Non-intrusive robust human activity recognition for diverse age groups

Many elderly prefer to live independently at their own homes. However, how to use modern technologies to ensure their safety presents vast challenges and opportunities. Being able to non-intrusively sense the activities performed by the elderly definitely has great advantages in various circumstances. Non-intrusive activity recognition can be performed using the embedded sensors in modern smartphones. However, not many activity recognition models are robust enough that allow the subjects to carry the smartphones in different pockets with unrestricted orientations and varying deviations. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no existing literature studied the difference between the youth and the elderly groups in terms of human activity recognition using smartphones. In this paper, we present our approach to perform robust activity recognition using only the accelerometer readings collected from the smartphone. First, we tested our model on two published data sets and found its performance is encouraging when compared against other models. Furthermore, we applied our model on two newly collected data sets: one consists of only young subjects (mean age = 22.5) and the other consists of only elderly subjects (mean age = 70.5). The experimental results show convincing prediction accuracy for both within and across diverse age groups. This paper fills the blank of elderly activity recognition using smartphones and shows promising results, which will serve as the groundwork of our future extensions to the current model.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Accepted versio

Robust human activity recognition using lesser number of wearable sensors

In recent years, research on the recognition of human physical activities solely using wearable sensors has received more and more attention. Compared to other types of sensory devices such as surveillance cameras, wearable sensors are preferred in most activity recognition applications mainly due to their non-intrusiveness and pervasiveness. However, many existing activity recognition applications or experiments using wearable sensors were conducted in the confined laboratory settings using specifically developed gadgets. These gadgets may be useful for a small group of people in certain specific scenarios, but probably will not gain their popularity because they introduce additional costs and they are unusual in everyday life. Alternatively, commercial devices such as smart phones and smart watches can be better utilized for robust activity recognitions. However, only few prior studies focused on activity recognitions using multiple commercial devices. In this paper, we present our feature extraction strategy and compare the performance of our feature set against other feature sets using the same classifiers. We conduct various experiments on a subset of a public dataset named PAMAP2. Specifically, we only select two sensors out of the thirteen used in PAMAP2. Experimental results show that our feature extraction strategy performs better than the others. This paper provides the necessary foundation towards robust activity recognition using only the commercial wearable devices.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Accepted versio

Protecting Information Privacy

This report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (the Commission) examines the threats to information privacy that have emerged in recent years, focusing on the activities of the state. It argues that current privacy laws and regulation do not adequately uphold human rights, and that fundamental reform is required. It identifies two principal areas of concern: the state’s handling of personal data, and the use of surveillance by public bodies. The central finding of this report is that the existing approach to the protection of information privacy in the UK is fundamentally flawed, and that there is a pressing need for widespread legislative reform in order to ensure that the rights contained in Article 8 are respected. The report argues for the establishment of a number of key ‘privacy principles’ that can be used to guide future legal reforms and the development of sector-specific regulation. The right to privacy is at risk of being eroded by the growing demand for information by government and the private sector. Unless we start to reform the law and build a regulatory system capable of protecting information privacy, we may soon find that it is a thing of the past

Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; “sensing”, “analysis”, and “application”. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing

Assistive technology design and development for acceptable robotics companions for ageing years

© 2013 Farshid Amirabdollahian et al., licensee Versita Sp. z o. o. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.A new stream of research and development responds to changes in life expectancy across the world. It includes technologies which enhance well-being of individuals, specifically for older people. The ACCOMPANY project focuses on home companion technologies and issues surrounding technology development for assistive purposes. The project responds to some overlooked aspects of technology design, divided into multiple areas such as empathic and social human-robot interaction, robot learning and memory visualisation, and monitoring persons’ activities at home. To bring these aspects together, a dedicated task is identified to ensure technological integration of these multiple approaches on an existing robotic platform, Care-O-Bot®3 in the context of a smart-home environment utilising a multitude of sensor arrays. Formative and summative evaluation cycles are then used to assess the emerging prototype towards identifying acceptable behaviours and roles for the robot, for example role as a butler or a trainer, while also comparing user requirements to achieved progress. In a novel approach, the project considers ethical concerns and by highlighting principles such as autonomy, independence, enablement, safety and privacy, it embarks on providing a discussion medium where user views on these principles and the existing tension between some of these principles, for example tension between privacy and autonomy over safety, can be captured and considered in design cycles and throughout project developmentsPeer reviewe

To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question: A systematic review and meta-analysis on the effect of post-trauma sleep on intrusive memories of analog trauma

Distressing intrusive memories of a traumatic event are one of the hallmark symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Thus, it is crucial to identify early interventions that prevent the occurrence of intrusive memories. Both, sleep and sleep deprivation have been discussed as such interventions, yet previous studies yielded contradicting effects. Our systematic review aims at evaluating existing evidence by means of traditional and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses to overcome power issues of sleep research. Until May 16th, 2022, six databases were searched for experimental analog studies examining the effect of post-trauma sleep versus wakefulness on intrusive memories. Nine studies were included in our traditional meta-analysis (8 in the IPD meta-analysis). Our analysis provided evidence for a small effect favoring sleep over wakefulness, log-ROM = 0.25, p < .001, suggesting that sleep is associated with a lower number of intrusions but unrelated to the occurrence of any versus no intrusions. We found no evidence for an effect of sleep on intrusion distress. Heterogeneity was low and certainty of evidence for our primary analysis was moderate. Our findings suggest that post-trauma sleep has the potential to be protective by reducing intrusion frequency. More research is needed to determine the impact following real-world trauma and the potential clinical significance