Shaping Environments Conducive to Emotional Well-Being for Elderly People With Incipient Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

Undoubtedly, the environment and the set of environmental factors that surround us can have a great influence on the perceived sense of well-being. However, there are few studies that analyze, jointly, the influence of a selection of factors for the conformation of environments that favor well-being, especially oriented to elderly people with cognitive impairment. It is in this context that the present study arises, with the aim of determining the influence of a set of ten factors (ambient temperature, lighting, ambient music, etc.) on the emotional well-being of elderly people with early symptoms of cognitive impairment, which is particularly important in today's increasingly aging society, where the gradual development of cognitive impairment is inevitable. For this purpose, the advances achieved in previous research carried out by the authors are summarized, and a method based on the execution of a set of experiments is described, using collections of images to assess the emotional interpretation of each individual under the influence of different combination of simulated conditions (selected external factors) in their environment, processing and analyzing the data obtained by means of machine learning techniques. The realization of these experiments and the application of the proposed analysis method will allow obtaining knowledge that can be used for the design of specific living environments for elderly people with cognitive impairment where the sense of emotional well-being and the preservation of their mental faculties are favored. Key words: Emotional interpretation, environmental factors, Soft Computing, clustering, advanced age.