User Modelling in Ambient Intelligence for Elderly and Disabled People

Combining ongoing Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technological developments (e.g. pervasive computing, wearable devices, sensor networks etc.) with user-centred design methods greatly increases the acceptance of the intelligent system and makes it more capable of providing a better quality of life in a non-intrusive way. Elderly people could clearly benefit from this concept. Thanks to smart environments, they can experience considerable enhancements, giving them an opportunity to live more independently and for longer in their home rather than in a health-care centre. However, to implement such a system, it is essential to know for whom we are designing. In this paper, we present an intelligent system with a monitoring infrastructure that will help mainly elderly users with impairments to overcome their handicap. The purpose of such a system is to create a safe and intuitive environment that will facilitate the achievement of household tasks in order to preserve independence of elderly residents for a while longer. Pursuing this goal, we propose to use the persona concept to help us build a user model based on the personas’ aptitudes. The practice of user modelling emphasizes the importance of user-centred techniques in any AmI system development and highlights the potential impacts of AmI for certain targeted groups - in this case, the elderly and people with disabilities.