Ambient Assisted Living

by Nuno M. Garcia (Editor), Joel Jose P.C. Rodrigues (Editor), Dirk Christian Elias, Miguel Sales Dias

Addresses an Emerging Shift in Developing Countries

The authors and contributors of Ambient Assisted Living have recognized that the demographic profile is changing in many developing countries and have factored in an inversion of the demographic pyramid. The technology of ambient assisted living (AAL), supports the elderly and disabled in their daily routines to allow for safe and independent living for as long as possible. Dedicated to ambient intelligence—electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people—Ambient Assisted Living highlights the technologies that center on the needs of these special interest groups, such as the elderly or people with disabilities.

Beneficial to students, practitioners, and users of ambient assisted living (AAL), this text compiles scattered information on the subject, outlines the most important and significant work in related literature, and covers the latest hardware and software for ergonomic design pertaining to AAL. From inception to implementation, the text assesses what has been produced and researched so far and looks for trends and clues for the future. It reviews literature on AAL published since 2007 and describes the main features and areas of products or systems that interlink and improve new or existing technologies and systems.

This text:

• Provides extensive coverage of the applications, software, and information management for AAL
• Contains an overview of the concepts related to AAL
• Includes a comprehensive review of the state of the art on pervasive and mobile health (m-health) applications
• Describes a set of projects and work with scientific relevance in AAL
• Introduces a framework focused on the monitoring and assistance of elderly persons living alone
• Discusses a prospective study on technological systems for people with cognitive disabilities

Ambient Assisted Living highlights technologies that adapt to the user rather than the user adapting to the technology. This text proposes technologies that can enable assisted persons to live independently for longer and reduce the need for long-term care.

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