of the inhabitants (study II). The article provides two examples of ambient technology to leverage the demographic change and presents important user factors for facilitating high user acceptance.

Download Full-text