Towards Holistic Activity Modeling and Behavioral Analyses

As the age profile of many societies continues to increase, supporting health, both mental and physical, is of increasing importance if independent living is to be maintained. Sensing and, ultimately, recognizing activities of daily living has been perceived as a prerequisite for detecting tasks that people avoid or find increasingly difficult to perform, as well as being indicators of certain illnesses. To date, extensive research efforts have been made on activity monitoring, recognition and assistance in indoor scenarios, frequently through smart home initiatives. However, the scenarios outside of the home have not received a similar degree of attention from the research community. This paper advocates a need for platforms that enable activity recognition in a range of environments, thus enabling the construction of more complex yet realistic activity models and behavior patterns. The design of a prototype supporting an integrated approach to sensor data capture and activity model construction is proposed. The application domain is that of dementia.