similar to the action of an eye of an animal.

SYSTEM

M O D U L E 3

Perceptive spot

M O D U L E 2

Fig. 3. Architecture of model 2

M O D U L E 1

*i* and module *j* is as follows:

i.e.

participate in the activity of the system at iteration m only if

*k n*

*k*

1

It is suggested the position of the left boundary of the system is 0 and that of the right boundary is 1.

As is emphasized above, only the modules, which are within perceptive spot, are filled by information from the environment, i.e. if |CPm –i/z| ≤ p11, then for module i at iteration m+1

$$IV\_{i,m+1}^k = E\_m^k + noise$$

$$\text{and for modules which do not meet this inequality} \tag{15}$$

$$IV\_{i,m+1}^k = noise \ .$$

The formulae for computing activation level (AL), output vector OV, and the environment are identical those in model 1.

An idea underlying the usage of model is that under certain circumstances the input vectors of modules i.e. the state of the environment and the vectors of coefficients in the system ought to converge to each other. The results of a simulation intended to test this assumption are presented in table 2. In this simulation as well as in the simulations below, the number of modules in the system (z) was 300 and the vectors in each module were three-dimensional. The constants of environment vector in this simulation were 10, 50, and 90, accordingly. Perceptive spot covered all modules, and each module was able to interact with all of the rest i.e. p2 and p11 were 0,95. The threshold for interactions (p3) was 4,2. The other parameters are in Appendix, they were kept invariable through the other simulations. The values averaged across the components of input vectors were used as the description of the

Intelligent Biosystems and the Idea of the Joint Synthesis of Goals and Means 337

First, consider the simulation of a goal-directed process with a simple goal. At stage 1, the constants of the environment were 80, 50, and 20. The center of perceptive spot was established at 0,85, the size of perceptive spot (p11) was 0,2. In addition, at this stage, p2 was 0,2 and p3 was 4,2. This stage lasted until the mean AL exceeded 0,2. At stage 2 all constants were 50 and the center of the spot was at 0,5 while p2 and p11 were 0,95 and p3 became 3 at this and last stages. At the start of the last stage all constants were 30, and the center was

It was suggested that at stage 3 the process was to move perceptive spot to the right where there were stable processors, thus increasing CP. The state of the vectors of coefficients in the modules within the spot should meet the relationship between the components of coefficient vectors of stable processors caused by the different constants of the environment at stage 1. The components of input and coefficients vectors averaged across the modules within perceptive spot were used to describe the state of the process along with AL

The table shows that at stage 3, the process was increasing CP and the relationship between the components of the vectors of coefficients gradually became similar to that between constants at stage 1. The opposite relationship between the components of input vectors results from formula 7, after inserting a constant as an input vector in it and taking the relationship between the components of CVs into account. Because the constants of the environment were equal at stage 3, the coefficient vectors of the system were influenced by these constants and, as a result, the relationship formed at stage 1 tended to disappear. This corresponds to the completion of the process owing to the influence of the situation. It is important to note that the action of the system cannot be explained by combination of the perseveratory activity of trained modules and the inactivity of untrained ones. The fact that at stage 3 the relationship between the components of the vectors of coefficients was already weakly present at 0,48, considerably beyond the area of modules changed at stage 1 means that a process including most modules indeed was formed at stage 2, while increasing the

 In another simulation, a process with a complex goal, including two constituents, was formed. In this simulation, stage 1 was divided in two phases. At the first phase, all constants were 20, the center of perceptive spot was at 0, 85, p3 was 4,2 while p2 and p11 were 0,2. After eight iterations this phase was completed, all constants became 80 and the center of perceptive spot was moved to 0,65 without changing p2, p3, and p11. This was the second phase of stage 1 and four iterations were performed. Stage 2 in this simulation was the same as in the previous one. At the beginning of the last stage all constants were 10, and

It was suggested that the process was to move the center of spot to the right and because there could be two groups of stable processors. The components of the vectors of coefficients within the spot could firstly increase and later decrease but the components of input vectors might change in the opposite direction following formula 7. To some extent, this can be

Because at any moment all constants were identical, the components of input and coefficients vectors in modules could be averaged within each vector and across all modules in the spot. As a result, one number was sufficient to describe the state of input or

established at 0,25 while p2 and p11 were 0,2 again.

averaged across all modules. The results are in table 2

mean AL at stage 3 implies activity in modules untrained at stage 1.

the center was established at 0, 25 while p2 and p11 were 0, 2 again.

considered as a very primitive form of multilevel activity.

influence of the environment and the averaged components of the vectors of coefficients were considered as the characteristic of change in coefficients. The AL averaged across all modules reflected activity in the whole system.

