Anelia Mitseva

Context-aware privacy protection with profile management

Hotspot services will be offered in small, highly-populated public places like airports, hospitals, etc. They will play their assistive roles in the peoples life only if they are secure, trusted, and nonobtrusive. Some of the challenges faced are the seamless operation between WLAN-based hotspots and other emerging wireless data networks technologies, for example body sensor networks; the exploitation of context- and location-aware information provided from the hotspot service; matching the user needs with differentiated services; preserving the privacy of the users sensitive data and anonymity. To answer these challenges, a new solution for context-aware privacy protection for any type of fine-grained user sensitive data with profiles of the user, context, scenario and service is proposed. Based on assessment of current context and situation, the user delegates actions for protecting his privacy to the proposed mechanism that acts on his behalf. The discussed solution is presented with a medical scenario. Components model, interaction sequence, algorithm for privacy safeguarding and system implementation are described.

Gerontechnology: Providing a Helping Hand When Caring for Cognitively Impaired Older Adults—Intermediate Results from a Controlled Study on the Satisfaction and Acceptance of Informal Caregivers

The incidence of cognitive impairment in older age is increasing, as is the number of cognitively impaired older adults living in their own homes. Due to lack of social care resources for these adults and their desires to remain in their own homes and live as independently as possible, research shows that the current standard care provisions are inadequate. Promising opportunities exist in using home assistive technology services to foster healthy aging and to realize the unmet needs of these groups of citizens in a user-centered manner. ISISEMD project has designed, implemented, verified, and assessed an assistive technology platform of personalized home care (telecare) for the elderly with cognitive impairments and their caregivers by offering intelligent home support services. Regions from four European countries have carried out long-term pilot-controlled study in real-life conditions. This paper presents the outcomes from intermediate evaluations pertaining to user satisfaction with the system, acceptance of the technology and the services, and quality of life outcomes as a result of utilizing the services.

Context-Aware Privacy Protection for Wireless Sensor Networks in Hybrid Hierarchical Architecture

Sensor networks (SNs) placed on human bodies and in the environment can intelligently and unobtrusively support professional teams (for example health care professionals) to improve their work and on the other hand their subjects (for example patients and elderly at hospital or at home). In pervasive healthcare settings, protecting the privacy of the medical care subjects and the medical staff is very important, because the lack of privacy may hinder the broad acceptance of pervasive health technology. Moreover, there is a need of empowering end-users with flexible personalized controls for their personal data collected, processed and communicated via SNs. The privacy protecting mechanisms must be non-obtrusive and context-aware to support the daily private and professional life of the persons. Since the devices/nodes used by patients and medical professionals will have diverse capabilities, many of them with very limited resources, an important question is the implication of the privacy protection mechanisms on the overall system performance. This paper proposes novel flexible privacy protection framework suitable for diverse set of ubiquitous applications; describes evaluation frames for it and investigates the cost of privacy protection. Evaluation of the influence of the context complexity and policy-based management is also presented.

Privacy Protection Mechanisms for Hybrid Hierarchical Wireless Sensor Networks

In the emerging hybrid hierarchical network model for wireless sensor networks, confidential and private data for end users is processed in some distinctive scenarios. In this respect, preserving privacy and establishing trust is a challenging task. This paper presents solutions to privacy issues based on context aware privacy protection and trust establishment mechanisms in hybrid hierarchical architecture. Based on two scenarios where this framework can be applied to - a medical scenario and vehicle network scenario-relevant privacy mechanisms are derived. It is shown, that context aware privacy protection is crucial for networks applying the HHA and hence context aware anonymization and trust establishment algorithms are introduced. An evaluation of the algorithms and analysis of the influence of the complexity of the context attributes are presented.

The phenomenological experience of dementia and user interface development

This study follows ISISEMD through a phenomenological approach of investigating the experience of the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) for someone with dementia. The aim is to accentuate the Assistive Technology (AT) from the end user perspective. This paper supports that older adults and those with dementia should no longer be an overlooked population and how the HCI community can learn from their experiences to develop methods and design interfaces which truly benefit their target population. Guidelines from previous research are incorporated along with eclectic, user-centered strategies as the interface designers for project ISISEMD develop appropriate and effective modalities.

CRUISE research activities toward ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments

Wireless sensor networks are expected to be one of the key enabling technologies in the near future. Ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments have a promising potential to enhance the everyday life of citizens, bringing important social benefits for each person and for society as a whole. Substantial research has contributed to progress in this field. However, there are still gaps to be filled. This article presents an overview of the creating ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments (CRUISE) project and identifies challenges in the research on WSNs. It focuses on outlining the consortiums vision and strategy for the evolution of research. Key issues for target sensor network applications and current research orientations in CRUISE are described. Future work within the project focus areas is identified.

Innovative Intelligent Services for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers

ISISEMD project started in March 2009 is a European pilot project with the main aim to design, implement and test in real-life conditions innovative intelligent services for older adults with mild cognitive impairments and their formal and family care-givers (ISISEMD, 2009). Their ultimate goal is to improve the Quality of Life of the elderly and to help them to live more independently. The technology service platform is integration of systems from Hewlett Packard (Italy), Alcatel-Lucent (Italy), Converge ICT Solutions (Greece), Eltronic A/S (Denmark) and Socrate Medical (Italy). The service platform has been tested, validated and evaluated in four different European pilot sites (Frederikshavn in Denmark, Lappeenranta in Finland, Trikala in Greece and Belfast in UK) for a duration of more than one year and based on the outcome from the real-life operations and user feedback, it has been optimised, improved and adapted for diverse regional conditions. This has been a very challenging process because the user and functional requirements are very high w.r.t. intuitive user interface with minimum user interaction, diverse needs of the main user groups, personalisation needs, requirements for stable operation despite of the fact that it is a pilot system, but working in real-life conditions and exposed to interruptions in connectivity, hardware failures, human errors, etc.

An innovative platform to enhance the quality of life of people with mild dementia

ISISEMD project aims to provide a pilot of intelligent system to support independent living of persons with cognitive problems or mild dementia. The primary user of the system is the elderly but the services are also designed to support caregivers and relatives in patients daily care. Services and user scenario are analyzed together with four end-user organizations that participate in the project team. The solution is composed by different systems already available on the market, but not specifically focused on dementia management. All the systems are integrated under the ISISEMD platform that manages common functionalities (eg. login, reporting…) and the web interface for different users, too. Privacy and security are considered and the consortium assured these requirements by adopting commercially available solutions and compliance with all the applicable national and international regulations. Moreover, a market and business analysis is made before starting with the validation test.