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Changing Demographics(US Census Dept, 2005)

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Changing Demographics (US Census Dept, 2005)

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Changing Demographics (US Census Dept, 2005)

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Changing Demographics (US Census Dept, 2005)

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Changing Demographics (US Census Dept, 2005)

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Furthermore…

clinicians, nurses, and caregivers

+ older adults

= in caregiver workload and burden

This is not only true in institutions but in the home as well!

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The Result

There is an increased need for new treatment options and solutions

Solutions need to be robust and easily scalable to meet the needs of this growing population

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Research Questions

Researchers are looking at technologies as a potential solution

• Can technology be used to blur the boundaries of place with respect to providing care?

• Can technology help support the growing needs of older adults?

• Can technology support caregivers and nurses?

We think it can!

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Defining our Goal

Intelligent Assistive Technology: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Wellness & Aging-in-Place

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Defining our Goal

Intelligent Assistive Technology: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Wellness & Aging-in-Place

Wellness - The quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary

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Assistive Technology

Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities

- Cook & Hussey (2000)

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Pervasive Healthcare

Recently pervasive (or ubiquitous) computing has started integrating with healthcare

Examples include:• Wireless, wearable, and implantable sensors• Personal medical devices• Smart home technology• Pervasive computing in care institutions• Pervasive applications for caregivers and nurses• Personal, social, cultural and ethical implications of

developing and using such technology

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Limitations

While good ideas, there have been several barriers to use, mainly:

• Often these technologies are not able to accommodate the changing needs of a user

• Many result in an increase in burden for nurses, caregivers, and family members

Why?- Because you need to take into account context!

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What is Context?

Context can be defined as any information that can be used to characterise the situation of a person, place, or object

Context encompasses everything in the person’s environment, including the person

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What is Artificial Intelligence?

The very general answer:Algorithms and techniques that can act like a human when performing cognitive functions (e.g. decision making)

Artificial intelligence is able to use context to make rational decisions

Most relevant to our research are intelligent sensing and planning techniques

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Sensing and Planning

Intelligent sensing:Allows contextually rich information to be collected about the person a rational manner (develop task, user, and system models)

Intelligent planning: Allows a system to decide what the person is doing and how to react in an appropriate manner (e.g. providing assistance at the appropriate time)

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Our Research Goal

To develop intelligent technology that is able to:

• Automatically learn about the user and environment

• Continuously collect data and information

• Use contextual information to autonomously operate and make decisions

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COACH presentation

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Modeling a System as a POMDP

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Modeling a System as a POMDP

What were each of these parameters for COACH?

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Solving POMDPs

A solution to a POMDP is a program (policy) that tells the system what to do in each possible state, in order to maximize the total expected reward• The solution must take into account the

reward after the first action, plus the reward after the second, … into the future.

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Dynamic Programming

Algorithms for solving POMDPs all involve “dynamic programming”:• Iteration• Caching intermediate results

Example:• Compute best policy that looks 1 step into

the future• Compute best policy that looks 2 steps into

the future, using previous results• Repeat until looking further into the future

makes only a small change in total expected reward

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Modeling a System as a POMDP

In class exercise: Model a robot that guides a user through a large assisted living complex.

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NurseBot “Pearl” (CMU)

Video Clip