IV1, IV2, IV3 are the first, second, and third averaged components of input vectors; CV1, CV2, CV3 are the same components of the vectors of coefficients.

Table 2. Simulation of the convergence between input vectors and vectors of coefficients.

It is easy to see that input vectors and the vectors of coefficients indeed converged, though this process was incomplete probably because, as the mean AL approached to 1, changes in the system became practically impossible.

A goal-directed process was constructed as follows. First, one region of modules (or several regions consecutively) was considered as perceptive spot and the state of modules within this region was changed under a certain state of the environment. The position of the spot could not be changed during this stage. This corresponds to the formation of stable processors. And the modules beyond the spot were considered as flexible elements. At the second stage, perceptive spot covered all modules of the system, which obtained information from a neutral state of the environment. This stage, which corresponds to the interaction between stable processors and flexible elements and the formation of a goaldirected activity, is suggested to be rapid without interacting with the situation. Therefore, at the second stage there was no feedback loop between the system and the environment. A certain distribution of goals and means encoded by coefficient vectors and activation levels resulted from this stage. At the last stage, a new, local perceptive spot was established and the goal-directed process pursued its goal through interactions with the environment. The position of spot was able to change within the third stage.

influence of the environment and the averaged components of the vectors of coefficients were considered as the characteristic of change in coefficients. The AL averaged across all

Iteration AL IV1 CV1 IV2 CV2 IV3 CV3 1 0,3 15,03 -3,5 55,04 -3,78 94,87 -3,59 2 0,44 23,96 1,43 80,62 11,16 137,56 21,05 3 0,52 31,49 4,64 104,35 20,66 177,83 36,8 4 0,63 35,97 8,55 119,68 32,02 204,08 55,69 5 0,68 36,76 10,23 124,31 37,03 212,5 64,1 6 0,73 36,18 11,76 124,02 41,71 212,28 71,98 7 0,78 34,34 12,75 120,1 44,83 205,74 77,26 8 0,81 32,18 13,44 114,51 47,06 196,08 81,01 9 0,84 30,03 13,89 108,31 48,58 186,22 83,57 10 0,86 27,87 14,19 102,51 49,68 176,43 85,41 11 0,89 25,8 14,36 96,86 50,36 167,03 86,55 12 0,9 24,24 14,36 91,99 50,58 158,47 86,93 13 0,92 23,05 14,31 87,67 50,6 151,7 86,97 14 0,94 22,23 14,27 84,33 50,55 146,17 86,91 15 0,94 21,12 14,25 81,75 50,55 141,95 86,91 16 0,95 20,48 14,25 79,46 50,57 138,81 86,94 17 0,95 19,87 14,25 78,13 50,59 135,9 86,97 18 0,95 19,75 14,26 76,47 50,61 133,62 87,01 IV1, IV2, IV3 are the first, second, and third averaged components of input vectors; CV1, CV2, CV3 are the

Table 2. Simulation of the convergence between input vectors and vectors of coefficients.

It is easy to see that input vectors and the vectors of coefficients indeed converged, though this process was incomplete probably because, as the mean AL approached to 1, changes in

A goal-directed process was constructed as follows. First, one region of modules (or several regions consecutively) was considered as perceptive spot and the state of modules within this region was changed under a certain state of the environment. The position of the spot could not be changed during this stage. This corresponds to the formation of stable processors. And the modules beyond the spot were considered as flexible elements. At the second stage, perceptive spot covered all modules of the system, which obtained information from a neutral state of the environment. This stage, which corresponds to the interaction between stable processors and flexible elements and the formation of a goaldirected activity, is suggested to be rapid without interacting with the situation. Therefore, at the second stage there was no feedback loop between the system and the environment. A certain distribution of goals and means encoded by coefficient vectors and activation levels resulted from this stage. At the last stage, a new, local perceptive spot was established and the goal-directed process pursued its goal through interactions with the environment. The

modules reflected activity in the whole system.

same components of the vectors of coefficients.

the system became practically impossible.

position of spot was able to change within the third stage.

