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

Robotic ubiquitous cognitive ecology for smart homes

Robotic ecologies are networks of heterogeneous robotic devices pervasively embedded in everyday environments, where they cooperate to perform complex tasks. While their potential makes them increasingly popular, one fundamental problem is how to make them both autonomous and adaptive, so as to reduce the amount of preparation, pre-programming and human supervision that they require in real world applications. The project RUBICON develops learning solutions which yield cheaper, adaptive and efficient coordination of robotic ecologies. The approach we pursue builds upon a unique combination of methods from cognitive robotics, machine learning, planning and agent- based control, and wireless sensor networks. This paper illustrates the innovations advanced by RUBICON in each of these fronts before describing how the resulting techniques have been integrated and applied to a smart home scenario. The resulting system is able to provide useful services and pro-actively assist the users in their activities. RUBICON learns through an incremental and progressive approach driven by the feed- back received from its own activities and from the user, while also self-organizing the manner in which it uses available sensors, actuators and other functional components in the process. This paper summarises some of the lessons learned by adopting such an approach and outlines promising directions for future work

Enhanced Living Environments

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”. The concept of Enhanced Living Environments (ELE) refers to the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) that is more related with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Effective ELE solutions require appropriate ICT algorithms, architectures, platforms, and systems, having in view the advance of science and technology in this area and the development of new and innovative solutions that can provide improvements in the quality of life for people in their homes and can reduce the financial burden on the budgets of the healthcare providers. The aim of this book is to become a state-of-the-art reference, discussing progress made, as well as prompting future directions on theories, practices, standards, and strategies related to the ELE area. The book contains 12 chapters and can serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate students, post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, medical doctors, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and research strategists working in this area

RESTful framework for collaborative internet of things based on IEC 61850

El contenido de los capítulos 2 y 3 está sujeto a confidencialidad 161 p.En 1991, Mark Weiser formuló el paradigma de Computación Ubicua definiendo el concepto de Entorno Inteligente como un espacio físico repleto de dispositivos, muy integrados en el entorno, y con capacidades de identificación, sensorización y actuación. Internet de las Cosas (IoT) expande el ámbito de localización de estos dispositivos y servicios ubicuos, representados como cosas, de un entorno local a internet como red global. Para la implementación de estos escenarios de aplicación, la colaboración entre las cosas es uno de los principales retos de investigación. El objetivo de esta colaboración es ser capaces de satisfacer necesidades globales mediante la combinación de servicios individuales. Esta Tesis propone una arquitectura colaborativa entre las cosas desplegadas en internet.Las tecnologías alrededor de los Servicios Web SOAP/XML, adecuadas para IoT, soportan aspectos claves para un sistema colaborativo como la publicación, descubrimiento, control y gestión de eventos de los dispositivos. Como alternativa, REST ha ganado terreno en este ámbito por ser considerada una opción más ligera, sencilla y natural para la comunicación en internet. Sin embargo, no existen protocolos para descubrimiento y gestión de eventos para recursos REST. Esta Tesis aborda dicha carencia proponiendo una especificación de estos protocolos para arquitecturas REST. Otro aspecto importante es la representación, a nivel de aplicación, de las cosas distribuidas. Entre las propuestas para la estandarización de los modelos de información y comunicación en este dominio que podrían aplicarse, de manera similar, a IoT, destaca el estándar IEC 61850. Sin embargo, los protocolos de comunicación definidos por el estándar no son adecuados para IoT. Esta Tesis analiza la idoneidad del IEC 61850 para escenarios IoT y propone un protocolo de comunicación REST para sus servicios.Por último, se trata la problemática asociada a la confiabilidad que debe proporcionar una arquitectura IoT para dominios de aplicación relacionados con la salud o sistemas de seguridad funcional (Safety)

Development of a simulation tool for measurements and analysis of simulated and real data to identify ADLs and behavioral trends through statistics techniques and ML algorithms

