Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments - Volume 6, issue 2

Authors: Aghajan, Hamid | Augusto, Juan Carlos

Article Type: Other

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140256

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 117-119, 2014

Authors: Su, Xiang | Gilman, Ekaterina | Riekki, Jukka

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, we identify ambient social interactions as an important direction of research in Ambient Intelligence. To enable intelligence for ambient social interactions, we build knowledge-based systems to aggregate information from heterogeneous sources, including physical environments, users' social tasks and available services. Such knowledge-based systems enable intelligence not only for individuals, but also for user groups. We propose a general framework for aggregating information from different sources. A novel representation, Entity Notation (EN), is suggested as a starting point for the purpose of connecting all information to knowledge-based systems, which, in its turn, offers good possibilities to support Semantic …Web technologies for development of smart functions for ambient social interactions. To demonstrate the usability of our framework and representation, we present an implementation of a map reminder service, and report analysis based of it. Show more

Keywords: Ambient Intelligence, Semantic Web technologies, Entity Notation, reasoning

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140249

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 121-135, 2014

Authors: Storf, Holger | Jedlitschka, Andreas | Knaup, Petra | Dickhaus, Hartmut

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Societal changes lead to an increase in the number of critical emergency situations in single households, resulting in the need for new concepts, such as automatic detection of physical weakness. This paper describes an approach that identifies deviations from a person's ‘normal’ behavior, specifically the absence of typical activities, based on sensor information. False negatives are avoided by using information about the behavior on different semantic levels. The approach was evaluated in a variety of controlled lab experiments. Normal behavior was learned with 120 typical activity scenarios in bathroom and kitchen. Three configurations were defined for each location and semantic …level. 100 scenarios with and without emergency situations were performed. The system's responses were analyzed regarding correctness and reaction time. Hypothesis 1: The approach detects at least 80% of critical motionlessness situations correctly (sensitivity > 0.8), which is confirmed for every configuration. Hypothesis 2: The number of false alarms (false positives) is lower than 10% with the best configuration (false positive rate < 0.1), which is confirmed for 8 out of 12 configurations. The evaluation results suggest that it is possible to detect situations of physical weakness with sufficient reliability. The approach was also tested against a standard procedure with static thresholds. Show more

Keywords: Ambient Assisted Living, smart home, activity monitoring, situation recognition, emergency detection

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140251

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 137-155, 2014

Authors: Astorga, Jasone | Astorga, Juan Carlos | Jacob, Eduardo | Toledo, Nerea | Higuero, Marivi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The upcoming development of the Internet of Things (IoT) envisions IP-enabled pacemakers and ICDs, giving place to a completely new scenario in the field of remote monitoring of patients implanted with these devices. Apart from the costs saved thanks to the reduction of in-clinic visits, this new approach will help improving the quality of life of chronic patients that depend on such devices. However, this scenario cannot be conceived without an effective mechanism to protect the privacy of the health information collected by implanted sensors, understanding privacy as the capacity to determine when, how and to what extent information is …communicated to others. In this paper, we show how the Ladon authentication, authorization and key establishment protocol can be successfully applied to achieve this purpose. The Ladon protocol is based on Kerberos, but appropriately modified and extended to support independence of clock synchronization and authorization functionalities. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of introducing Ladon in the targeted scenarios, a prototype implementation based on general purpose sensors has been developed. The obtained results show that the performance penalty introduced by the protocol in terms of energy and time consumption is negligible. Show more

