In recent years, we have witnessed a rapid surge in assisted living technologies due to a rapidly aging society. The aging population, the increasing cost of formal health care, the caregiver burden, and the importance that the individuals place on living independently, all motivate development of innovative-assisted living technologies for safe and independent aging. In this survey, we will summarize the emergence of `ambient-assisted living” (AAL) tools for older adults based on ambient intelligence paradigm. We will summarize the state-of-the-art AAL technologies, tools, and techniques, and we will look at current and future challenges.

A Survey on Ambient-Assisted Living Tools for Older Adults

Methodological Review: Healthcare in the pocket: Mapping the space of mobile-phone health interventions

As mobile phones advance in functionality and capability, they are being used for more than just communication. Increasingly, these devices are being employed as instruments for introspection into habits and situations of individuals and communities. Many of the applications enabled by this new use of mobile phones rely on contextual information. The focus of this work is on one dimension of context, the transportation mode of an individual when outside. We create a convenient (no specific position and orientation setting) classification system that uses a mobile phone with a built-in GPS receiver and an accelerometer. The transportation modes identified include whether an individual is stationary, walking, running, biking, or in motorized transport. The overall classification system consists of a decision tree followed by a first-order discrete Hidden Markov Model and achieves an accuracy level of 93.6p when tested on a dataset obtained from sixteen individuals.

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Using mobile phones to determine transportation modes

In this paper, we propose design strategies for persuasive technologies that help people who want to change their everyday behaviors. Our strategies use theory and prior work to substantially extend a set of existing design goals. Our extensions specifically account for social characteristics and other tactics that should be supported by persuasive technologies that target long-term discretionary use throughout everyday life. We used these strategies to design and build a system that encourages people to lead a physically active lifestyle. Results from two field studies of the system - a three-week trial and a three-month experiment - have shown that the system was successful at helping people maintain a more physically active lifestyle and validate the usefulness of the strategies.

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Theory-driven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life

Background: Regular physical activity has established physical and mental health benefits; however, merely one quarter of the U.S. adult population meets national physical activity recommendations. In an effort to engage individuals who do not meet these guidelines, researchers have utilized popular emerging technologies, including mobile devices (ie, personal digital assistants [PDAs], mobile phones). This study is the first to synthesize current research focused on the use of mobile devices for increasing physical activity. Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of research utilizing mobile devices to influence physical activity behavior. The aims of this review were to: (1) examine the efficacy of mobile devices in the physical activity setting, (2) explore and discuss implementation of device features across studies, and (3) make recommendations for future intervention development. Methods: We searched electronic databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, SCOPUS) and identified publications through reference lists and requests to experts in the field of mobile health. Studies were included that provided original data and aimed to influence physical activity through dissemination or collection of intervention materials with a mobile device. Data were extracted to calculate effect sizes for individual studies, as were study descriptives. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software suite. Study quality was assessed using the quality of execution portion of the Guide to Community Preventative Services data extraction form. Results: Four studies were of “good” quality and seven of “fair” quality. In total, 1351 individuals participated in 11 unique studies from which 18 effects were extracted and synthesized, yielding an overall weight mean effect size of g = 0.54 (95% CI = 0.17 to 0.91, P = .01). Conclusions: Research utilizing mobile devices is gaining in popularity, and this study suggests that this platform is an effective means for influencing physical activity behavior. Our focus must be on the best possible use of these tools to measure and understand behavior. Therefore, theoretically grounded behavior change interventions that recognize and act on the potential of smartphone technology could provide investigators with an effective tool for increasing physical activity. [J Med Internet Res 2012;14(6):e161]

Increasing physical activity with mobile devices: a meta-analysis.

Personal, mobile displays, such as those on mobile phones, are ubiquitous, yet for the most part, underutilized. We present results from a field experiment that investigated the effectiveness of these displays as a means for improving awareness of daily life (in our case, self-monitoring of physical activity). Twenty-eight participants in three experimental conditions used our UbiFit system for a period of three months in their day-to-day lives over the winter holiday season. Our results show, for example, that participants who had an awareness display were able to maintain their physical activity level (even during the holidays), while the level of physical activity for participants who did not have an awareness display dropped significantly. We discuss our results and their general implications for the use of everyday mobile devices as awareness displays.

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Keith Mosher

Papers

Flowers or a robot army?: encouraging awareness & activity with personal, mobile displays