Using smart phones for context-aware prompting in smart environments

Abstract

Individuals with cognitive impairment have difficulty successfully performing activities of daily living, which can lead to decreased independence. In order to help these individuals age in place and decrease caregiver burden, technologies for assistive living have gained popularity over the last decade. In this work, a context-aware prompting system is implemented, augmented by a smart phone to determine prompt situations in a smart home environment. While context-aware systems use temporal and environmental information to determine context, we additionally use ambulatory information from accelerometer data of a phone which also acts as a mobile prompting device. A pilot study with healthy young adults is conducted to examine the feasibility of using a smart phone interface for prompt delivery during activity completion in a smart home environment.