Many researchers and product developers are striving toward achieving ICT-enabled independence of older adults by setting up Enhanced Living Environments (ELEs). Technological solutions, which are often based on the Internet of Things (IoT), show great potential in providing support for Active Aging. To enhance the quality of life for older adults and overcome challenges in enabling individuals to achieve their full potential in terms of physical, social, and mental well-being, numerous proof-of-concept systems have been built. These systems, often labeled as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), vary greatly in targeting different user needs. This paper presents our contribution using SmartHabits, which is an intelligent privacy-aware home care assistance system. The novel system comprising smart home-based and cloud-based parts uses machine-learning technology to provide peace of mind to informal caregivers caring for persons living alone. It does so by learning the user’s typical daily activity patterns and automatically issuing warnings if an unusual situation is detected. The system was designed and implemented from scratch, building upon existing practices from IoT reference architecture and microservices. The system was deployed in several homes of real users for six months, and we will be sharing our findings in this paper.
Independent living of older adults is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population. Especially those living with diseases like COPD, MCI or frailty, need more Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation support in everyday life and this is by itself a big societal challenge with impact in multiple sectors. In this paper we present eWALL, an innovative open-source eHealth platform that aims to address these challenges by means of an advanced cloud-based infrastructure. eWALL is designed in an innovative manner and achieved technical breakthroughs in eHealth platforms, while prioritizing user and market needs that are often abandoned and are the major reason for technically sound solutions that fail. We consider this as an opportunity and we aim to change the eHealth systems' experience for older adults and break the barriers for the penetration of ICT solutions.
As a result of the evolution of computer and networking technologies, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has proposed the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a key element in the UMTS architecture supporting multimedia services in the packet switched domain. Extending the IMS with support for location based services (LBS) will enable enhanced services and offer new revenues to the system. Connecting the IMS core network with a real positioning system providing support for LBS is an open issue. This paper addresses this issue and presents the design and implementation of an IMS Location Server (ILS) connecting the IMS with a positioning system. From the IMS perspective, ILS serves as a service enabler for LBS in the mentioned subsystem. In order to demonstrate proof-of-concept in enhancing IMS-based services, a Location-aware Push-to-Talk (LaPoC) prototype service has been developed. The service has been integrated with the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System (MPS). This paper also gives the results of performance measurements including traffic load analysis and session establishment time.
One common approach in dealing with increased number of elderly is provisioning of IT based applications that strive to prolong their independent life. However, development of such applications is cumbersome and expensive. In order to simplify and ease the development of such applications, MPOWER framework has been developed. The MPOWER framework provides service based architecture and a set of predefined services that can be assembled into applications for elderly. In this article we give a brief overview of the MPOWER framework and concentrate on the issue of providing usable interfaces for the elderly. Specifically, we compare two versions of an application for the elderly, one using a thin and other a fat client. We demonstrate that although thin clients are simpler to develop, in many situations fat clients should be used as they can provide interfaces that are better accustomed to the elderly.
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