An Enhanced Quality of Context Evaluating Approach in the e-Health Sensor Platform

Abstract

This paper presents an enhanced approach to the evaluation of Quality of Context (QoC) parameters in a ubiquitous Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) e-Health platform, supporting the care of people with special needs (elderly or with health problems) thus improving their quality of life. At the outset, the study presents a literature review of QoC. Then it introduces the proposed context management architecture. The proposal is initially verified with the Siafu simulator in an AAL scenario where the user's health is monitored with information about blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature. The research proceeded with the use of the e-Health Sensor Platform, a differentiated real environment. The experiment used the sensors: pulse and oxygen in blood, body temperature, blood pressure, patient's position and falls. Considering some parameters, the proposed QoC evaluation allowed verifying the extent to which the context information is up-to-date, valid, accurate, complete and significant. Just as in the simulation, and with the QoC evaluation, the completed real experiment confirmed instances of insufficient QoC and its possible causes, in addition to alerts to potential health problems. This proposal means a big social impact and a technological innovation applied to AAL, at the disposal and support of a significant number of individuals such as elderly or sick people, and with a more precise technology.