Personalized smart environments to increase inclusion of people with Down's Syndrome

Most people with Downs Syndrome (DS) experience low integration with society. Recent research and new opportunities for their integration in mainstream education and work provided numerous cases where levels of achievement exceeded the (limiting) expectations. This paper describes a project, POSEIDON, aiming at developing a technological infrastructure which can foster a growing number of services developed to support people with DS. People with DS have their own strengths, preferences and needs so POSEIDON will focus on using their strengths to provide support for their needs whilst allowing each individual to personalize the solution based on their preferences. This project is user-centred from its inception and will give all main stakeholders ample opportunities to shape the output of the project, which will ensure a final outcome which is of practical usefulness and interest to the intended users

Personalized smart environments to increase inclusion of people with Down's Syndrome

Most people with Downs Syndrome (DS) experience low integration with society. Recent research and new opportunities for their integration in mainstream education and work provided numerous cases where levels of achievement exceeded the (limiting) expectations. This paper describes a project, POSEIDON, aiming at developing a technological infrastructure which can foster a growing number of services developed to support people with DS. People with DS have their own strengths, preferences and needs so POSEIDON will focus on using their strengths to provide support for their needs whilst allowing each individual to personalize the solution based on their preferences. This project is user-centred from its inception and will give all main stakeholders ample opportunities to shape the output of the project, which will ensure a final outcome which is of practical usefulness and interest to the intended users

Co-creation of smart technology with (and for) people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. This methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Down’s Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project is developed by a consortium of commercial, academic, and enduser supporting organizations. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped the projec

Co-creation of smart technology with (and for) people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. This methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Down’s Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project is developed by a consortium of commercial, academic, and enduser supporting organizations. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped the projec

eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environment development

Intelligent Environments bring technology closer to daily life and aim to provide context-sensitive services to humans in the physical spaces in which they work and live. Some developments have considered the ethical dimension of these systems; however this is an aspect, which requires further analysis. A literature review shows that these approaches are rather disconnected from each other, and that they are not making an impact on real systems being built. This paper summarises the ethical concerns addressed by previous work, highlights other important concerns, which have been overlooked so far, and proposes a more holistic approach. It explains how these concerns can be used to guide part of the development process in such a way that Intelligent Environments being engineered in the future will consider the ethical dimension in practice, not just in theory

eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environment development

Intelligent Environments bring technology closer to daily life and aim to provide context-sensitive services to humans in the physical spaces in which they work and live. Some developments have considered the ethical dimension of these systems; however this is an aspect, which requires further analysis. A literature review shows that these approaches are rather disconnected from each other, and that they are not making an impact on real systems being built. This paper summarises the ethical concerns addressed by previous work, highlights other important concerns, which have been overlooked so far, and proposes a more holistic approach. It explains how these concerns can be used to guide part of the development process in such a way that Intelligent Environments being engineered in the future will consider the ethical dimension in practice, not just in theory

Assessing real world imagery in virtual environments for people with cognitive disabilities

People with cognitive disabilities are often socially excluded. We propose a system based on Virtual and Augmented Reality that has the potential to act as an educational and support tool in everyday tasks for people with cognitive disabilities. Our solution consists of two components: the first that enables users to train for several essential quotidian activities and the second that is meant to offer real time guidance feedback for immediate support. In order to illustrate the functionality of our proposed system, we chose to train and support navigation skills. Thus, we conducted a preliminary study on people with Down Syndrome (DS) based on a navigation task. Our experiment was aimed at evaluating the visual and spatial perception of people with DS when interacting with different elements of our system. We provide a preliminary evaluation that illustrates how people with DS perceive different landmarks and types of visual feedback, in static images and videos. Although we focused our study on people with DS, people with different cognitive disabilities could also benefit from the features of our solution. This analysis is mandatory in the design of a virtual intelligent system with several functionalities that aims at helping disabled people in developing basic knowledge in every day tasks

Assessing real world imagery in virtual environments for people with cognitive disabilities

People with cognitive disabilities are often socially excluded. We propose a system based on Virtual and Augmented Reality that has the potential to act as an educational and support tool in everyday tasks for people with cognitive disabilities. Our solution consists of two components: the first that enables users to train for several essential quotidian activities and the second that is meant to offer real time guidance feedback for immediate support. In order to illustrate the functionality of our proposed system, we chose to train and support navigation skills. Thus, we conducted a preliminary study on people with Down Syndrome (DS) based on a navigation task. Our experiment was aimed at evaluating the visual and spatial perception of people with DS when interacting with different elements of our system. We provide a preliminary evaluation that illustrates how people with DS perceive different landmarks and types of visual feedback, in static images and videos. Although we focused our study on people with DS, people with different cognitive disabilities could also benefit from the features of our solution. This analysis is mandatory in the design of a virtual intelligent system with several functionalities that aims at helping disabled people in developing basic knowledge in every day tasks

eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environments development

Intelligent environments aim to provide context-sensitive services to humans in the physical spaces in which they work and live. While the ethical dimensions of these systems have been considered, this is an aspect which requires further analysis. A literature review shows that these approaches are disconnected from each other, and that they are making little impact on real systems being built. This article provides a solution to both of these problems. It synthesises the ethical issues addressed by previous work and highlights other important concerns which have been overlooked so far. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative, more holistic approach that can be used to guide the development of intelligent environments. The validity of the framework is demonstrated by its integration into an actual project

eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environments development

Intelligent environments aim to provide context-sensitive services to humans in the physical spaces in which they work and live. While the ethical dimensions of these systems have been considered, this is an aspect which requires further analysis. A literature review shows that these approaches are disconnected from each other, and that they are making little impact on real systems being built. This article provides a solution to both of these problems. It synthesises the ethical issues addressed by previous work and highlights other important concerns which have been overlooked so far. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative, more holistic approach that can be used to guide the development of intelligent environments. The validity of the framework is demonstrated by its integration into an actual project