E-servant: an intelligent, programmable system to support and integrate assisted living technologies

[摘要] The ‘E-servant’, a programmable system to control and manage assistive technologies, telehealth and telecare devices in a home environment is presented. The E-servant is programmed using a simple graphical interface that allows the user to build a dialogue in the form of a production rule system, which is triggered by a patient- or technology-initiated event. The patient interacts with the system through a personalised user interface to reach their goal of completing a task. These tasks, which the authors call ‘scenarios’, can be designed for users of different abilities (cognitive and/or physical). They can also be given priority levels, for example if a potential emergency situation arises in the patient's home, a scenario associated with the sensing of this event takes highest priority. The research presented in this Letter outlines the E-servant, its programming tool and reports its evaluation in living laboratory settings. The results suggest that it can be used as a central management system for supporting an integrated support environment for facilitating healthcare and activities of daily living, especially for older patients.

[学科分类] 肠胃与肝脏病学

[关键词] assisted living;telemedicine;graphical user interfaces;knowledge based systems;cognition;e-servant;intelligent programmable system;assisted living technologies;telehealth;telecare devices;home environment;graphical interface;production rule system;technology-initiated event;patient-initiated event;personalised user interface;central management system;integrated support environment;daily living;older patients