Night optimised care technology for users needing assisted lifestyles

Abstract

There is growing interest in the development of ambient assisted living services to increase the quality of life of the increasing proportion of the older population. We report on the Night Optimised Care Technology for UseRs Needing Assisted Lifestyles project, which provides specialised night time support to people at early stages of dementia. This article explains the technical infrastructure, the intelligent software behind the decision-making driving the system, the software development process followed, the interfaces used to interact with the user, and the findings and lessons of our user-centred approach.

Keywords:

• ambient assisted living
• sensing
• software engineering
• user-centred design

Acknowledgements

The NOCTURNAL team wishes to recognise the highly valuable input that several organisations and individuals have made to the realisation and success of the project. TSB and EPSRC funded the project through Call 1 of the Ambient Assisted Living Program (ALIP I). The Northern Social and Health Care Trust and Southeastern Social and Health Care Trust, both from Northern Ireland, in collaboration with Praxis, provided important support facilitating the identification of suitable clients. Fold Housing Association was our most important partner and provided infrastructure support as well as fundamental human resources and guidance in delivering services to the community. We are deeply thankful to those who tried the system themselves and their circle of carers who provided such a valuable input along the entire project.

Notes

1. Fold Housing Association (http://www.foldgroup.co.uk/), a not-for-profit organisation delivering Telecare/Telehealth services to UK/Ireland.

2. Copies of the models can be requested to the corresponding author.

3. PIR is an acronym of Passive InfraRed Sensor.

4. www.ageuk.org.uk/northern-ireland/

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNh8AlZ-8Wk