Underneath Your Clothes: A Social and Technological Perspective on Nudity in The Context of AAL Technology

Abstract

One promising way to tackle healthcare challenges due to demographic change lies in the development of user-tailored AAL technologies. Video-based AAL technologies have the potential to provide rich information -in particular about accidents such as falls. However, as visual AAL is designed to record some parts of daily life at home, privacy concerns may comprise recordings in unwanted appearances and especially while being nude. Here, collaborative research is necessary to enable the development of user-tailored (visual) AAL technologies taking into account future users' needs and concerns. This article presents an interdisciplinary collaboration investigating perceptions of nudity from a social perspective, and developing solutions on nudity detection from a technical perspective. Focusing on first empirical insights and a proposed methodology for level-based nudity detection, this article concludes with interdisciplinary learnings, derived guidelines, and implications for future collaborative research. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Visualization systems and tools; • Security and privacy → Domain-specific security and privacy architectures.

Eyes on privacy: acceptance of video-based AAL impacted by activities being filmed

“…Physical nudity refers to naked body parts shown during the mentioned bathroom activities like showering, or toileting, for example. The showing of skin is perceived as highly uncomfortable and critical to be monitored visually ( 37 , 38 ) and the current findings confirm the high privacy need for these activities. Thus, nudity detection methods should be further improved and targeted to activities such as showering or toileting.…”

“…Thus, we can conclude that any safety-critical incident changes the perception of video-based AAL toward a more positive evaluation—even during intimate activities. However, the graduations of uncomfortableness and criticality of filming intimate activities do persist and are particularly pronounced during intimate activities—despite the safety aspects ( 37 , 38 ). One cautionary note needs to be added here: The conclusion that whenever there is a real danger to life, everyone would tend to suspend all privacy and protection requirements and agrees to video-based AAL technology falls short.…”

“…Sensitive and intimate activities such as hygiene care, showering, or sexual activity were evaluated as particularly uncomfortable to be monitored visually ( 37 ). Similarly, Maidhof and Hashemifard et al ( 38 ) report that the comfortableness of being monitored visually decreases the more skin is shown. Thereby, intimate activities such as washing oneself, showering, changing clothes, or toileting were perceived as uncomfortable to be filmed even when care is needed.…”

Shapes of You? Investigating the Acceptance of Video-Based AAL Technologies Applying Different Visualization Modes

“…Indeed, there are many more situations that should be analyzed in detail (e.g., care-related activities, social activities, other intimate activities etc.) [ 67 ]. Beyond that, combinations of different situations or activities that are characteristic of everyday life should also be examined.…”

“…This shows that even for people with a positive attitude towards video-based AAL technology, the four visualization modes did not represent an optimal solution for applying video-based AAL technologies. Future research should, therefore, integrate future users right from the beginning to consider their opinions and ideas in the development of other, specifically tailored visualization modes focusing maybe not only on the way video information is presented but also on what exactly it is that is presented (e.g., visualizations for specific parts of the body), following a skin segmentation approach [ 67 ].…”