Recognition Situations Using Extended Dempster-Shafer Theory

Weiser’s [111] vision of pervasive computing describes a world where technology seamlessly integrates into the environment, automatically responding to peoples’ needs. Underpinning this vision is the ability of systems to automatically track the situation of a person. The task of situation recognition is critical and complex: noisy and unreliable sensor data, dynamic situations, unpredictable human behaviour and changes in the environment all contribute to the complexity. No single recognition technique is suitable in all environments. Factors such as availability of training data, ability to deal with uncertain information and transparency to the user will determine which technique to use in any particular environment. In this thesis, we propose the use of Dempster-Shafer theory as a theoretically sound basis for situation recognition - an approach that can reason with uncertainty, but which does not rely on training data. We use existing operations from Dempster-Shafer theory and create new operations to establish an evidence decision network. The network is used to generate and assess situation beliefs based on processed sensor data for an environment. We also define two specific extensions to Dempster-Shafer theory to enhance the knowledge that can be used for reasoning: 1) temporal knowledge about situation time patterns 2) quality of evidence sources (sensors) into the reasoning process. To validate the feasibility of our approach, this thesis creates evidence decision networks for two real-world data sets: a smart home data set and an officebased data set. We analyse situation recognition accuracy for each of the data sets, using the evidence decision networks with temporal/quality extensions. We also compare the evidence decision networks against two learning techniques: Naïve Bayes and J48 Decision Tree

Inferring Complex Activities for Context-aware Systems within Smart Environments

The rising ageing population worldwide and the prevalence of age-related conditions such as physical fragility, mental impairments and chronic diseases have significantly impacted the quality of life and caused a shortage of health and care services. Over-stretched healthcare providers are leading to a paradigm shift in public healthcare provisioning. Thus, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) using Smart Homes (SH) technologies has been rigorously investigated to help address the aforementioned problems. Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is a critical component in AAL systems which enables applications such as just-in-time assistance, behaviour analysis, anomalies detection and emergency notifications. This thesis is aimed at investigating challenges faced in accurately recognising Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) performed by single or multiple inhabitants within smart environments. Specifically, this thesis explores five complementary research challenges in HAR. The first study contributes to knowledge by developing a semantic-enabled data segmentation approach with user-preferences. The second study takes the segmented set of sensor data to investigate and recognise human ADLs at multi-granular action level; coarse- and fine-grained action level. At the coarse-grained actions level, semantic relationships between the sensor, object and ADLs are deduced, whereas, at fine-grained action level, object usage at the satisfactory threshold with the evidence fused from multimodal sensor data is leveraged to verify the intended actions. Moreover, due to imprecise/vague interpretations of multimodal sensors and data fusion challenges, fuzzy set theory and fuzzy web ontology language (fuzzy-OWL) are leveraged. The third study focuses on incorporating uncertainties caused in HAR due to factors such as technological failure, object malfunction, and human errors. Hence, existing studies uncertainty theories and approaches are analysed and based on the findings, probabilistic ontology (PR-OWL) based HAR approach is proposed. The fourth study extends the first three studies to distinguish activities conducted by more than one inhabitant in a shared smart environment with the use of discriminative sensor-based techniques and time-series pattern analysis. The final study investigates in a suitable system architecture with a real-time smart environment tailored to AAL system and proposes microservices architecture with sensor-based off-the-shelf and bespoke sensing methods. The initial semantic-enabled data segmentation study was evaluated with 100% and 97.8% accuracy to segment sensor events under single and mixed activities scenarios. However, the average classification time taken to segment each sensor events have suffered from 3971ms and 62183ms for single and mixed activities scenarios, respectively. The second study to detect fine-grained-level user actions was evaluated with 30 and 153 fuzzy rules to detect two fine-grained movements with a pre-collected dataset from the real-time smart environment. The result of the second study indicate good average accuracy of 83.33% and 100% but with the high average duration of 24648ms and 105318ms, and posing further challenges for the scalability of fusion rule creations. The third study was evaluated by incorporating PR-OWL ontology with ADL ontologies and Semantic-Sensor-Network (SSN) ontology to define four types of uncertainties presented in the kitchen-based activity. The fourth study illustrated a case study to extended single-user AR to multi-user AR by combining RFID tags and fingerprint sensors discriminative sensors to identify and associate user actions with the aid of time-series analysis. The last study responds to the computations and performance requirements for the four studies by analysing and proposing microservices-based system architecture for AAL system. A future research investigation towards adopting fog/edge computing paradigms from cloud computing is discussed for higher availability, reduced network traffic/energy, cost, and creating a decentralised system. As a result of the five studies, this thesis develops a knowledge-driven framework to estimate and recognise multi-user activities at fine-grained level user actions. This framework integrates three complementary ontologies to conceptualise factual, fuzzy and uncertainties in the environment/ADLs, time-series analysis and discriminative sensing environment. Moreover, a distributed software architecture, multimodal sensor-based hardware prototypes, and other supportive utility tools such as simulator and synthetic ADL data generator for the experimentation were developed to support the evaluation of the proposed approaches. The distributed system is platform-independent and currently supported by an Android mobile application and web-browser based client interfaces for retrieving information such as live sensor events and HAR results

