Ambient Assisted Living

Applications of AI

AI for Ambient Assisted Living

Initially, the development work is focused on providing a system tailored to the needs of people with autism who are trying to live independently. When sufficient expertise has been gained with this group then the development will shift to other groups with disabilities and chronic illnesses, such as those with learning difficulties. The long-term aim is to provide a version of the system that can be used to promote wellbeing and maintain wellbeing in the general population.

We are investigating the use of optical sensors arranged around a room, providing anonymised real-time images of the person, to recognise and monitor typical ADL routines, such as food preparation, house chores, or self-care. Machine learning and computer vision techniques are applied to the imaging data to detect interactions with household objects and map these onto known activities. The goal is for the system to be able to track progress through an activity, monitor successful completion, prompt the user about any deviations, identify unsafe situations, and note performance trends, both positive and negative.

Selected publications:

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Partners

We have identified the need to work with hardware suppliers, care service suppliers, policy influencing bodies and to collaborate with other University research groups with complementary expertise.

The wellbeing of a person living independently is not only dependent on whether they can perform ADLs, but also on the state of their local home environment. Any AAL system installed in a home must interface with, and take data from, any existing home management system to give a full picture of wellbeing. It is therefore important to work with companies who already provide and install such smart home systems. The trade body for this industrial sector is the Smart Homes and Buildings Association (SH&BA) and we are working with them and two SH&BA members, LightwaveRF and SMILE Homes.

To develop the system specifically for people with autism, we are obtaining expert advice from the charitable group Autism Hampshire. The University has close links to Portsmouth City Council to understand the nature of the statutory services that are available for people with autism. We are part of the University cross faculty Autism Research Network which itself has links to the Department of Health and Social Care, (DH&SC).