First, consider the simulation of a goal-directed process with a simple goal. At stage 1, the constants of the environment were 80, 50, and 20. The center of perceptive spot was established at 0,85, the size of perceptive spot (p11) was 0,2. In addition, at this stage, p2 was 0,2 and p3 was 4,2. This stage lasted until the mean AL exceeded 0,2. At stage 2 all constants were 50 and the center of the spot was at 0,5 while p2 and p11 were 0,95 and p3 became 3 at this and last stages. At the start of the last stage all constants were 30, and the center was established at 0,25 while p2 and p11 were 0,2 again.

It was suggested that at stage 3 the process was to move perceptive spot to the right where there were stable processors, thus increasing CP. The state of the vectors of coefficients in the modules within the spot should meet the relationship between the components of coefficient vectors of stable processors caused by the different constants of the environment at stage 1. The components of input and coefficients vectors averaged across the modules within perceptive spot were used to describe the state of the process along with AL averaged across all modules. The results are in table 2

The table shows that at stage 3, the process was increasing CP and the relationship between the components of the vectors of coefficients gradually became similar to that between constants at stage 1. The opposite relationship between the components of input vectors results from formula 7, after inserting a constant as an input vector in it and taking the relationship between the components of CVs into account. Because the constants of the environment were equal at stage 3, the coefficient vectors of the system were influenced by these constants and, as a result, the relationship formed at stage 1 tended to disappear. This corresponds to the completion of the process owing to the influence of the situation. It is important to note that the action of the system cannot be explained by combination of the perseveratory activity of trained modules and the inactivity of untrained ones. The fact that at stage 3 the relationship between the components of the vectors of coefficients was already weakly present at 0,48, considerably beyond the area of modules changed at stage 1 means that a process including most modules indeed was formed at stage 2, while increasing the mean AL at stage 3 implies activity in modules untrained at stage 1.

 In another simulation, a process with a complex goal, including two constituents, was formed. In this simulation, stage 1 was divided in two phases. At the first phase, all constants were 20, the center of perceptive spot was at 0, 85, p3 was 4,2 while p2 and p11 were 0,2. After eight iterations this phase was completed, all constants became 80 and the center of perceptive spot was moved to 0,65 without changing p2, p3, and p11. This was the second phase of stage 1 and four iterations were performed. Stage 2 in this simulation was the same as in the previous one. At the beginning of the last stage all constants were 10, and the center was established at 0, 25 while p2 and p11 were 0, 2 again.

It was suggested that the process was to move the center of spot to the right and because there could be two groups of stable processors. The components of the vectors of coefficients within the spot could firstly increase and later decrease but the components of input vectors might change in the opposite direction following formula 7. To some extent, this can be considered as a very primitive form of multilevel activity.

Because at any moment all constants were identical, the components of input and coefficients vectors in modules could be averaged within each vector and across all modules in the spot. As a result, one number was sufficient to describe the state of input or

Intelligent Biosystems and the Idea of the Joint Synthesis of Goals and Means 339

criterion of functioning was used to construct and perform the processes and that the goals of the processes treated as a source of sustainability and its means were constructed

Stage 2 Stage 3

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 CV

Of course, it is easy to see certain shortcomings of the models. For example, the second process in model 2 was able to shift the center of the spot from one constituent to the other only because they were nearby. If the constituents would be established at opposite positions, such a shift would be impossible without changing the criterion of proximity. However, as is pointed out above the models simply are intended to demonstrate how the

With the relevance of the idea of joint synthesis to simulate goal-directed activity as shown by the models above, it seems useful to consider some theoretical perspectives of this approach to the construction of intelligent systems. First, it is of importance to note that the consideration of the joint synthesis as the basic class of human activity and intelligence does not mean the abandonment of other classes and approaches. Indeed, successful attempts to achieve natural functionality often are not based on the imitation of a natural architecture – for example, cars can be considered as analogous to horses but cars have no legs, etc.

Iterations

Fig. 4. The simulation of a goal-directed process with a two-constituent goal

idea of joint synthesis can be applied to simulate goal-directed activity.

 CP Al Constant IV

together.

