To create applications for smart environments we can select from a huge variety of sensors that measure environmental parameters or detect activities of different actors within the premises. Capacitive proximity sensors use weak electric fields to recognize conductive objects, such as the human body. They can be unobtrusively applied or even provide information when hidden from view. In the past years various research groups have used this sensor category to create singular applications in this domain. On the following pages we discuss the application of capacitive proximity sensors in smart environments, establishing a classification in comparison to other sensor technologies. We give a detailed overview of the background of this sensing technology and identify specific application domains. Based on existing systems from literature and a number of prototypes we have created in the past years we can specify benefits and limitations of this technology and give a set of guidelines to researchers that are considering this technology in their smart environment applications
Life events, such as retirement or being widowed, can change the social circle of older people considerably. It may be difficult to find new social contacts when one has never got used to, or perhaps even never learnt, to seek and maintain those contacts. Loneliness has many negative effects for well-being, including depression and even cardiovascular disease. The Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme (AAL-JP) research project V2me seeks to find a solution for alleviating loneliness by means of easy-to-use technology including touch screen devices. The idea is to use a virtual coach for encouraging users to take an active role in contacting people and teaching them how to initiate and maintain meaningful and enduring relations. The first step, in the process of creating the complete virtual coach-assisted system for preventing loneliness, is to create a prototype and use the feedback from older users for developing the system. In this paper we discuss the results of the first pilot and what steps need to be taken next.
Smart objects within instrumented environments offer an always available and intuitive way of interacting with a system. Connecting these objects to other objects in range or even to smartphones and computers, enables substantially innovative interaction and sensing approaches. In this paper, we investigate the concept of Capacitive Near-Field Communication to enable ubiquitous interaction with everyday objects in a short-range spatial context. Our central contribution is a generic framework describing and evaluating this communication method in Ubiquitous Computing. We prove the relevance of our approach by an open-source implementation of a low-cost object tag and a transceiver offering a high-quality communication link at typical distances up to 15 cm. Moreover, we present three case studies considering tangible interaction for the visually impaired, natural interaction with everyday objects, and sleeping behavior analysis.
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