Activities suggestion based on emotions in AAL environments

The elderly population is increasing and the response of the society was to provide them with services directed to them to cope with their needs. One of the oldest solutions is the retirement home, providing housing and permanent assistance for the elderly. Furthermore, most of the retirement homes are inhabited by multiple elderly people, thus creating a community of people who are somewhat related in age and medical issues. The ambient assisted living (AAL) area tries to solve some of the elderly issues by producing technological products, some of them dedicated to elderly homes. One of the identified problem is that elderly people are sometimes discontent about the activities that consume most of their day promoted by the retirement home social workers. The work presented in this paper attempts to improve how these activities are scheduled taking into account the elderlies' emotional response to these activities. The aim is to maximize the group happiness by promoting the activities the group likes, minding if they are bored due to activities repetition. In this sense, this paper presents an extension of the Cognitive Life Assistant platform incorporating a social emotional model. The proposed system has been modelled as a free time activity manager which is in charge of suggesting activities to the social workers. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Angelo Costa thanks the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) the Post-Doc scholarship with the Ref. SFRH/BPD/102696/2014. This work is also supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013 and partially supported by the MINECO/FEDER TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R and the FPI grant AP2013-01276 awarded to Jaime-Andres Rincon

Teenage Mutual Understanding: BRIDGING THE CULTURAL GAP

The present project seeks to put into practice the instruments and programmes that the national system of education in Uruguay has been developing upon the three pillars of the global context of the XXI Century: • an increased access to Information Technology, • the emergence of New Pedagogies, • and the Democratization of Education

Towards a cognitive assistant system for elderly

This paper proposes the development of a system to integrally control the activities carried out by a group of elderly people in a nursing home. The system is basically composed of a robot and an app that proposes activities, and also an individual wristband that monitors each elderly person to detect if they get bored or have fun doing the activities. As com-mented, the system also includes an app that, among other things, allows the caregiver to monitor the activities of the group or in an individualized way.GVA - Generalitat Valenciana(PROMETEO/2018/002). e FCT-Fundac¸ao para a Ci ˜ encia e Tecnolog ˆ ´ıa through the Post-Doc scholarship SFRH/BPD/102696/2014 (A. Costa), by the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2018/002), by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia research grant (PAID-10-19) and by the Spanish Government (RTI2018-095390-B-C31

Seven HCI Grand Challenges

This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements

Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Interacting with Smart Objects 2015

These are the Proceedings of the 4th IUI Workshop on Interacting with Smart Objects. Objects that we use in our everyday life are expanding their restricted interaction capabilities and provide functionalities that go far beyond their original functionality. They feature computing capabilities and are thus able to capture information, process and store it and interact with their environments, turning them into smart objects

Independent Aging with the Help of Smart Technology:Investigating the Acceptance of Ambient Assisted Living Technologies

Who takes care of our older adults? According to the European Union, smart technologies that support independent living and active aging, introduced as ‘Ambient Assisted Living’ (AAL), are the future for our aging population. Promises of AAL include saving long-term care costs, improving the quality of care, unburdening family caregivers, and increasing the older adults’ independence and overall quality of life. While the policy enthusiasm for AAL technology is high, it is unclear if the potential users of AAL are willing to embrace AAL technologies in their daily lives. This dissertation addressed this issue by focusing on the perspective of older adults and their caregivers. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, we developed a comprehensive and theoretically grounded understanding of how and why users perceive AAL technologies in a certain way. Important factors that drive or hinder the acceptance were identified. These insights resulted in a model of AAL acceptance that was validated in a representative sample (n = 1296) of the Dutch older adult population. This dissertation contributes to a more user-driven approach in AAL research and development and has important implications for researchers, developers and policy makers alike. We hope that our results will guide future research efforts, design and policy directions in the AAL field

Family Language Policy: Perceptions and Attitudes Toward African American Language

Bidialectal African American families are caught in a Family Language Policy (FLP) dilemma in which the goals of belonging in African American communities, and feeling free and relaxed with language, conflict with parents’ interactional, relational, and political goals of raising children who are accepted in the wider society as educated, respectful, and powerful. This study brings together research in FLP with research on race and language by looking at African American families and how they socialize their children into using AAL Researching the relationship between racial identity and language and the role of racism in FLP for African American parents in particular focuses on a missing factor in many FLP studies, family-external racism. By expanding FLP from blanket determinations of success with their streamlining effects, the field can develop a more inclusive approach that blends families’ linguistic goals, contribute to understanding how bidialectalism is intergenerationally experienced, and how systemic oppression and human agency interact in the family, as well as add depth and complexity to our understanding of AA families’ language policy. To explore the intimate domain of language policy within the 10 AA family homes, qualitative methods – surveys, group family interviews, in-home recordings – and an ethnographic approach to investigating the families’ language policy is employed. Interesting patterns emerged in their responses that lead to the suggestion that race and language are inseparable since they are linked to individuals’ racial identity. This study concludes that if family language researchers are excluding racism as an external factor in their research analysis, whether implicitly or explicitly, they are not providing a comprehensive account of the rationale behind distinct language ideologies, planning, and practices, they are missing important theoretical and practical constructs, and they are limiting the understanding of what causes parents to make particular language decisions