Stage 1 Phase 1 Phase 2

**5. Future prospects**

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

coefficients vectors within the spot at any iteration. In addition, AL averaged across all modules also was used as a characteristic of the process. The results of the simulation are in figure 2, where for convenience, CP and AL were multiplied by 100.

IV1, IV2, IV3 are the first, second, and third averaged components of input vectors; CV1, CV2, CV3 are the same components of the vectors of coefficients.

Table 3. The simulation of a goal-directed process with a simple goal

In my opinion, all of these simulations demonstrate that the processes constructed can be considered as goal-directed in the sense that there was a state (or states), which each process attempted to achieve using certain means. It is important to note that no innate

coefficients vectors within the spot at any iteration. In addition, AL averaged across all modules also was used as a characteristic of the process. The results of the simulation are in

Iteration CP AL Constant1 Constant2 Constant3 IV1 IV2 IV3 CV1 CV2 CV3

1 0,85 0,11 80 50 20 85,19 54,83 24,83 3,64 3,64 3,92 2 0,85 0,13 80 50 20 84,91 55,2 25,02 11,95 8,27 4,56 3 0,85 0,14 80 50 20 84,37 55,07 24,86 22,51 14,76 6,63 4 0,85 0,16 80 50 20 88,36 57,55 25,88 29,22 19,01 8,32 5 0,85 0,17 80 50 20 91,84 59,46 27,14 33,77 22,06 9,67 6 0,85 0,18 80 50 20 94,44 61,1 28,59 37,65 24,72 10,98 7 0,85 0,18 80 50 20 95,65 62,54 28,69 40,13 26,32 11,8 8 0,85 0,19 80 50 20 95,82 61,48 28,09 42,11 27,62 12,48 9 0,85 0,19 80 50 20 95,86 61,5 27,57 43,29 28,36 12,92 10 0,85 0,21 80 50 20 95,51 61,68 28,58 44,13 28,86 13,19

11 0,5 0,27 50 50 50 55,13 55,24 55,43 15,9 10,55 5,24 12 0,5 0,31 50 50 50 55,02 55,03 55,36 18,53 13,46 8,5 13 0,5 0,35 50 50 50 54,98 55,26 55,23 22,69 18,16 13,69 14 0,5 0,39 50 50 50 55,16 55,16 55,37 25,41 21,35 17,43

15 0,25 0,4 30 30 30 35,15 35,25 35,34 19,74 19,79 19,89 16 0,33 0,4 30 30 30 32,36 33,76 35,65 19,42 19,55 19,73 17 0,39 0,41 30 30 30 32,49 33,77 35,07 18,99 19,19 19,23 18 0,43 0,41 30 30 30 33,1 34,59 35,79 17,86 17,96 18,18 19 0,48 0,42 30 30 30 33,38 34,52 35,28 17,75 17,44 17,12 20 0,51 0,42 30 30 30 34,03 34,19 36,29 17,85 17,1 16,35 21 0,55 0,42 30 30 30 34,42 35,37 36,28 18,04 16,88 15,55 22 0,57 0,43 30 30 30 35,72 36,51 38,02 17,82 16,49 14,83 23 0,6 0,43 30 30 30 36,07 37,1 38,73 18,05 16,49 14,58 24 0,61 0,43 30 30 30 35,94 37,92 38,61 18,34 16,68 14,82 25 0,62 0,43 30 30 30 37,52 38,04 39,53 18,4 16,77 14,98 26 0,63 0,44 30 30 30 37,32 38,14 39,41 18,66 16,96 15,26 27 0,64 0,44 30 30 30 38,42 39,43 40,34 18,65 17,11 15,68 28 0,64 0,44 30 30 30 38,17 39,83 40,62 18,8 17,32 16,08 29 0,65 0,44 30 30 30 38,59 39,65 40,52 19 17,66 16,55 30 0,65 0,45 30 30 30 39,41 40,04 40,87 19,28 17,99 16,95 IV1, IV2, IV3 are the first, second, and third averaged components of input vectors; CV1, CV2, CV3 are the

figure 2, where for convenience, CP and AL were multiplied by 100.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

same components of the vectors of coefficients.

Table 3. The simulation of a goal-directed process with a simple goal

In my opinion, all of these simulations demonstrate that the processes constructed can be considered as goal-directed in the sense that there was a state (or states), which each process attempted to achieve using certain means. It is important to note that no innate criterion of functioning was used to construct and perform the processes and that the goals of the processes treated as a source of sustainability and its means were constructed together.

