Non-Intrusive Information Sources for Activity Analysis in Ambient Assisted Living Scenarios
Philipp Klein · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2015
As people grow older, they are often faced with some degree of decreasing cognitive abilities or physical strength. Isolation from social life, poor quality of life, and increased risk or injuries are the consequence. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a vision for the way people live their life in their own home, as they grow older: disabilities or limitations are compensated for by technology, where care-giving personnel is scarce or relatives are unable to help. Affected people are assisted by technology. The term "Ambient" in AAL expresses, what this technology needs to be, beyond assistive. It needs to integrate into the living environment in such a way that it is not recognized as such any more. Interaction with residents needs to be intuitive and natural. Technical equipment should be unobtrusive and well integrated. The areas of application targeted in this thesis are activity monitoring and activity pattern discovery in apartments or small houses. The acquisition of information regarding the residents' activity is vital for the success of any assistive technology. In many areas of daily life, this is routine already. State-of-the-art sensing technology includes cameras, light barriers, RFID sensors, radio signal localization using transponders, and pressure sensitive Floors. Due to their operating principles, they have a big impact on home and living environments. Therefore, this thesis is dedicated to research for non-intrusive activity information acquisition technology, that has minimal impact on daily life. Two base technologies are taken into account in this thesis.