Summary
Objectives:
In a group home, caregivers should be aware of the inhabitant’s real-time situation.
The aim of our study is to facilitate the awareness of an inhabitant’s situation by
means of enhanced sound cues.
Methods:
We propose an audio notification system that indicates the real-time situation of
persons in a group home environment using sound cues instead of visual surveillance.
The notification system comprises a prediction and a notification function. The prediction
function estimates a person’s real-time situation using a Bayesian network and sensed
information; the notification function informs recipients of the predicted situation
and the confidence level of the prediction by means of sound cues. We use natural
sounds as sound cues.
Results:
As a first step to examine our system in a group home, we conducted operation and
performance tests of each unit under a simple test environment. The correct prediction
of the subject’s situation is approximately 90%; further, it is shown that the sound
cues should be selected according to their environmental dependence.
Conclusions:
The results show that the method is useful for monitoring persons. As future study,
we will conduct a field test on an implemented system and improve it for practical
use in a group home.
Keywords
Group home - context awareness - ambient notification system - support for caregivers