Intelligent environments: a manifesto

We explain basic features of an emerging area called Intelligent Environments. We give a short overview on how it has developed, what is the current state of the art and what are the challenges laying ahead. The aim of the article is to make aware the Computer Science community of this new development, the differences with previous dominant paradigms and the opportunities that this area offers to the scientific community and society

Cenários comunicacionais baseados em IOT para a promoção do bem-estar físico, psicológico e social dos séniores

The main objective of this research is to design and validate IoT based social hybrid scenario model that has the potential to promote psychological and physical wellbeing among older adults. The main reason to design and validate the model is age growth, older adults face psychological, physical and social well-being problems that increase mild cognitive impairment and frailty among older adults. Thus, to overcome older adults' problems, the study proposes and validates an IoT-based social hybrid scenario model. The model's features contain passive communication in which Drs, caregivers, and family members can monitor older adults' physical data from long distances. The model's features also contained intentional communication in which Older adults can interact online by text, audio, video calls, sharing images, and online activities such as painting, exercises and cooking. Moreover, older adults can do outdoor activities by inviting peers, friends or family members; the activities can be location-based IoT games, city tours, groups gardening and dinners. The outcomes of model validation will indicate how IoT characteristics can promote physical, psychological and social well-being and provide an opportunity for older adults to spend their life independently. The research that embodies this thesis includes 411 senior Portuguese Universities which are located mainland and on the island of Portugal. Using descriptive research methodology, where quantitative results are analysed, the results indicated a holistic scenario of passive and intentional communication in the context of well-being promotion among olderadults. from here, the social hybrid scenario is outlined, a hybrid model that offers passive and intentional communication between olderadults, family and medical doctors in the context of well-being promotion. The design and characteristics of the model are based on the existing knowledg, and needs of older adults, family members and also medical doctors. Such as model is a compound of passive and intentional characteristics that helps to reduce problem-related mental and physical health. The Passive and intentional communication characteristics are capable to create an environment for older adultsto take care of their psychological and physical health without any intervention and also increase their social physical and online activities, these activities help to promote the well-being of olderadults andd improve the daily lifestyle.O principal objetivo desta pesquisa é projetar e validar um modelo de cenário híbrido social baseado em IoT que tenha o potencial de promover o bem-estar psicológico e físico entre os idosos. A principal razão para projetar e validar o modelo é o crescimento da idade, os idosos enfrentam problemas psicológicos, físicos e de bem-estar social que aumentam o comprometimento cognitivo leve e a fragilidade entre os idosos. Assim, para superar os problemas dos idosos, o estudo propõe e valida um modelo de cenário híbrido social baseado em IoT. Os recursos do modelo contêm comunicação passiva na qual médicos, cuidadores e familiares podem monitorar os dados físicos dos idosos a longas distâncias. As características do modelo também contemplam comunicação intencional em que os idosos podem interagir online por meio de texto, áudio, videochamadas, compartilhamento de imagens e atividades online como pintura, exercícios e culinária. Além disso, os idosos podem fazer atividades ao ar livre convidando colegas, amigos ou familiares; as atividades podem ser jogos de IoT baseados em localização, passeios pela cidade, jardinagem em grupo e jantares. Os resultados da validação do modelo indicam como as características da IoT podem promover o bem-estar físico, psicológico e social e fornecer uma oportunidade para os idosos passarem sua vida de forma independente. A investigação que dá corpo a esta tese inclui 411 universidades portuguesas seniores localizadas no continente e na ilha de Portugal. Utilizando metodologia de pesquisa descritiva, onde são analisados resultados quantitativos, os resultados indicaram um cenário holístico de comunicação passiva e intencional no contexto da promoção do bem-estar entre idosos. a partir daqui, delineia-se o cenário social híbrido, um modelo híbrido que oferece comunicação passiva e intencional entre idosos, médicos de família e médicos no contexto da promoção do bem-estar. O desenho e as características do modelo baseiam-se no conhecimento existente e nas necessidades dos idosos, familiares e também médicos. Tal modelo é um composto de características passivas e intencionais que ajuda a reduzir os problemas relacionados com a saúde mental e física. As características de comunicação passiva e intencional são capazes de criar um ambiente para que os idosos cuidem de sua saúde psicológica e física e também aumentem suas atividades sociais físicas e online, essas atividades ajudam a promover o bem-estar dos idosos e melhorar o estilo de vida diário.Programa Doutoral em Informação e Comunicação em Plataformas Digitai