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To enable ageing in place, innovative and integrative technologies such as smart living environments may be part of the solution. Despite extensive published literature reviews on this topic, the effectiveness of smart living environments in supporting ageing in place, and in particular involving unobtrusive technologies, remains unclear. The main objective of our umbrella review was to synthesize evidence on this topic.

This work presents a real-time system for tracking multiple object in the context of meal preparation when using the Cognitive Orthosis for CoOKing (COOK). This system is called SafeCOOK. It aims to provide more capabilities to detect some dangerous situations that the current system does not consider. For example, it can locate a utensil or other kitchen object that has been left on the cooking surface of the stove while a meal is being prepared. This system uses a hybrid method based on YOLO and KCF to detect, track and drop cooking utensils as they enter and leave the cooking area, and is capable of monitoring an entire cooktop in real-time with a single camera. The software has been implemented on an embedded platform in the smart stove and has been added to it. The system produces good segmentation and tracking results at a frame rate of 1 to 4 frames per second, as demonstrated in extensive experiments using video sequences under different conditions.

In Quebec, home care administrators are increasingly open to using Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies as part of services to better support care recipient with a major loss of autonomy. However, little information is available about how these technologies are integrated into clinical practice.

Remote monitoring uses smart home features to promote aging in place by preventing emergencies and increasing the quality of life of older adults. However, traditional reports, data, and graphs produced by remote monitoring technologies are not well suited to older adults’ needs. Thus, the complexity for older adults to use and interpret reports can lead to usability and adoption issues. The goals of this study were 1) to incorporate ludic-based design principles into an application that provides older adults with an alternative way to interact with information about their Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and 2) involve older adults in creating new ludic interfaces that address usability and reduce adoption issues. This ambient assistive technology offers older adults the opportunity, through its interface, to promote curiosity and exploration, the pursuit of non-external goals, and openness about the user’s routine and lifestyle. By using an iterative, Human-Centered, co-design approach in 4 workshops with older adults (N = 7), we combine older adults’ needs with ludic elements to propose a new user experience.

iNnovative Easy Assistance System (NEARS) is a Canadian transdisciplinary research project that aims to create a platform and standards that will make the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions technically feasible and clinically viable. It built and operationalized a hardware and software infrastructure for smart environments called NEARS-Hub. The key function of the NEARS-Hub is to deliver data generated by The Internet of Things (IoT) devices near the edge. The processing of the collected data in homes and its storage in the event of break-in services are carried out locally at the level of the edge node. The goal is to provide high-quality services and a quick response time. Therefore, edge nodes must be capable of flexibility, interoperability, and scalability to adapt their services in case of unforeseen situations. A common modeling approach is to create services without separating responsibilities between system layers. However, very few solutions allow the administration of services and the provisioning of resources in a flexible way and as close as possible to the equipment, at the edge of the network, or, ultimately, at the places where the data has been generated. This article proposes NEARS-Hub, a lightweight edge computing platform for AAL solutions, which revolves around three main notions: interoperability, flexibility, and scalability. The design of the current version of the NEARS-Hub is based on knowledge from several home experiments. The proposed model is validated by comparing the performances of the NEARS-Hub with a version based on a classic AAL solution.

User experience (UX), including usability, should be formally assessed multiple times throughout the development process to optimize the acceptability and integration of a new technology before implementing it within the home environment of people living with cognitive impairments.

In response to the long-lasting effects of cognitive impairments following acquired brain injury (ABI) on performing meal preparation safely and independently, our team has been working on developing a Cognitive Orthosis for coOKing (COOK) to meet these needs. In this paper, the concept mapping method was used to describe the processes and procedures of employing a user-centred design approach to develop this novel technology. For this purpose, a mixed methodology including qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted for needs analysis, prototype design, prototype evaluation, and technology validation via the examination of the usability and feasibility of COOK within real-life contexts. Our comprehensive studies have shown that COOK is a promising technology for meal preparation by individuals with severe ABI. Further study is warranted/in progress to develop a therapist’s interface to tailor the required type and level of assistance to a broader population with cognitive deficits of varying severity.

In Quebec, home care administrators are increasingly open to using Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies as part of services to better support care recipient with a major loss of autonomy. However, little information is available about how these technologies are integrated into clinical practice.

A cognitive orthosis named COOK was developed and implemented to facilitate meal preparation for adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) living in an alternative housing unit. This study aimed to explore facilitators and barriers to the potential use and implementation of COOK in a new context (i.e., within the homes of people living with a TBI in the community). For this purpose, 20 stakeholders (e.g., health-care professionals, clinical coordinators, informal caregivers of individuals with TBI) were interviewed. Participants identified various potential benefits of this technology (e.g., improving independence and confidence of people with TBI) and facilitators (e.g., clinical and technical supports, helpful functionalities) that could facilitate the use and implementation of COOK within a home environment. However, numerous questions remained unanswered regarding the logistics surrounding the implementation of such technology. Thus, further studies and modifications are required to facilitate future implementation of this technology among individuals living in their own homes.

Occupational therapists promote safety and autonomy of older adults with cognitive impairments. A technology, named COOK, offers support on a touch screen installed next to the stove to support task performance while correcting risky behaviors. We aimed to document (1) the functional profiles according the diagnosis (2) the types of interventions used to increase autonomy in the kitchen (3) the facilitators and obstacles to the implementation of COOK with this clientele.