Technologies, potentials and challenges for people with disabilities and elderly

Dr. Christos KouroupetroglouLaboratory AssociateATEI of Thessaloniki

chris.kourou@gmail.com

What are we going to discussWhat is a smart home?How do you build it?What are they good for?Can people with disabilities and elderly

benefit?How? Why are they good for them?What do we need to take care?Possible future directions of personalization

and adaptation technologies…

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What is a smart home/house?A smart house is a house that has highly advanced automatic

systems for lighting, temperature control, multi-media, security, window and door operations, and many other functions. (http://architecture.about.com/od/buildyourhous1/g/smarthouse.htm)

A smart home or building is a home or building, usually a new one, that is equipped with special structured wiring to enable occupants to remotely control or program an array of automated home electronic devices by entering a single command. (http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/smart-home-or-building)

A home equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by smartphone or computer (http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/smart%2Bhome)

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How do you build it?Build it as a new building.But wireless changed a lot!Augmenting an existing home with appropriate devices.

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Main componentsSensorsDevices / appliancesNetworksControl (panel) mechanisms

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SensorsSecurity system sensorsOccupancy and motion sensorsEnvironmental sensors

TemperatureSmokeWater leaksWeatherEtc.

Audio/Video sensors

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DevicesRefrigeratorOvenDishwasherLaundryVacuumHome cinemasTVs

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Network of devices/sensorsBluetoothIRZigBeeZ-WaveNFCWiFi

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Control panel / ServerPC?Tablet?Smart phone?TV?Dedicated device?Robot?Anything we can interact with!

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What do we need from our home?Health: we all need to live in a healthy living

environmentSafety: we all need to feel safe in our homeEntertainment: we all need to get entertained in our

homeCommunication & social participation: we all need to

communicate with friends and family from and within the home

Education: we all (might) need to educate ourselvesEmployment – employability: we all (might) need to

work from our home

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Smart home applicationsHealth servicesSecurityMonitoring servicesRemote controlEnergy resources controlPlant watering, coffee making, pet feeding…The sky is the limit!

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What about Persons With Disabilities?“We all need…”Interaction?Design?Privacy?Applications?

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Applications for Persons With Disabilities and ElderlyHealth servicesMonitoringNotifications – reminderSafety and securityAutonomy and mobilityCommunicationEntertainment

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Technological ChallengesFragmentationCommunication - Collaboration

SustainabilitySurvivabilityEnergy

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Some answers…Fragmentation

Devices as platformsSee the smart phones example

Communication – CollaborationStandardization of communicationsPlatforms for app development (Android,

HomeOS, etc.)

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Human factor challengesDesignSensor and devices survivabilityEase of use – interaction!!!UnobtrusivenessAmbientPrivacy issues

All these mean that…

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All these mean that…We should place people in the first place!

We must design and develop for ALL people!

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Opportunities not to be missedNew sensors (wearable, ambient etc.)

New interaction techniquesAffective computingUbiquitous computingCloud computingBig Data trend

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Putting ALL people in the first placeWe already have sensors and devicesWe already have applicationsWe are learning user needs of different usersWe map appropriate applications/devices for

groups of people

Now we need machines to know their users and adapt accordingly

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Personalization - AdaptationWe need data about the devices and

applicationsWe need data about users and their needsWe need data about other contextual

parametersCombining all these using semantic

technologies (RDF, OWL) could lead to better personalization and adaptation of smart home applications and solutions

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Existing approaches Composite Capabilities/ Preference Profiles framework

http://www.w3.org/Mobile/CCPP/ Universal Remote Console - URC Standard (ISO/IEC 24752)

http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=42309

EMMA (Extensible Multi Modal Annotation mark-up language) http://www.w3.org/TR/emma/

IMS AccLIP (Access For All Personal Needs and Preferences Description for Digital Delivery Information Model) and AccMD http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/members/accessibility/meetings/2004/sig8/

accliphtml http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/members/accessibility/meetings/2004/sig8/

accmdhtml Individualized adaptability and accessibility in e-learning,

education and training (ISO/IEC 24751-1:2008) http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=41521

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What about context modeling?When?Where?What do I want to do?How?Other environmental parameters (sound,

lighting, etc.)Who else is there?… anything else?