Dynamic Sensor Data Segmentation for Real time Activity Recognition

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Approaches and algorithms for activity recognition have recently made substantial progress due to advancements in pervasive and mobile computing, smart environments and ambient assisted living. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to achieve real-time continuous activity recognition as sensor data segmentation remains a challenge. This paper presents a novel approach to real-time sensor data segmentation for continuous activity recognition. Central to the approach is a dynamic segmentation model, based on the notion of varied time windows, which can shrink and expand the segmentation window size by using temporal information of sensor data and activities as well as the state of activity recognition. The paper first analyzes the characteristics of activities of daily living from which the segmentation model that is applicable to a wide range of activity recognition scenarios is motivated and developed. It then describes the working mechanism and relevant algorithms of the model in the context of knowledge-driven activity recognition based on ontologies. The presented approach has been implemented in a prototype system and evaluated in a number of experiments. Results have shown average recognition accuracy above 83% in all experiments for real time activity recognition, which proves the approach and the underlying model

Activity recognition in smart homes with self verification of assignments

Activity recognition in smart homes provides valuable benefits in the field of health and elderly care by remote monitoring of patients. In health care, capabilities of both performing the correct recognition and reducing the wrong assignments are of high importance. The novelty of the proposed activity recognition approach lies in being able to assign a category to the incoming activity, while measuring the confidence score of the assigned category that reduces the false positives in the assignments. Multiple sensors deployed at different locations of a smart home are used for activity observations. For multi-class activity classification, we propose a binary solution using support vector machines, which simplifies the problem to correct/incorrect assignments. We obtain the confidence score of each assignment by estimating the activity distribution within each class such that the assignments with low confidence are separated for further investigation by a human operator. The proposed approach is evaluated using a comprehensive performance evaluation metrics. Experimental results obtained from nine publicly available smart home datasets demonstrate a better performance of the proposed approach compared to the state of the art

Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Logic and Their Applications

The present book contains 20 articles collected from amongst the 53 total submitted manuscripts for the Special Issue “Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Loigic and Their Applications” of the MDPI journal Mathematics. The articles, which appear in the book in the series in which they were accepted, published in Volumes 7 (2019) and 8 (2020) of the journal, cover a wide range of topics connected to the theory and applications of fuzzy systems and their extensions and generalizations. This range includes, among others, management of the uncertainty in a fuzzy environment; fuzzy assessment methods of human-machine performance; fuzzy graphs; fuzzy topological and convergence spaces; bipolar fuzzy relations; type-2 fuzzy; and intuitionistic, interval-valued, complex, picture, and Pythagorean fuzzy sets, soft sets and algebras, etc. The applications presented are oriented to finance, fuzzy analytic hierarchy, green supply chain industries, smart health practice, and hotel selection. This wide range of topics makes the book interesting for all those working in the wider area of Fuzzy sets and systems and of fuzzy logic and for those who have the proper mathematical background who wish to become familiar with recent advances in fuzzy mathematics, which has entered to almost all sectors of human life and activity