Keywords: Authorization, ICD, Kerberos, pacemaker, privacy

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140250

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 157-177, 2014

Authors: Tomforde, Sven | Müller-Schloer, Christian

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Current research initiatives like Organic Computing (OC) and Intelligent Environments (IEs) aim at building technology-driven embedded systems that are aware of the conditions in the real world, derive plans of how to act, and pro-actively manipulate their environment to serve the user. As a result, novel systems according to these initiatives are characterised by a high degree of adaptivity, user-sensitivity, robustness and reliability. Adaptivity means that for such systems we defer a part of the design process from design time to runtime. Therefore, we need a runtime infrastructure, which takes care of runtime modifications. And we need a meta-design process …responsible for the parametrisation of the runtime infrastructure. This article presents such a meta-design process to develop such systems in a unified way in order to handle the growing complexity in technical systems by focusing on adaptation and self-optimisation capabilities. A promising application for organic concepts and a large-scale testbed for IEs is the control of road traffic signals in urban areas. This article exemplarily applies the proposed design process to a traffic scenario and evaluates it in a realistic setting modelling the (football) stadium environment in Hannover, Germany. Thereby, the significant benefit of the adaptation component developed through the design process is demonstrated in terms of traffic-relevant metrics like delays and energy consumption. Show more

Keywords: Organic computing, intelligent environments, design process, traffic control, self-adaptation

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140252

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 179-198, 2014

Authors: Caballero, Alberto | Muñoz, Andrés | Soto, Jesús | Botía, Juan A.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper offers an agent-based mechanism in intelligent environments (IE) to recommend profiles to users according to their requirements. This mechanism is based on similarity among profiles as well as trust and reputation among agents. Our proposal is employed in an intelligent university campus where there are different activities that require user profiling (e.g., management of resources such as classrooms, meeting rooms, computers in labs, etc). In these activities, a user profile can be seen as a set of recommendations on resources configurations or services that fulfill users' requirements. The proposed mechanism uses an ontology to model the basic concepts …related to the profile assignment process. The ontology is provided along with two extensions for representing two specific application domains at the university campus: assignment of meeting rooms and configuration of virtualized environments for iLabs. The performance of the proposed mechanism is evaluated using a university campus scenario simulated by means of a localization network and a prototype application. The results presented in this paper are collected during the interactions between two types of agents (user and broker) aimed to select the most adequate profiles in each situation. Broker agents estimate the suitability of a profile using trust and reputation information coming from its own experiences or from other brokers. Under uncertainty conditions, arguments offered by broker agents and similarity between two set of user's requirements and preferences are also taken into account to select the best profile. Show more

Keywords: User profiling, intelligent environment (IE), ontology, trust and reputation, argumentation

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140253

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 199-214, 2014

Authors: Boger, Jennifer | Arcelus, Amaya | Mihailidis, Alex

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The dynamic, adaptive, and autonomous nature of intelligent environments makes them ideal for supporting people's health and well-being. The Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL) and their collaborators are a team of engineers, computer scientists, and rehabilitation specialists who have been working with end users to develop devices and systems for supporting people in home and institutional environments for over a decade. This paper presents key themes for supporting the development of health-centric intelligent environments and systems. Examples of the themes are illustrated through several case studies of real-world applications developed through IATSL's research. The paper concludes by high-lighting …some areas that need to be considered by the field as intelligent environments move out of the research lab and into people's homes. Show more

Keywords: Intelligent environments, ambient assisted living, healthy well-being, zero-effort technology, aging-in-place

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140254

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 215-235, 2014

Authors: Griol, David | Molina, José Manuel | Callejas, Zoraida

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Merging Immersive Virtual Environments, Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence techniques provides a number of advantages to develop Intelligent Environments for multiple applications. This paper is focused on the application of these technologies to develop intelligent learning environments. Education is one of the most interesting applications of immersive virtual environments, as their flexibility can be exploited in order to create heterogeneous groups from all over the world who can collaborate synchronously in different virtual spaces. We highlight the potential of virtual worlds as an educative tool and propose a model to create learning environments within Second Life or OpenSimulator combining …the Moodle learning management system, embodied conversational metabots, and programmable 3D objects. Our proposal has been applied in several subjects of the Computer Science degree in the Carlos III University of Madrid. The results of the evaluation show that developed learning environment fosters engagement and collaboration and helps students to better understand complex concepts. Show more

Keywords: Intelligent Environments, immersive virtual worlds, e-learning, conversational agents, Second Life, OpenSimulator, Sloodle, speech interaction

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-140255

Citation: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 237-255, 2014