Gerontechnology, Domotics, and Robotics
19.3 Domotics
By the late 1990s, the term “domotics” was commonly used to describe any system in which informatics and telematics were combined in order to support activities at home. This word appears to be a portmanteau word formed from “domus” (Latin, meaning “house”) and informatics. Therefore, it refers specifically to the applica- tion of computer and robot technologies to domestic appliances.
Smart houses (or homes) are known by a variety of names, including intelligent homes, home networking, home automation, sensor-embedded houses, and adap- tive homes. Smart home technology refers to installing a home monitoring systems (sensors, actuators, and biomedical monitors) and special wiring to enable residents to program, control, and operate an assortment of appliances and other household features throughout the house. Smart homes have been defined as the integration of technology and services through home networking for a better quality of life [6].
Monitoring devices, such as sensors, are small and can be installed anywhere—
inside or outside the home or worn by an individual.
A major focus of this technology, which has existed since the 1980s, has been to provide convenience, personal comfort, security, and energy conservation. While smart house technology has primarily focused on convenience and energy efficiency, this technology is increasingly targeted for use by people with disabilities and for the care of frail older adults—providing safety, security, and ease of self- management, as well as providing both on-site and remote monitoring and healthcare.
This recent increase in interest is related to:
(a) Its practicality in supporting the ability of older adults and people with disabili- ties to remain living independently and self-managing in their own homes for longer periods of time, supporting a major preference of all people to “age in place” in the living environment of their choice
(b) Its ability to support the significant efforts of family caregivers
(c) Its cost savings through reducing the need for expensive personal aid assis- tance, through reducing the need for in-person medical care, and through delay- ing or avoiding costly institutional care.
In particular, we can use the sensor’s signals: continuous real-time measurements obtained from specific devices at different frequencies that observe the person, iner- tial sensors providing information about physical activity (sleep sensors, electroder- mal activities, etc.), sensors measuring vital constants (arterial pressure, temperature, heart rate, sweating, body temperature, ECG signals, peripheral blood saturation, blood glucose level), environmental sensors (room humidity (dump), room
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temperature, air quality, food sensors), Kinect sensors or video cameras (for motion capture during physical neurorehabilitation or authorized activities of daily life that will detect incorrect performances), or virtual symbolic sensors. Moreover, also the social network activity provides data for monitoring the emotional status of the per- son and its relationship with the community, among others (Fig. 19.1).
Smart home technology can also aid in disease prevention—for example, pro- viding inconspicuous memory aids, such as medication reminders, or refrigerators that can evaluate an inventory of contents and provide suggestions for menus, healthy choices, and a list of groceries that need to be purchased. Vibrating bracelets or audible prompters can remind people when to eat or when to go to the bathroom, and other wrist devices monitor pulse rates and skin temperature. Sensors and wire- less devices are being used in homes to monitor individuals’ vital signs and whether medication has been taken, with this information sent wirelessly, through a sensor in the home or on the individual to the doctor or to family members—which is an added benefit for people who are homebound, are living in more remote rural areas, or are without immediate access to healthcare.
Several publications were identified about devices targeting:
1. Social isolation (videophonic communication, affective orthotic devices or companion- type robots, personal emergency response systems [security])
Fig. 19.1 A conceptual schema of the system and the interaction among all the subsystems included in the platfv
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2. Autonomy loss (technologies for maintenance of autonomy in the ADL) 3. Cognitive disorders (cognitive orthotics, wandering management systems, tele-
monitoring) [7–10]
To analyze and to use all these data, we can use the artificial intelligence and in particular the area of decision support systems (DSS) and intelligent DSS (IDSS) to focus on developing interactive software that can analyze data including specific domain knowledge and automatic reasoning capabilities and provide answers to the relevant decisional questions from the users, thus enhancing a person or group to make better decisions [11]. Creative use of information technologies should facilitate the organization, presentation, and integration of this information to obtain individu- alized and systematic clinical decisions, predicated on individual patient’s priorities [12]. The capability to provide a distance-based service is expected to eliminate bar- riers (e.g., logistical, geographical, administrative, etc.) that are currently hindering a stronger penetration of “traditional” hospitalized rehabilitation services (Fig. 19.2).
The use of ICT and domotics in general is changing the paradigm, extending with no limit the coverage area, and therefore allowing for a strong economy of scale. One of the barriers to the diffusion of e-Health is the digital divide, as the dif- ficulty/inability of access to the network (in this case we talk about the digital divide
“absolute”) as well as a lack of basic knowledge enabling the use of digital tech- nologies. The resources and satellite telecommunication services allow filling in the
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Fig. 19.2 Conceptual design of intelligent decision support system (IDSS) 19 Gerontechnology, Domotics, and Robotics
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gaps and delays in the spread of broadband: on the one hand, they are the only pos- sible solution to the digital divide absolute (pure scenery satellite) and, on the other hand, they can increase the quality of telecommunications, where digital terrestrial service is already available (hybrid terrestrial and satellite scenario) [10] (Fig. 19.3).