An overview of data fusion techniques for internet of things enabled physical activity recognition and measure

Due to importantly beneficial effects on physical and mental health and strong association with many rehabilitation programs, Physical Activity Recognition and Measure (PARM) has been widely recognised as a key paradigm for a variety of smart healthcare applications. Traditional methods for PARM relies on designing and utilising Data fusion or machine learning techniques in processing ambient and wearable sensing data for classifying types of physical activity and removing their uncertainties. Yet they mostly focus on controlled environments with the aim of increasing types of identifiable activity subjects, improved recognition accuracy and measure robustness. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling technology is transferring PARM studies to an open and dynamic uncontrolled ecosystem by connecting heterogeneous cost-effective wearable devices and mobile apps and various groups of users. Little is currently known about whether traditional Data fusion techniques can tackle new challenges of IoT environments and how to effectively harness and improve these technologies. In an effort to understand potential use and opportunities of Data fusion techniques in IoT enabled PARM applications, this paper will give a systematic review, critically examining PARM studies from a perspective of a novel 3D dynamic IoT based physical activity collection and validation model. It summarized traditional state-of-the-art data fusion techniques from three plane domains in the 3D dynamic IoT model: devices, persons and timeline. The paper goes on to identify some new research trends and challenges of data fusion techniques in the IoT enabled PARM studies, and discusses some key enabling techniques for tackling them

A review of the role of sensors in mobile context-aware recommendation systems

Recommendation systems are specialized in offering suggestions about specific items of different types (e.g., books, movies, restaurants, and hotels) that could be interesting for the user. They have attracted considerable research attention due to their benefits and also their commercial interest. Particularly, in recent years, the concept of context-aware recommendation system has appeared to emphasize the importance of considering the context of the situations in which the user is involved in order to provide more accurate recommendations. The detection of the context requires the use of sensors of different types, which measure different context variables. Despite the relevant role played by sensors in the development of context-aware recommendation systems, sensors and recommendation approaches are two fields usually studied independently. In this paper, we provide a survey on the use of sensors for recommendation systems. Our contribution can be seen from a double perspective. On the one hand, we overview existing techniques used to detect context factors that could be relevant for recommendation. On the other hand, we illustrate the interest of sensors by considering different recommendation use cases and scenarios

Digital Habit Evidence

This Article explores how “habit evidence” will become a catalyst for a new form of digital proof based on the explosive growth of smart homes, smart cars, smart devices, and the Internet of Things. Habit evidence is the rule that certain sorts of semiautomatic, regularized responses to particular stimuli are trustworthy and thus admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence (“FRE”) 406 “Habit; Routine Practice” and state equivalents. While well established since the common law, “habit” has made only an inconsistent appearance in reported cases and has been underutilized in trial practice. But intriguingly, once applied to the world of digital trails and the Internet of Things, this long dormant rule could transform our “quantified lives” into a significant new evidentiary power. In fact, habit evidence as quantified fact may become weaponized to reimagine trial practice in the digital age

Smart Monitoring and Control in the Future Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) and related technologies have the promise of realizing pervasive and smart applications which, in turn, have the potential of improving the quality of life of people living in a connected world. According to the IoT vision, all things can cooperate amongst themselves and be managed from anywhere via the Internet, allowing tight integration between the physical and cyber worlds and thus improving efficiency, promoting usability, and opening up new application opportunities. Nowadays, IoT technologies have successfully been exploited in several domains, providing both social and economic benefits. The realization of the full potential of the next generation of the Internet of Things still needs further research efforts concerning, for instance, the identification of new architectures, methodologies, and infrastructures dealing with distributed and decentralized IoT systems; the integration of IoT with cognitive and social capabilities; the enhancement of the sensing–analysis–control cycle; the integration of consciousness and awareness in IoT environments; and the design of new algorithms and techniques for managing IoT big data. This Special Issue is devoted to advancements in technologies, methodologies, and applications for IoT, together with emerging standards and research topics which would lead to realization of the future Internet of Things

