Ambient Assisted Living Systems - The Conflicts between Technology, Acceptance, Ethics and Privacy

Installing and using AAL Smart Home-systems in the homes of older people not only offers a tremendous potential for increasing safety and quality of life but may also evoke reluctance and anxiety. Will such a system become a "Big Brother" watching the steps and the behaviour of the inhabitants and betray them to their outside world? In several field-trials of an AAL Smart Home-system with inhabitants of senior residences we were able to learn about the issues concerning acceptance, ethics and privacy when senior citizens and their care persons are confronted with this kind of technology for the first time

Use of nonintrusive sensor-based information and communication technology for real-world evidence for clinical trials in dementia

Cognitive function is an important end point of treatments in dementia clinical trials. Measuring cognitive function by standardized tests, however, is biased toward highly constrained environments (such as hospitals) in selected samples. Patient-powered real-world evidence using information and communication technology devices, including environmental and wearable sensors, may help to overcome these limitations. This position paper describes current and novel information and communication technology devices and algorithms to monitor behavior and function in people with prodromal and manifest stages of dementia continuously, and discusses clinical, technological, ethical, regulatory, and user-centered requirements for collecting real-world evidence in future randomized controlled trials. Challenges of data safety, quality, and privacy and regulatory requirements need to be addressed by future smart sensor technologies. When these requirements are satisfied, these technologies will provide access to truly user relevant outcomes and broader cohorts of participants than currently sampled in clinical trials

Ethical Assessment in the Design of Ambient Assisted Living

This paper tackles on ethical issues that are relevant when designing new technological service systems for the assisted living. In this paper we present our preliminary ethical guidelines that are built on six ethical principles that are selected based on the ethical assessment of MINAmI scenarios. The aim of ethical assessment is to conclude concrete and clear ethical guidelines that could be used as check lists in MINAmI platform design, demonstrator design and further in general in designing applications onto the MINAmI platform. We assume that this kind of checklist is also useful for other Ambient Assisted Living type of developmental work

Towards ethical framework for personal care robots:Review and reflection

In recent decades, robots have been used noticeably at various industries. Autonomous robots have been embedded in human lives especially in elderly and disabled lives. Elderly population is growing worldwide significantly; therefore there is an increased need of personal care robots to enhance mobility and to promote independence. A great number of aging and disabled hold appeals for using robots in daily routine tasks as well as for various healthcare matters. It is essential to follow a proper framework in ethics of robot design to fulfill individual needs, whilst considering potential harmful effects of robots. This paper primarily focuses on the existing issues in robot ethics including general ethics theories and ethics frameworks for robots. Consequentialism ethics will be recommended to be applied in robot ethics frameworks

A multi-collaborative ambient assisted living service description tool

Collaboration among different stakeholders is a key factor in the design of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments and services. Throughout several AAL projects we have found repeated difficulties in this collaboration and have learned lessons by the experience of solving real situations. This paper highlights identified critical items for collaboration among technicians, users, company and institutional stakeholders and proposes as a communication tool for a project steering committee a service description tool which includes information from the different fields in comprehensible format for the others. It was first generated in the MonAMI project to promote understanding among different workgroups, proven useful there, and further tested later in some other smaller AAL projects. The concept of scalable service description has proven useful for understanding of different disciplines and for participatory decision making throughout the projects to adapt to singularities and partial successes or faults of each action. This paper introduces such tool, relates with existing methodologies in cooperation in AAL and describes it with a example to offer to AAL community. Further work on this tool will significantly improve results in user-centered design of sustainable services in AAL