openCon una popolazione di anziani in crescita, il numero di soggetti a rischio di patologia è in rapido aumento. Molti gruppi di ricerca stanno studiando soluzioni pervasive per monitorare continuamente e discretamente i soggetti fragili nelle loro case, riducendo i costi sanitari e supportando la diagnosi medica. Comportamenti anomali durante l'esecuzione di attività di vita quotidiana (ADL) o variazioni sulle tendenze comportamentali sono di grande importanza.With a growing population of elderly people, the number of subjects at risk of pathology is rapidly increasing. Many research groups are studying pervasive solutions to continuously and unobtrusively monitor fragile subjects in their homes, reducing health-care costs and supporting the medical diagnosis. Anomalous behaviors while performing activities of daily living (ADLs) or variations on behavioral trends are of great importance. To measure ADLs a significant number of parameters need to be considering affecting the measurement such as sensors and environment characteristics or sensors disposition. To face the impossibility to study in the real context the best configuration of sensors able to minimize costs and maximize accuracy, simulation tools are being developed as powerful means. This thesis presents several contributions on this topic. In the following research work, a study of a measurement chain aimed to measure ADLs and represented by PIRs sensors and ML algorithm is conducted and a simulation tool in form of Web Application has been developed to generate datasets and to simulate how the measurement chain reacts varying the configuration of the sensors. Starting from eWare project results, the simulation tool has been thought to provide support for technicians, developers and installers being able to speed up analysis and monitoring times, to allow rapid identification of changes in behavioral trends, to guarantee system performance monitoring and to study the best configuration of the sensors network for a given environment. The UNIVPM Home Care Web App offers the chance to create ad hoc datasets related to ADLs and to conduct analysis thanks to statistical algorithms applied on data. To measure ADLs, machine learning algorithms have been implemented in the tool. Five different tasks have been identified. To test the validity of the developed instrument six case studies divided into two categories have been considered. To the first category belong those studies related to: 1) discover the best configuration of the sensors keeping environmental characteristics and user behavior as constants; 2) define the most performant ML algorithms. The second category aims to proof the stability of the algorithm implemented and its collapse condition by varying user habits. Noise perturbation on data has been applied to all case studies. Results show the validity of the generated datasets. By maximizing the sensors network is it possible to minimize the ML error to 0.8%. Due to cost is a key factor in this scenario, the fourth case studied considered has shown that minimizing the configuration of the sensors it is possible to reduce drastically the cost with a more than reasonable value for the ML error around 11.8%. Results in ADLs measurement can be considered more than satisfactory.INGEGNERIA INDUSTRIALEopenPirozzi, Michel

Integration of multisensor hybrid reasoners to support personal autonomy in the smart home.

The deployment of the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm requires designing and integrating user-centered smart environments to assist people in their daily life activities. This research paper details an integration and validation of multiple heterogeneous sensors with hybrid reasoners that support decision making in order to monitor personal and environmental data at a smart home in a private way. The results innovate on knowledge-based platforms, distributed sensors, connected objects, accessibility and authentication methods to promote independent living for elderly people. TALISMAN+, the AmI framework deployed, integrates four subsystems in the smart home: (i) a mobile biomedical telemonitoring platform to provide elderly patients with continuous disease management; (ii) an integration middleware that allows context capture from heterogeneous sensors to program environment¿s reaction; (iii) a vision system for intelligent monitoring of daily activities in the home; and (iv) an ontologies-based integrated reasoning platform to trigger local actions and manage private information in the smart home. The framework was integrated in two real running environments, the UPM Accessible Digital Home and MetalTIC house, and successfully validated by five experts in home care, elderly people and personal autonomy

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)

Human Action Recognition and Monitoring in Ambient Assisted Living Environments

Population ageing is set to become one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century, with implications for almost all sectors of society. Especially in developed countries, governments should immediately implement policies and solutions to facilitate the needs of an increasingly older population. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and in particular the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) offer a feasible response, allowing the creation of human-centric smart environments that are sensitive and responsive to the needs and behaviours of the user. In such a scenario, understand what a human being is doing, if and how he/she is interacting with specific objects, or whether abnormal situations are occurring is critical. This thesis is focused on two related research areas of AAL: the development of innovative vision-based techniques for human action recognition and the remote monitoring of users behaviour in smart environments. The former topic is addressed through different approaches based on data extracted from RGB-D sensors. A first algorithm exploiting skeleton joints orientations is proposed. This approach is extended through a multi-modal strategy that includes the RGB channel to define a number of temporal images, capable of describing the time evolution of actions. Finally, the concept of template co-updating concerning action recognition is introduced. Indeed, exploiting different data categories (e.g., skeleton and RGB information) improve the effectiveness of template updating through co-updating techniques. The action recognition algorithms have been evaluated on CAD-60 and CAD-120, achieving results comparable with the state-of-the-art. Moreover, due to the lack of datasets including skeleton joints orientations, a new benchmark named Office Activity Dataset has been internally acquired and released. Regarding the second topic addressed, the goal is to provide a detailed implementation strategy concerning a generic Internet of Things monitoring platform that could be used for checking users' behaviour in AmI/AAL contexts