Julie Doyle - CARDI Conference

Closing the Loop in Ambient Assisted Living – towards Feedback and Interventions to support health and emotional wellbeing

Julie Doyle, Brian O’Mullane, Ben Knapp

www.casala.ie

The Research Problem – Closing the Loop in AAL

• Research on sensor systems to monitor wellbeing and detect patterns of behaviour dominates the AAL research space

• Closing the feedback loop - The challenge of – Predicting changes– Prompting positive preventative intervention

measures has not been adequately addressed

www.casala.ie

CASALA Research Overview

• Unobtrusive, low cost ambient sensing in the home• Self-report daily health survey – ground truth data

– Emotional wellbeing, quality of sleep, quality of social interactions, cognition, physiological measures

• Determine statistical associations between self-reported health data with data gathered through sensors.

• Support people in managing their health and wellbeing through feedback and interventions– Orange alerts vs red alerts

The CASALA Living Lab

• 3D CAVE -> Great Northern Haven -> 1000+ homes in community

www.casala.ie

www.casala.ie

Great Northern Haven

• 16 aware homes at Great Northern Haven, Dundalk, Co. Louth, supporting independent living

• 100+ sensors in each apartment; 2240 sensors and actuators throughout the complex

• 24-hour monitoring• Interactive technologies include connected

TVs and tablet devices

www.casala.ie

Monitoring and Detection through Sensing

• Each apartment has 100+ sensors that detect– Presence– Flow of movement through the home– Use of electrical appliances – Home security

• We can detect changes, and decline, in patterns of social, physical and cognitive behaviour and infer changes in emotional wellbeing

www.casala.ie

Active vs Inactive Resident

www.casala.ie

Monitoring through self-report

• Daily health survey delivered through an iPad that measures– Emotional wellbeing - Positive and Negative Affect

(PANAS Questionnaire)– Quality of sleep– Quality of social interactions– Cognition (daily trivia question)

• Physiological measures including weight and blood pressure

www.casala.ie

Providing Feedback

• Information and intervention• Goal – early prediction of changes in

emotional state; novel ‘human-in-the-loop’ intervention methods specific to an individual’s needs – Improve quality of life before problems arise

• How can technology communicate our findings and help the person to adapt – how can it promote positive wellbeing

www.casala.ie

Application Area - Wellbeing

• User-centred design of applications

• Preferences for reporting of wellbeing through textual questions, smileys etc.

• Piloting of questions• Usability

www.casala.ie

Application Area - Wellbeing

www.casala.ie

Application Area – Home Safety

– Monitoring the home environment and providing feedback – a closed loop

www.casala.ie

Usage and Usability of Devices

• Initial usage of devices for ‘fun’– Helps to engage with technology

• Weekly iPad class– Provides a social element– Residents showing each other what they’ve

learned, helping someone with a problem– Devices easy to use; concepts more difficult

• Technology on its own is not the solution– ‘Cultaca’ volunteers (‘support from behind’)

www.casala.ie

www.casala.ie

Thank You

Questions?

Contact: [email protected]