User interface and interaction in an ambient assisted living system: gestural and vocal interaction for the inhabitant, data visualization for the caregiver

The world population is getting older resulting in socio-economic consequences due to ageing-related biological, psychological, and social fragilities. Improvement of the well-being of this portion of population will be a challenge. Rising care costs and the failure of traditional care models favor an independent ageing in place postponing institutionalization as far as possible. Ambient Assisted Living is a technological solution to this challenge that augments the living environment of the elderly with appropriate tools and the intelligence needed to support their independent life. This work presents BRIDGe, a modular, interoperable, and personalizable ambient assisted living system developed in the context of Assistive Technology Group (ATG) in Politecnico di Milano. User interface and interaction needs of BRIDGe users (the person, the family, and the caregivers) have been the motivation of this work. Three technological solutions have been proposed addressing the three needs identified by the social counterpart of BRIDGe. The two first needs concern the person, i.e. the user inside the house with the main interest of Home Control. Gestural interaction for a user (an elderly-disabled) with residual hand motor capability, and vocal interaction for a user (an elderly-disabled) with residual voice capability are the two corresponding solutions. The third need concerns the caregiver, i.e. the user outside the house with the main interest of understanding data collected from inside the house. An interactive visualization tool is the response to this need.