Ethical issues in the use of surveillance cameras to support ageing in place

Background and Objective: Surveillance technology allows family members to monitor older adults’ daily activities and their interaction with the home environment. In particular, video surveillance cameras and surveillance technology’s implementation raises critical ethical concerns due to their invasive and obtrusive nature. Thus, this paper aims to address the ethical issues regarding the use of video surveillance for older adults to age in place. Methods: A literature review is conducted using Springerlink, Sciencedirect, and PubMed Publications related to older adults’ care, ageing in place, and the use of surveillance technologies were included in this project. Results: A total of 19 publications met the inclusion criteria. Nine ethical issues emerged from the data: informed consent, privacy, conflict of interest, stigmatization and obtrusiveness, homogeneity among older adults, and imbalance relationship. These nine themes were further explored in respect to ethical principles, including autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and fidelity) Conclusion: Although surveillance cameras can be invasive, well-grounded ethical thinking and proactive response help reduce the risk and ethical challenges associated with it. By examining the ethical issue in video surveillance, it helps to reflect and enhance the current legislation

Designing the Health-related Internet of Things: Ethical Principles and Guidelines

The conjunction of wireless computing, ubiquitous Internet access, and the miniaturisation of sensors have opened the door for technological applications that can monitor health and well-being outside of formal healthcare systems. The health-related Internet of Things (H-IoT) increasingly plays a key role in health management by providing real-time tele-monitoring of patients, testing of treatments, actuation of medical devices, and fitness and well-being monitoring. Given its numerous applications and proposed benefits, adoption by medical and social care institutions and consumers may be rapid. However, a host of ethical concerns are also raised that must be addressed. The inherent sensitivity of health-related data being generated and latent risks of Internet-enabled devices pose serious challenges. Users, already in a vulnerable position as patients, face a seemingly impossible task to retain control over their data due to the scale, scope and complexity of systems that create, aggregate, and analyse personal health data. In response, the H-IoT must be designed to be technologically robust and scientifically reliable, while also remaining ethically responsible, trustworthy, and respectful of user rights and interests. To assist developers of the H-IoT, this paper describes nine principles and nine guidelines for ethical design of H-IoT devices and data protocols

Advances in Telecare over The Past Ten Years

This article reviews advances during the past decade or so in telecare (ie, computer-supported social care at home). The need for telecare is discussed along with how it relates to social and health care. The expected benefits of telecare are also discussed. The evolution of telecare technology is reviewed, covering various system generations. The capabilities of present day telecare are covered, along with its advantages, limitations, and barriers to uptake. Recent evaluations and exemplars of telecare are discussed. The user requirements for telecare are presented, complemented by a discussion of the issues in user and professional acceptance. The article concludes with a summary of past developments in telecare and the prospects for the future

A legal framework for an elderly healthcare platform: A privacy and data protection overview

[EN] Cognitive problems are increasingly affecting the population, with the elderly being the ones most affected. This problem requires a new approach in terms of medical and social actions, personalisation, and services. The Ambient Assisted Living area provides solutions to allow elderly people to stay in their homes safely and with the appropriate care. The number of Ambient Assisted Living projects is increasing rapidly, leading to large commercial deployment, and most of these projects disregard the privacy and data protection of the users and the information that they process and save. The iGenda project is a Cognitive Assistant inserted in the Ambient Assisted Living area that provides help to users in their daily lives. However, since it requires the transfer of a large amount of private and personal data between the modules of the platform, fundamental rights may be at stake. This paper presents the iGenda platform, the principle rights of data protection and transmission, legal guarantees and latent ethical concerns. Furthermore, the dichotomy between current developments and legal and ethical aspects are explained. To overcome this problem, legal considerations and ethical considerations are presented, embracing appropriate solutions to features that present any threat. (C) 2017 Angelo Costa, Aliaksandra Yelshyna, Teresa C. Moreira, Francisco C.P. Andrade, Vicente Julian, Paulo Novais. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/CEC/00319/2013. A. Costa thanks the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) Post-Doc scholarship with the Ref. SFRH/BPD/102696/2014. This work is also partially supported by the MINECO/FEDER TIN2012-36586-C03-01.Costa, A.; Yelshyna, A.; Moreira, TC.; Andrade, FC.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; Novais, P. (2017). A legal framework for an elderly healthcare platform: A privacy and data protection overview. Computer Law & Security Review. 33(5):647-658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2017.03.02164765833

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