We currently live in an aging society in which its members are gradually increasing their life expectancy. Expert demographers agree that by the year 2050 the number of elderly people worldwide will have increased exponentially, which makes caring for this population range more complicated due to the high occupancy that will exist in residential centers and the complexity involved in monitoring the activities and support that would have to be provided in times of difficulty.
However, this situation can generate not only difficulties, but also opportunities. The University of Jaén and the Ageing Lab Foundation are working on the ACTIVA project, whose title is 'Intelligent decision system based on the recognition of activities in the operational environment of aging' funded by the State Program for R+D+i Oriented to the Challenges of Society, in the category of "Health, demographic change and welfare".
Through this initiative, research staff from the University of Jaén and members of Ageing Lab, aim to promote the consolidation of computer algorithms to identify and observe the activities performed by the elderly, detect anomalies that may arise and support them in carrying them out through intelligent devices, following a model of dignified and positive intervention.
By means of smart devices with sensors located within the environment in a non-invasive manner, a series of data will be collected from both the environment and the user himself, with the aim of creating a computer program through artificial intelligence techniques.
In addition, this automated tool will even be able to support them in the activity they are performing through smart devices or alert family members or caregivers.
The first tests of the ACTIVA project will be carried out in the ambient intelligence laboratory of the University of Jaen, an 'apartment' with more than 150 intelligent devices, and in the Living Lab of the Ageing Lab Foundation, a methodological tool that allows the active participation of the end user, from his or her own reality, in the process of designing or redesigning projects, products and services. Both the useful environmental and user data collected by the devices and the opinions expressed by the elderly, caregivers and families in the Living Lab will be incorporated into an intelligent final decision system based on the recognition of final activities that will be validated in a center for the elderly, under the name of SI-Activa.
With this project, which has a completion date of December 31, 2021, the University of Jaén and the Ageing Lab Foundation aim to offer a social solution based on dignified and positive aging to enhance the quality of the elderly and their levels of independence. In addition, the use of this type of initiative in residential centers will reduce the stress of caregivers when monitoring the activity of users in an instantaneous, automated and optimized way.
Original resource: https://eiova.es/documentos/n18.pdf
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