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What about social context modeling?Who is in the house?What are their needs?How do we relate to them?Do we trust them?Do we feel comfortable with them?Who is in command / superior position?… anything else?

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What about cultural background modeling?Does cultural background affect interaction?What is the cultural background of users?What feels better/ more natural for them in

their interaction?What happens when users with different

cultural background exist in the same environment?

… anything else?

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Research problemInvestigate possible technologies, standards and models that could be used for modeling social context and cultural background.

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Further reading Biswas P., Langdon P. & Robinson P. (2012) Designing inclusive interfaces through

user modelling and simulation, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, Taylor & Francis, Vol 28, Issue 1 DOI:10.1080/10447318.2011.565718

Brush, A.J.B., Lee, B., Mahajan, R., Agarwal, S., Saroiu, S. and Dixon, C., 2011. Home automation in the wild: challenges and opportunities. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2011. New York: ACM, pp.2115-2124.

Callejas, Z. and Lopez-Cozar, R., 2009. Designing smart home interfaces for the elderly. SIGACCESS Access. Comput. 95, pp. 10-16

Kirisci, P.T., Klein, P., Modzelewski, M., Lawo, M., Mohamad, Y., Fiddian, T., Bowden, C., Fennel, A. and O’Connor, J., 2011. Supporting inclusive product design with virtual user models at the early stages of product development. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 6766, pp.69-78.

Lawo, M., Kirisci, P., Modzelewski, M., Connor, J.O., Fennell, A., Fiddian, T., Gökmen, H., Klann, M., Geissler, M., Matiouk, S. and Mohamad, Y., 2012. Virtual User Models – Approach and first results of the VICON project. eChallenges e-2012, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2012.

Mejia, A., Juarez-Ramirez, R., Inzunza, S. and Valenzuela, R., 2012. Implementing adaptive interfaces: a user model for the development of usability in interactive systems. In: Proceedings of the CUBE International Information Technology Conference. Pune, India, 2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp.598-604.

Modzelewski, M., Lawo, M., Kirisci, P., Connor, J.O., Fennell, A., Mohamad, Y., Matiouk, S., Valle-Klann, M. and Gokmen, H., 2012. Creative Design for Inclusion using Virtual User Models. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7382, pp.288-294.

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Further reading Peissner, M., Sellner, T. and Janssen, D., 2012. MyUI Individualization Patterns for

Accessible and Adaptive User Interfaces. In: Proceedings of SMART 2012, The First International Conference on Smart Systems, Devices and Technologies, Stuttgart, Germany, 2012.

Perry, M., Dowdall, A., Lines, L. and Hone, K., 2004. Multimodal and ubiquitous computing systems: Supporting independent-living older users. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 8(3), pp.258-270.

Portet, F., Vacher, M., Golanski, C., Roux, C. and Meillon, B., 2013. Design and evaluation of a smart home voice interface for the elderly: acceptability and objection aspects. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 17(1), pp.127-144.

Rocker, C., Janse, M., Portolan, N., and Streitz, N., 2005. User requirements for intelligent home environments: a scenario-driven approach and empirical cross-cultural study. In: Proceedings of the 2005 joint conference on Smart objects and ambient intelligence: innovative context-aware services: usages and technologies. Grenoble, France, 2005. New York: ACM, pp.111-116.

Strnad, O., Felic, A. and Schmidt, A., 2012. Context Management for Self-adaptive User Interfaces in the Project MyUI. In Wichert, R. and Eberhardt, B., eds . 2012. Ambient Assisted Living. Berlin: Springer. pp.263-27.

Wehbi, A., Cherif, A. R. and Tadj, C., 2012. Modeling ontology for multimodal interaction in ubiquitous computing systems. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 2012. New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp.842-849.

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Thank you!Any questions…

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