A Survey on Ambient Intelligence in Healthcare

Abstract

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a new paradigm in information technology aimed at empowering people’s capabilities by the means of digital environments that are sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to human needs, habits, gestures, and emotions. This futuristic vision of daily environment will enable innovative human-machine interactions characterized by pervasive, unobtrusive and anticipatory communications. Such innovative interaction paradigms make ambient intelligence technology a suitable candidate for developing various real life solutions, including in the health care domain. This survey will discuss the emergence of ambient intelligence (AmI) techniques in the health care domain, in order to provide the research community with the necessary background. We will examine the infrastructure and technology required for achieving the vision of ambient intelligence, such as smart environments and wearable medical devices. We will summarize of the state of the art artificial intelligence methodologies used for developing AmI system in the health care domain, including various learning techniques (for learning from user interaction), reasoning techniques (for reasoning about users’ goals and intensions) and planning techniques (for planning activities and interactions). We will also discuss how AmI technology might support people affected by various physical or mental disabilities or chronic disease. Finally, we will point to some of the successful case studies in the area and we will look at the current and future challenges to draw upon the possible future research paths.

Tools Used in Ambient User Interfaces

“…There are four challenges for the future research in an ambient and natural user interfaces [18]. First one is an artificial intelligence that would help the users in the user interface.…”

“…Acampora et al [18] conducted survey of the ambient intelligence in health care. In this environment an ambient intelligence can be used for autonomous and pro-active health care services, for example monitoring the health status of older adults or people with chronic diseases.…”

Bridging e-Health and the Internet of Things: The SPHERE Project

“…Accurate localisation within the home environment is an important component in AAL applications [9]. Many ambient sensor systems were applied to address different health issues, such as mental health, emotional state, sleep measures, Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease [10]. Those sensing technologies have been used to monitor individual daily activities, aiming to gain health assessment and detect deviation from the user's behaviour pattern.…”

Improved Multi-user Interaction in a Smart Environment Through a Preference-Based Conflict Resolution Virtual Assistant

“…Technology can assist in this process; a plenty of new approaches has been published in literature [3] and they report solutions for smart homes, that should be automatic, multifunctional, adaptive and interactive [4]. Further to these characteristics, efficiency in self-care should be taken into account [5]. With these aspects, a smart home can provide support for each type of users, but it should be focused on people that particularly need guidance in order to perform a task, due to different physical or cognitive impairments.…”