Modèle possibiliste pour la reconnaissance d'activités habitat intelligent

Le vieillissement actuel de la population provoque un accroissement de problèmes dans les systèmes de santé, dont une pénurie de personnel médical pour les soins à domicile. Le vieillissement de la population a également pour effet d'augmenter le nombre de personnes avec troubles cognitifs. Les comportements incohérents induits par les symptômes des troubles cognitifs limitent la capacité de ces personnes à réaliser leurs activités de la vie quotidienne (AVQ). L'un des axes de recherche prometteurs de cette problématique est l'amélioration et le maintien de la qualité de vie des personnes avec troubles cognitifs dans leurs domiciles. Pour répondre à cette problématique, plusieurs laboratoires de recherche, dont le laboratoire de DOmotique et d'informatique Mobile de l'Université de Sherbrooke (DOMUS), explorent les différents moyens de soutenir, à l'intérieur d'un habitat intelligent, un occupant avec troubles cognitifs dans l'accomplissement de ses AVQ. Cette approche s'inscrit dans le récent courant de pensée issu de l'intelligence ambiante, qui fait référence à une tendance où les environnements sont enrichis avec des technologies (capteurs, effecteurs et autres dispositifs interconnectés par un réseau), dans le but de concevoir un système pouvant planifier une assistance ponctuelle aux occupants en fonction des informations recueillies et de l'historique des données accumulées. L'une des difficultés majeures inhérentes à ce contexte est la reconnaissance et la prédiction des comportements anormaux lorsque les occupants effectuent leurs AVQ à l'intérieur d'un habitat intelligent. Cette thèse vise à contribuer à l'amélioration du processus de reconnaissance de comportements d'un occupant avec troubles cognitifs. Notre proposition consiste en une approche de reconnaissance et prédiction de comportements fondée sur une formalisation des actions basée sur la théorie des possibilités, une alternative à la théorie des probabilités. Les actions sont inférées à partir de l'état actuellement observé de l'habitat intelligent obtenu grâce aux évènements envoyés par les capteurs présents dans l'appartement, lesquelles peuvent fournir une information incomplète et imparfaite. À partir de la séquence d'actions observées plausibles, l'approche proposée utilise une formalisation des activités en structure de plans d'actions pour inférer le comportement observé de l'occupant. Cette approche est en mesure de considérer les comportements erronés, où l'occupant effectue de façon erronée certaines activités tandis que d'autres peuvent être effectuées de façon cohérente, et les comportements cohérents, où l'occupant effectue une ou plusieurs activités de façon cohérente. Les hypothèses sur le comportement observé sont ensuite utilisées pour déterminer les opportunités d'assistance que l'habitat intelligent peut offrir. L'approche proposée a été implémentée et validée au sein de l'infrastructure du projet"Ambient Intelligence for Home-based Elderly Care" à l'"Institute for Infocomm Research" de Singapour et présente des résultats prometteurs pour des scénarios de cas réels effectués dans l'infrastructure. Le développement d'un habitat intelligent capable de maintenir et d'améliorer la qualité de vie des personnes avec troubles cognitifs permettrait de diminuer le fardeau des aidants naturels et professionnels, facilitant le choix des ces personnes de rester à domicile. Ce type de technologie pourrait constituer une solution viable aux problèmes des systèmes de santé associés au vieillissement de la population. De plus, ce type d'approche peut également être utilisé dans des contextes où les comportements anormaux et les situations à risque doivent être évités comme, par exemple, dans le domaine de l'aviation