Abstract
Combining ongoing Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technological developments (e.g. pervasive computing, wearable devices, sensor networks etc.) with user-centred design methods greatly increases the acceptance of the intelligent system and makes it more capable of providing a better quality of life in a non-intrusive way. Elderly people could clearly benefit from this concept. Thanks to smart environments, they can experience considerable enhancements, giving them an opportunity to live more independently and for longer in their home rather than in a health-care centre. However, to implement such a system, it is essential to know for whom we are designing. In this paper, we present an intelligent system with a monitoring infrastructure that will help mainly elderly users with impairments to overcome their handicap. The purpose of such a system is to create a safe and intuitive environment that will facilitate the achievement of household tasks in order to preserve independence of elderly residents for a while longer. Pursuing this goal, we propose to use the persona concept to help us build a user model based on the personas’ aptitudes. The practice of user modelling emphasizes the importance of user-centred techniques in any AmI system development and highlights the potential impacts of AmI for certain targeted groups - in this case, the elderly and people with disabilities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Roy Delgado, A., Robinet, A., McGinn, J., Grout, V., Picking, R.: Human-Machine Interfaces for Smart Homes. In: 3rd Collaborative Research Symposium on Security, E-Learning, Internet and Networking (SEIN), pp. 147–157. Information Security and Network Research Group, Plymouth (2007)
Cook, D.J.: Providing for Older Adults Using Smart Environment Technologies. IEEE USA Today’s Engineer Online 5(7) (2007)
IST Advisory Group: Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence in 2010. Final Report, EC. Brussels (2001)
Emiliani, P.L., Stephanidis, C.: Universal Access to ambient Intelligence Environments: Opportunities and Challenges for People with Disabilities. IBM Systems Journal 44(3), 605–620 (2005)
Belami Project, http://www.belami-project.org/definition
Jorge, J.A.: Adaptive Tools for the Elderly: New Devices to Cope with Age-Induced Cognitive Disabilities. In: 2001 EC/NFS Workshop on Universal Accessibility of Ubiquitous Computing: Providing for the Elderly, pp. 66–70. ACM, Alcácer do Sal (2001)
Gonalves, D.: Ubiquitous Computing and AI towards an Inclusive Society. In: 2001 EC/NFS Workshop on Universal Accessibility of Ubiquitous Computing: Providing for the Elderly, pp. 37–40. ACM, Alcácer do Sal (2001)
Abascal, J.: Ambient Intelligence for people with disabilities and elderly people. In: SIGCHI Workshop on Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery (AISD), ACM, Vienna (2004)
Cooper, A.: The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. Sams Publishing, USA (2006)
Saffer, D.: Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices. New Riders, Berkeley (2007)
Pruit, J., Adlin, T.: The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2006)
Norman, D.: Ad-Hoc Personas and Empathetic Focus (2004)
Eurostat, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/
EIAA, http://www.eiaa.net/
Sleeman, D., Brown, J.S.: Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Academic Press, New York (1982)
Petrelli, D., De Angeli, A., Convertino, G.: A User Centered Approach to User Modeling. In: 7th International Conference on User Modeling (UM 1999), pp. 255–264. Springer Wien, New York (1999)
Fink, J., Kobsa, A., Nill, A.: Adaptable and Adaptive Information Access for All Users: Including the Disabled and the Elderly. In: 6th International Conference on User Modeling (UM 1997), pp. 171–173. Springer Wien, New York (1997)
Carroll, J.M., Rosson, M.B.: The Paradox of the Active User. In: Carroll, J.M. (ed.) Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 80–111. MIT Press/Bradford Books, Cambridge (1987)
Barnard, P.: Interacting Cognitive Subsystems: A Psycholinguistic Approach to Short Term Memory. In: Ellis, A. (ed.) Progress in the Psychology of Language, pp. 197–258. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove (1985)
Johnson, C.W.: Decision Theory and Safety-Critical Interfaces. In: Nordby, K., Helmersen, P.H., Gilmore, D., Arensen, S. (eds.) Interact 1995, pp. 127–132. Chapman Hall, London (1995)
Kieras, D., Wood, S.D., Meyer, D.E.: Predictive Engineering Models based on the EPIC Architecture for Multimodal High Performance Human-Computer Interaction Tasks. ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (TOCHI) 4(3), 230–275 (1997)
Shneiderman, B.: Universal Usability: Pushing Human-Computer Interaction Research to Empower Every Citizen. Communications of the ACM 43, 84–91 (2000)
Kules, B.: User Modeling for Adaptive and Adaptable Software Systems. In: ACM Conference on Universal Usability, Arlington (2000)
Op Den Akker, R.: How Useful is an Intelligent Computer? In: 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2004). ACM, Vienna (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Casas, R. et al. (2008). User Modelling in Ambient Intelligence for Elderly and Disabled People. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W., Karshmer, A. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5105. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-70539-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70540-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)