The elderly and the digital inclusion: A brief reference to the initiatives of the European union and Portugal

Background: The world and Europe, in particular, are aging very fast, and in the same vein, digitization is moving very quickly into citizens’ routines. Given the fact that the elderly are the largest group of citizens who are info-excluded, this reality is worrying because it will quickly make them socially excluded. This article briefly presents the main initiatives of the European Union and Portugal to promote greater and faster digital inclusion of the elderly people. In the final section, there is a critical reflection on technology acceptance Model, the concept of universal design and usability in order to propose clues and strategies that can and/or may facilitate the use and access of technologies and digital resources by the elderly.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people

This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and users for which service robots are and are not suitable

An Architecture for Development of Ambient Assisted Living Applications: a Case Study in Diabetes

Advances in sensors, mobile and embedded devices have made possible patient monitoring and provided medical treatments and other assistance in health care. Aging populations will benefit from reduced costs and improved health care through assisted living based on these technologies. In this paper we present a monitoring and control architecture allow control of a patient’s disease trough mobile and biometric devices. Our architecture is based on an Ambient Assisted Living control that provides different modules organized in a final application embedded in the mobile devices. This application is compounded by aspects like control of measurement, data obtained and representation, generation of suggestions, prevention, and education control. We have explored the architecture by developing a final application and implementing them in a prototype system. Our system shows the feasibility and opportunity of an open approach to ambient assisted living architecture.Advances in sensors, mobile and embedded devices have made possible patient monitoring and provided medical treatments and other assistance in health care. Aging populations will benefit from reduced costs and improved health care through assisted living based on these technologies. In this paper we present a monitoring and control architecture allow control of a patient’s disease trough mobile and biometric devices. Our architecture is based on an Ambient Assisted Living control that provides different modules organized in a final application embedded in the mobile devices. This application is compounded by aspects like control of measurement, data obtained and representation, generation of suggestions, prevention, and education control. We have explored the architecture by developing a final application and implementing them in a prototype system. Our system shows the feasibility and opportunity of an open approach to ambient assisted living architecture

A case study in Diabetes

Advances in sensors, mobile and embedded devices have made possible patient monitoring and provided medical treatments and other assistance in health care. Aging populations will benefit from reduced costs and improved health care through assisted living based on these technologies. In this paper we present a monitoring and control architecture allow control of a patient’s disease trough mobile and biometric devices. Our architecture is based on an Ambient Assisted Living control that provides different modules organized in a final application embedded in the mobile devices. This application is compounded by aspects like control of measurement, data obtained and representation, generation of suggestions, prevention, and education control. We have explored the architecture by developing a final application and implementing them in a prototype system. Our system shows the feasibility and opportunity of an open approach to ambient assisted living architecture.Advances in sensors, mobile and embedded devices have made possible patient monitoring and provided medical treatments and other assistance in health care. Aging populations will benefit from reduced costs and improved health care through assisted living based on these technologies. In this paper we present a monitoring and control architecture allow control of a patient’s disease trough mobile and biometric devices. Our architecture is based on an Ambient Assisted Living control that provides different modules organized in a final application embedded in the mobile devices. This application is compounded by aspects like control of measurement, data obtained and representation, generation of suggestions, prevention, and education control. We have explored the architecture by developing a final application and implementing them in a prototype system. Our system shows the feasibility and opportunity of an open approach to ambient assisted living architecture

Prioritizing the Delivery of Services to Homeless Students Who Also Have Special Needs

In the United States there are 234,506 children who are homeless and also identified as having special needs within the 2015/2016 school year. This population experiences extensive biological, psychological, social, and academic needs (Black & Hoeft, 2015; Chow, Mistry, & Melchor, 2015; Gargiulo, 2006; Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni & Israel, 2006). Schools face varied challenges of barriers such as properly identifying students and staff and funding issues (Bowman, et al., 2008; Gargiulo, 2006; Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni & Israel, 2006), while families struggle with issues such as time constraints and high stress levels (Chow, Mistry, & Melchor, 2015; Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni & Israel, 2006). While the challenges of both schools and families have been identified in the research, less is known about the best methods of delivering the complex array of services needed by this population of students. Therefore, this study will utilize a qualitative, case study design to investigate the best methods of prioritizing the delivery of multi-layered services for homeless students who have disabilities

Requirements engineering for intelligent environments

The field of Intelligent Environments (IE) is maturing to a level at which a range of sophisticated applications are emerging. Such systems aim to be context-aware, especially being adaptable to possibly unpredictable circumstances. An area of significant potential is that of ‘ambient assisted living’, with significant advances in fields such as smart spaces, classrooms, and assisted living space for the elderly or people with disabilities. In recent years, however, it has been recognised that numerous IE systems have been developed without adopting best practises from software engineering. The work presented here focuses on the requirements engineering stage and presents a framework for IE systems in which an intrinsic component is context-awareness. Whilst the framework is intended as a general IE model, we are currently applying it to the specific area of ambient assisted living and it is being employed on the POSEIDON project. It is anticipated that such real world application of the model will help endorse its conception and facilitate further refinement of the framework