Enabling Machine Learning Across Heterogeneous Sensor Networks with Graph Autoencoders

Machine Learning (ML) has been applied to enable many life-assisting appli-cations, such as abnormality detection and emdergency request for the soli-tary elderly. However, in most cases machine learning algorithms depend on the layout of the target Internet of Things (IoT) sensor network. Hence, to deploy an application across Heterogeneous Sensor Networks (HSNs), i.e. sensor networks with different sensors type or layouts, it is required to repeat the process of data collection and ML algorithm training. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework leveraging deep learning for graphs to enable using the same activity recognition system across HSNs deployed in differ-ent smart homes. Using our framework, we were able to transfer activity classifiers trained with activity labels on a source HSN to a target HSN, reaching about 75% of the baseline accuracy on the target HSN without us-ing target activity labels. Moreover, our model can quickly adapt to unseen sensor layouts, which makes it highly suitable for the gradual deployment of real-world ML-based applications. In addition, we show that our framework is resilient to suboptimal graph representations of HSNs

Smart homes and their users:a systematic analysis and key challenges

Published research on smart homes and their users is growing exponentially, yet a clear understanding of who these users are and how they might use smart home technologies is missing from a field being overwhelmingly pushed by technology developers. Through a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature on smart homes and their users, this paper takes stock of the dominant research themes and the linkages and disconnects between them. Key findings within each of nine themes are analysed, grouped into three: (1) views of the smart home-functional, instrumental, socio-technical; (2) users and the use of the smart home-prospective users, interactions and decisions, using technologies in the home; and (3) challenges for realising the smart home-hardware and software, design, domestication. These themes are integrated into an organising framework for future research that identifies the presence or absence of cross-cutting relationships between different understandings of smart homes and their users. The usefulness of the organising framework is illustrated in relation to two major concerns-privacy and control-that have been narrowly interpreted to date, precluding deeper insights and potential solutions. Future research on smart homes and their users can benefit by exploring and developing cross-cutting relationships between the research themes identified

Designing for Experiences in Blended Reality Environments for People with Dementia

Blended Reality environments have the potential to provide scalable solutions that are affordable, adaptable and easily deployable to support people with dementia. Use of these technologies is associated with experience of presence which is an experience with technologically mediated perceptions that generates a feeling of being there and the illusion of non-mediation. Our study examines what constitutes an experience of presence for people with dementia when they interact with MRTs. An observational study with ten participants (MoCA = 18 to 23, Age = 63 to 88 years) played a game of Tangram on Osmo. Six of these participants also played Young Conker on HoloLens. The experiences of the participants in the digital space, the physical space, and their attention crossover between the two spaces were coded in Noldus Observer XT 14.1. The study found four main themes that have an impact on the experience of presence in PwD – correspondences, effortless access to physical and digital content, awareness of reality and emergence. Correspondences between physical and digital spaces require PwD to have constant information about the state and nature of physical and digital content. The transitions between physical and digital should be seamless. PwD demonstrated positive experiences with Osmo, an augmented Virtuality technology while their experience with HoloLens, augmented reality technology was negative. The factors impacting experience of presence were prominent in Osmo while they were mostly absent in HoloLens throughout the game play. The outcomes of this study have resulted in a set of recommendations and guidelines for designers to design correspondences for experience of presence. We are currently working on developing prototypes using these guidelines for evaluations with PwD.AGE-WEL

Quality of life tools to inform co-design in the development of assistive technologies for people with dementia and their carer

A number of tools exist to measure quality of life (QoL) for people with dementia (PwD). A selection of existing measures are summarised, obtained from an online literature survey, comprising of scales administered either by healthcare professionals with the PwD (self-report) and/or their carers (proxy report) or from observation. It is suggested that a combination of such tools with user satisfaction questionnaires may provide a way to approach the problem of evaluating Assistive Technology (AT) solutions or inform co-design of technological solutions with PwD and their carers

The spatial scale of competition from recruits on an older cohort in Atlantic salmon

Competitive effects of younger cohorts on older ones are frequently assumed to be negligible in species where older, larger individuals dominate in pairwise behavioural interactions. Here, we provide field estimates of such competition by recruits on an older age class in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), a species where observational studies have documented strong body size advantages which should favour older individuals in direct interactions. By creating realistic levels of spatial variation in the density of underyearling (YOY) recruits over a 1-km stretch of a stream, and obtaining accurate measurements of individual growth rates of overyearlings (parr) from capture–mark–recapture data on a fine spatial scale, we demonstrate that high YOY density can substantially decrease parr growth. Models integrating multiple spatial scales indicated that parr were influenced by YOY density within 16 m. The preferred model suggested parr daily mass increase to be reduced by 39% when increasing YOY density from 0.0 to 1.0 m−2, which is well within the range of naturally occurring densities. Reduced juvenile growth rates will in general be expected to reduce juvenile survival (via increased length of exposure to freshwater mortality) and increase generation times (via increased age at seaward migrations). Thus, increased recruitment can significantly affect the performance of older cohorts, with important implications for population dynamics. Our results highlight that, even for the wide range of organisms that rely on defendable resources, the direction of competition among age classes cannot be assumed a priori or be inferred from behavioural observations alone

Background Determination for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment

The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment recently reported limits on WIMP-nucleus interactions from its initial science run, down to $9.2\times10^{-48}$ cm$^2$ for the spin-independent interaction of a 36 GeV/c$^2$ WIMP at 90% confidence level. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the backgrounds important for this result and for other upcoming physics analyses, including neutrinoless double-beta decay searches and effective field theory interpretations of LUX-ZEPLIN data. We confirm that the in-situ determinations of bulk and fixed radioactive backgrounds are consistent with expectations from the ex-situ assays. The observed background rate after WIMP search criteria were applied was $(6.3\pm0.5)\times10^{-5}$ events/keV$_{ee}$/kg/day in the low-energy region, approximately 60 times lower than the equivalent rate reported by the LUX experiment.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figure

A search for new physics in low-energy electron recoils from the first LZ exposure

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a dark matter detector centered on a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber. We report searches for new physics appearing through few-keV-scale electron recoils, using the experiment's first exposure of 60 live days and a fiducial mass of 5.5t. The data are found to be consistent with a background-only hypothesis, and limits are set on models for new physics including solar axion electron coupling, solar neutrino magnetic moment and millicharge, and electron couplings to galactic axion-like particles and hidden photons. Similar limits are set on weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter producing signals through ionized atomic states from the Migdal effect.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. See https://tinyurl.com/LZDataReleaseRun1ER for a data release related to this pape