GiraffPlus: Combining social interaction and long term monitoring for promoting independent living

Abstract

Abstract. Early detection and adaptive support to changing individual needs related to ageing is an important challenge in today's society. In this paper we present a system called GiraffPlus that aims at addressing such a challenge and is developed in an on-going European project. The system consists of a network of home sensors that can be automatically configured to collect data for a range of monitoring services; a semi-autonomous telepresence robot; a sophisticated context recognition system that can give high-level and long term interpretations of the collected data and respond to certain events; and personalized services delivered through adaptive user interfaces for primary users. The system performs a range of services including data collection and analysis of long term trends in behaviors and physiological parameters (e.g. relating to sleep or daily activity); warnings, alarms and reminders; and social interaction through the telepresence robot. The latter is based on the Giraff telepresence robot, which is already in place in a number of homes. Particular emphasis is put on user evaluation outside the laboratories. A distinctive aspect of the project is that the GiraffPlus system will be installed and evaluated in at least 15 homes of elderly people. The concept of "useworthiness" is central in order to assure that the GiraffPlus system provides services that are easy to use and worth using. In addition, by using existing and affordable components we strive to achieve a system that is affordable and close to commercialization.

On Combining a Context Recognition System and a Configuration Planner for Personalised Ambient Assisted Living

“…For this purpose, networked non-intrusive sensors that senses motion, power usage, and pressure are used, in addition relevant physiological parameters such as heart rate and blood pressure are measured on demand. The system allows social interaction and timely involvement of family and caregivers, and is being developed within the European Commission FP7 project GiraffPlus [2]. The GiraffPlus system also contains a telepresence robot and an interface for caregivers and medical specialists (secondary users), to personalise and visualise data, alarms, and reminders for events of interest that have been permitted by the senior citizen.…”

A Comparison Between Ambient Assisted Living Systems

“…In addition, the system meets the requirement of distributed access points, since it includes not only the users at home, but also their family members and caregivers who are able to connect and control Giraff robot, as well as have access through PCs to the information and activities of the elderly people. This also applied for the medical stuff that are also can access the system to obtain health measurements [21]. GiraffPlus system architecture is designed by integrating a middleware infrastructure that hiding the heterogeneity of the computational resources used in the living space, since that the services provided by the system components are developed using different technologies and connecting with each other using different protocols.…”

“…GiraffPlus (January 2012-December 2014) is one of many running projects that are financed by the CIP and the FP7 [21]. This project addresses number of issues related to enhance the well-being of elderly people and extend their independency of living, by the early detection of possible health problems to decline them and providing services to assist those have deficiencies [22].…”

Ranger, An Example of Integration of Robotics into the Home Ecosystem

“…In most cases this technology, which is still very heavy, targets assistive living for elderly. A set of European research projects work exactly on this issue: Robot-ERA [8] is developing several service robots for indoor and outdoor use, integrated in smart houses and providing a set of services for older people, Giraffe+ [9] integrates a telepresence robot into a smart home where the sensor network allows context recognition and interpretation of collected data, ACCOMPANY [10] develops a robotic companion integrated into an intelligent environment, providing services to elderly users to enable independent living at home, MOBISERV [11] aims at studying innovative technology to support independent living of older adults at home or in specialized institutions, CompanionAble [12] has worked on the synergy between robotics and ambient Intelligence technologies enabling a care-giver's assistive environment and HOBBIT [13] develops a socially assistive robot that helps elderly at home. All these projects involve robots that have a human-like presence in the environment.…”