Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
  • Publication
    Diversity & interoperability : wireless technologies in ambient assisted living
    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) demands the seamless integration of a range of technologies such that the particular needs of the elderly may be met. Given the heterogeneity of the elderly population, in their needs and circumstances amongst others, this is a significant challenge. In essence, it demands that a disparate suite of technologies be deployed, integrated, managed and interacted with in a seamless and intuitive fashion. In this paper, how this heterogeneity may be managed is discussed. In particular, the use of ontologies and middleware are proposed as potential solutions to this heterogeneity problem.
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  • Publication
    Orange alerts : lessons from an outdoor case study.
    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is of particular relevance to those who may suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia, and, of course, their carers. The slow but progressive nature of the disease, together with its neurological nature, ultimately compromises the behavior and function of people who may be essentially healthy from a physical perspective. An illustration of this is the wandering behavior frequently found in people with dementia. In this paper, a novel AAL solution for caregivers, particularly tailored for Alzheimer’s patients who are in the early stage of the disease and exhibit unpredictable wandering behavior, is briefly described. Salient aspects of a user evaluation are presented, and some issues relevant to the practical design of AAL systems in dementia cases are identified.
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  • Publication
    OutCare : supporting dementia patients in outdoor scenarios.
    Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a profound vision of computing power that is invisibly embedded into the fabric of everyday life. It is accessible through intelligent interfaces which are so natural that they can be used unconsciously. The increasing maturity, performance and miniaturization of processors, networking technologies and wireless sensor networks enable a move towards pervasive computing, ubiquitous connectivity and adaptive software. The Intelligent Agent paradigm has proven itself to be a promising branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), complementing the pervasive trend of network engineering. One of the possible usages of AmI is Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) which attempts to utilize appropriate technologies to support citizens in living in their preferred environment independently, for a longer period of time than may otherwise be the case. This paper proposes an AAL solution for Alzheimer’s patients based on the intelligent agent platform, exploring the practical delivery of intelligent environments that are sensitive and responsive to the patients, supporting them in performing daily activities and tasks in a natural, unobtrusive way.
      1784Scopus© Citations 15
  • Publication
    Managing diversity in practical ambient assisted living ecosystems
    Though the motivation for developing ambient assisted living (AAL) systems is incontestable, significant challenges exist in realizing the ambience that is essential to the success of such systems. By definition, an AAL system must be omnipresent, tracking occupant activities in the home and identifying those situations where assistance is needed or would be welcomed. Embedded sensors offer an attractive mechanism for realizing ambience as their form factor and harnessing of wireless technologies aid in their seamless integration into pre-existing environments. However, the heterogeneity of the end-user population, their disparate needs and the differing environments in which they inhabit, all pose particular problems regarding sensor integration and management.
      476
  • Publication
    Agency, ambience, assistance : a framework for practical AAL
    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a societal imperative in many countries due to their aged demographic profile. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) offers a viable and intuitive framework by which such systems may realised in practice. However, a number of issues must be addressed if AmI is to become sufficiently mature and robust to support AAL. One such issue is the seamless combination of services, based on a diverse range of embedded artifacts, such that AAL systems can be rapidly designed, implemented and deployed. This paper considers, albeit briefly, issues pertaining to the design of an intelligent middleware solution for the provision of AAL services.
      678Scopus© Citations 1
  • Publication
    EasyLife : a location aware service oriented mobile information system
    Many examples of Location-aware services have been developed in recent years as the enabling technologies mature. However, these services frequently exist in isolation and address specific niche markets. The diversity of the mobile computing community suggests that enabling dynamic combinations of location-area services would be an appropriate deployment strategy. In this way, customers could subscribe to those services that address their particular needs. This paper introduces EasyLife, an agent-based architecture designed to facilitate the development of suites of location-aware services that customers can configure according to their preferences.
      1459Scopus© Citations 2
  • Publication
    Agent migration and communication in WSNs
    Intelligent agents offer a viable paradigm for enabling AmI applications and services. As WSN technologies are anticipated to provide an indispensable component in many application domains, the need for enabling the agent paradigm to encompass such technologies becomes more urgent. The resource-constrained ad-hoc nature of WSNs poses significant challenges to conventional agent frameworks. In particular, the implications for agent functionality and behaviour in a WSN context demand that issues such as unreliable message delivery and limited power resources, amongst others, be considered. In this paper, the practical issues of agent migration and communication are considered in light of WSN constraints. The discussion is illustrated through a description of approaches adopted by Agent Factory Micro Edition (AFME).
      1406Scopus© Citations 21
  • Publication
    Implicit interaction : a prerequisite for practical AmI
    Intelligent User Interfaces represent one of the three distinguishing characteristics of AmI environments. Such interfaces are envisaged as mediating between the services available in an arbitrary physical environment and its inhabitants. To be effective, such interfaces must operate in both proactive and passive contexts, implicitly and explicitly anticipating and responding to user requests. In either case, an awareness of the prevailing situation is essential – a process that demands a judicious combination of data and decision fusion, as well as collaborative and centralized decision making. Given the constraints of AmI environments realizing a distributed lightweight computational infrastructure augmented with a need to address user needs in a timely manner poses significant challenges. In this paper, various issues essential to enabling seamless, intuitive and instinctive interaction in AmI environments are explored.
      408
  • Publication
    Ambience & collaboration embedded agents in a human-centered world
    Supporting people in the pursuit of their everyday activities is a laudable objective and one which researchers in various disciplines including computing, actively seek to accomplish. The dynamic nature of the end-user community, the environments in which they operate, and the multiplicity of tasks in which they engage in, all seem to conspire against the desired objective of providing services to the end-user community in a transparent, intuitive and context -aware fashion. Indeed, this inherent complexity raises fundamental problems for software engineers as they frequently lack the tools to effectively model the various scenarios that dynamic user behaviour give rise to. This difficulty is not limited to exotic applications or services; rather, it is characteristic of situations where a number of factors must be identified, interpreted, and reconciled such that an accurate model of the prevailing situation at a given moment in time can be constructed. Only in this way, can services be delivered that take into account the prevailing human, social, environmental and technological conditions. Constructing such services calls for a software solution that exhibits, amongst others, diffusion, autonomy, cooperation and intelligence. In this paper, the potential of embedded agents for realising such solutions is explored.
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