This paper describes a participatory design-oriented study of an ambient assisted living system for monitoring the daily activities of elderly residents. The work presented addresses these questions 1) What daily activities the elderly participants like to be monitored, 2) With whom they would want to share this monitored data and 3) How a monitoring system for the elderly should be designed. For this purpose, this paper discusses the study results and participatory design techniques used to exemplify and understand desired ambient-assisted living scenarios and information sharing needs. Particularly, an interactive dollhouse is presented as a method for including the elderly in the design and requirements gathering process for residential monitoring. The study results indicate the importance of exemplifying ambient-assisted living scenarios to involve the elderly and so to increase acceptance and utility of such systems. The preliminary studies presented show that the participants were willing to have most of their daily activities monitored. However, they mostly wanted to keep control over their own data and share this information with medical specialists and particularly not with their fellow elderly neighbours.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe whether and how groups of nursing home residents respond to the interactive device “the CRDL”. The CRDL can translate touches between people into sounds. It recognises the type of touch and adjusts the produced sound accordingly. Design/methodology/approach This was as an observational explorative study. Responses were coded and analysed using an existing theoretical framework. Findings – The CRDL creates an atmosphere of playfulness and curiosity. It lowers the threshold to touch, provides an incentive to touch and encourages to experiment with different types of touches on arms and hands. The sounds the CRDL produces sometimes trigger memories and provide themes to start and support conversation. Involving a (large) group of nursing home residents to interact with the CRDL is challenging. Research limitations/implications In order to more fully understand the potential of the CRDL, its use should be studied in different group and individual sessions and the effects of tailored content, adjusted to individual preferences and/or stages of cognition should be explored. Finally, the effects of using the CRDL on the general wellbeing of nursing home residents should be studied. Practical implications The CRDL can help caregivers to use touch to make contact with (groups of their) residents. A session should be guided by an experienced caregiver. Some familiarisation and practice with the CRDL are recommended and a quiet environment is advised. Originality/value This paper demonstrates the potential of interactive objects, such as the CRDL, in the nursing home.
Ubiquitous computing, new sensor technologies, and increasingly available and accessible algorithms for pattern recognition and machine learning enable automatic analysis and modeling of human behavior in many novel ways. In this introductory paper of the 6th International Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding (HBU’15), we seek to critically assess how HBU technology can be used for elderly. We describe and exemplify some of the challenges that come with the involvement of aging subjects, but we also point out to the great potential for expanding the use of ICT to create many applications to provide a better life for elderly.
The findings suggests that participation in music practices can significantly support caregivers' and nurses' contact with the people to whom they give care and the healthcare professionals' insights into the patients' and residents' personhood. Music can create experienced changes in the care environment through kairotic moments of connectivity and intimacy of the musical interaction. The music sessions support and reinforce the person-centred values of care delivery.The meaning of participatory music practices for the well-being and learning of healthcare professionals working with ageing patients and nursing home residents.
