An IoT-Aware Approach for Elderly-Friendly Cities

The ever-growing life expectancy of people requires the adoption of proper solutions for addressing the particular needs of elderly people in a sustainable way, both from service provision and economic point of view. Mild cognitive impairments and frailty are typical examples of elderly conditions which, if not timely addressed, can turn out into more complex diseases that are harder and costlier to treat. Information and communication technologies, and in particular Internet of Things technologies, can foster the creation of monitoring and intervention systems, both on an ambient-assisted living and smart city scope, for early detecting behavioral changes in elderly people. This allows to timely detect any potential risky situation and properly intervene, with benefits in terms of treatment's costs. In this context, as part of the H2020-funded City4Age project, this paper presents the data capturing and data management layers of the whole City4Age platform. In particular, this paper deals with an unobtrusive data gathering system implementation to collect data about daily activities of elderly people, and with the implementation of the related linked open data (LOD)-based data management system. The collected data are then used by other layers of the platform to perform risk detection algorithms and generate the proper customized interventions. Through the validation of some use-cases, it is demonstrated how this scalable approach, also characterized by unobtrusive and low-cost sensing technologies, can produce data with a high level of abstraction useful to define a risk profile of each elderly person

Fast-prototyping Approach to Design and Validate Architectures for Smart Home

The Internet of Things has contributed to make smarter houses and buildings in the last decades. Different existing works already integrate IoT technologies in homes, but end-user needs continuously change and researchers must face this challenge in identifying platforms to fast prototype solutions satisfying these new needs. This paper presents a solution that demonstrates how well-known fast-prototyping technologies like Node-RED, IBM Watson, Telegram, Raspberry Pi 4, and secured MQTT can contribute to develop complex systems facing the challenge. The selected tools are used within a smart home context to support features inspired by people needs and allow users to: a) consult real time conditions (i.e., temperature, humidity, gas), b) remotely manage lights, c) save energy through a light management system based on user movements, d) remotely monitor the house through dedicated webcams, e) generate warning notifications in case of danger. Users can interact with the systems through a web Node-RED dashboard and a Telegram bot. Differently from existing works, the feasibility of the implemented system and the efficacy of the exploited platforms are demonstrated through a running scenario extracted from a consolidated study on user needs in smart homes. The performed experiment can facilitate the fast prototyping of new solutions

A critical analysis of an IoT—aware AAL system for elderly monitoring

Abstract A growing number of elderly people (65+ years old) are affected by particular conditions, such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and frailty, which are characterized by a gradual cognitive and physical decline. Early symptoms may spread across years and often they are noticed only at late stages, when the outcomes remain irrevocable and require costly intervention plans. Therefore, the clinical utility of early detecting these conditions is of substantial importance in order to avoid hospitalization and lessen the socio-economic costs of caring, while it may also significantly improve elderly people's quality of life. This work deals with a critical performance analysis of an Internet of Things aware Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) system for elderly monitoring. The analysis is focused on three main system components: (i) the City-wide data capturing layer, (ii) the Cloud-based centralized data management repository, and (iii) the risk analysis and prediction module. Each module can provide different operating modes, therefore the critical analysis aims at defining which are the best solutions according to context's needs. The proposed system architecture is used by the H2020 City4Age project to support geriatricians for the early detection of MCI and frailty conditions

Smart Outdoors: a proposal for a public park in Campo de Ourique

Assistive technology-based innovation is a promising idea that aims to achieve and improve the well-being of humans. Currently, the focus of technology has changed, seeking to serve specific populations, especially the elderly, reducing the barriers they face on a daily basis when conducting outdoor activities. Most research carried out in an assisted environment is concentrated mainly in private spaces, such as homes, nursing homes and others. This research aims to propose design solutions based on the concept of an assisted environment on a city scale. By doing so, the elderly population can experience and live in collective and public environments (specifically in a public park) independently. In this context, interviews with specialists and observation studies were developed to understand the problems and needs of this specific population. Interviews were targeted to obtain insight from experts regarding the use of technology to solve the elderly’s problems in cities. However, the results did not give adequate insight to use within the study. Next, observations were also carried out in a public park in Campo Ourique, Lisbon to acquire insight from the field to observe/witness the problems of the elderly from a first-person point of view. The observation results showed the difficulties that the population in question faced. Consequently, design solution ideas were proposed to design a smart public park which might overcome the problems that were found in the literature and in the user observations. During the observations, it was seen that the elderly population is very active and highly values an outdoor space to spend time. In this sense, the design proposal could improve and facilitate the lives of the elderly, seeking as much as possible to reduce the barriers that were both observed and reported by experts throughout the interviews. Due to COVID-19, the study had limited access to the users and an evaluation phase could not be done. However, as a future work, user studies will continue to discover more about the elderly’s problems and eventually the scenarios and proposed solutions will be evaluated by them. Furthermore, applicability, usability and feasibility of the proposed ideas will be tested by more users (i.e., experts, stakeholders).A inovação baseada em tecnologia assistiva ainda é uma ideia promissora que visa alcançar e melhorar o bem-estar dos humanos. Atualmente, o foco da tecnologia mudou, buscando atender populações específicas, principalmente os idosos, reduzindo as barreiras que eles enfrentam no dia a dia na realização de atividades ao ar livre. A maioria das pesquisas realizadas em ambiente assistido concentra-se principalmente em espaços privados, como residências, asilos e outros. A pesquisa tem como objetivo propor soluções de design baseadas no conceito de ambiente assistido à escala da cidade, onde a população idosa pode vivenciar e viver os ambientes coletivos e públicos (especificamente num parque público) de forma independente. Nesse sentido, foram desenvolvidas entrevistas com especialistas e estudos de observação para entender os problemas e necessidades dessa população específica. As entrevistas foram direcionadas para obter insights de especialistas sobre o uso de tecnologia para resolver os problemas dos idosos nas cidades. No entanto, os resultados não forneceram percepções adequadas para serem usadas no estudo. Em seguida, foram também realizadas observações num parque público do Campo D’Ourique, em Lisboa, para obter insights do campo para observar / testemunhar os problemas dos idosos do ponto de vista da primeira pessoa. Os resultados da observação evidenciaram as dificuldades enfrentadas pela população em questão. Consequentemente, ideias de soluções de design foram propostas para projetar um parque público inteligente que pudesse superar os problemas que foram encontrados na literatura e nas observações do usuário. Durante as observações, percebeu-se que a população idosa é muito ativa e valoriza muito um espaço ao ar livre para passar o tempo. Nesse sentido, a proposta do projeto poderia melhorar e facilitar a vida dos idosos, buscando ao máximo reduzir as barreiras que foram observadas e relatadas pelos especialistas ao longo das entrevistas. Devido ao COVID-19, o estudo limitou-se ao acesso aos usuários e não foi possível realizar a fase de avaliação. No entanto, como um trabalho futuro, os estudos de usuários continuarão a descobrir mais sobre os problemas dos idosos e, eventualmente, os cenários e as soluções propostas serão avaliados por eles. Além disso, a aplicabilidade, usabilidade e viabilidade das ideias propostas serão testadas por mais usuários (ou seja, especialistas, partes interessadas)