Fig. 4. The simulation of a goal-directed process with a two-constituent goal

Of course, it is easy to see certain shortcomings of the models. For example, the second process in model 2 was able to shift the center of the spot from one constituent to the other only because they were nearby. If the constituents would be established at opposite positions, such a shift would be impossible without changing the criterion of proximity. However, as is pointed out above the models simply are intended to demonstrate how the idea of joint synthesis can be applied to simulate goal-directed activity.

#### **5. Future prospects**

With the relevance of the idea of joint synthesis to simulate goal-directed activity as shown by the models above, it seems useful to consider some theoretical perspectives of this approach to the construction of intelligent systems. First, it is of importance to note that the consideration of the joint synthesis as the basic class of human activity and intelligence does not mean the abandonment of other classes and approaches. Indeed, successful attempts to achieve natural functionality often are not based on the imitation of a natural architecture – for example, cars can be considered as analogous to horses but cars have no legs, etc.

Intelligent Biosystems and the Idea of the Joint Synthesis of Goals and Means 341

people sometimes are unable to solve simple problems, though their knowledge and skills are sufficient to find the right solution. To avoid similar difficulties an AI system may use the goals and means constructed jointly as a seed point in some cases and afterwards

Since the advent of first computers, the idea of construction of artificial intelligence similar to that of human beings has driven the work of thousands of brilliant scientists and engineers. However, the result of their activity seems unsatisfactory as compared to, for example, advances in computer hardware. One of the most fundamental reasons for this situation may be that the mechanisms of human intelligence are unclear. Though the imitation of human intelligence is not a necessary characteristic of artificial intelligence, obviously a particular view on human intelligence is a very important heuristic. Therefore, an incorrect understanding of human intelligence can be a serious obstacle to construct intelligent systems. Intelligence is a characteristic of goal-directed systems and two classes of such systems can be easily derived from observations of animals and human beings. In my opinion, the classes that underlie most approaches to the construction of artificial intelligence are not sufficient to explain human activity. A broader classification of goal-directed activities suggests such processes can be described as a two-dimensional structure rather than a one-dimension one. In such structure there is a cell where in my opinion, humans can be located i.e., humans are goal-directed systems that synthesize arbitrary goals and means together. Though the idea of joint synthesis seems contradictory to some aspects of everyday experience, it is consistent with psychological evidence. In addition, there is neural evidence favoring this supposition. Simple computer models demonstrate that the idea of joint synthesis can be applied to simulate goal-directed activity. I suggest that the idea of joint synthesis can be a useful method

Asaad, W. F., Rainer, G. & Miller, E. K. (2000). Task-specific neural activity in the primate

Bäck, T. (1996). *Evolutionary Algorithms in Theory and Practice: Evolution Strategies,*

Bertino, E, Piero, G & Zarria, B.C. (2001*). Intelligent Database Systems*. Addison-Wesley

Buller, D. J. (1998) DeFreuding evolutionary psychology: adaptation and human motivation,

in Hardcastle, V. G., Ed. *Psychology Meets Biology: Connections, Conjectures, Constraints.* MIT Press/Bradford Books. http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents

*Evolutionary Programming, Genetic Algorithms.* Oxford Univ. Press.

searches for goals and methods that are more suitable.

to advance research in the construction of intelligent systems.

p1=1; p4=2; p5=0, 3; p6=0,98; p7=0,5; p8=0,3; p9=0,8; p10=0,8

/disk0/00/00/03/26/cog00000326-00/defreud.htm

Bertalanffy, L. von, (1968). *General Systems Theory*.

prefrontal cortex. *Journal of Neurophysiology*, 84, 451–459.

**6. Conclusion**

**7. Appendix**

**8. References**

p2=3\*10-6 ; p3=0,99; p4=0,001

Professional.

Model 1

Model 2

Similarly, it is not necessary that the joint synthesis is the only way to create full-scale artificial intelligence.

Though the joint synthesis seems appropriate to construct local projects like the models above, I will concentrate on the construction of general artificial intelligence. In my position, the construction of general AI should be a consequence of gradual changes within a system associated with its temporal functioning and complication, i.e. a result of a shift from short – term processes with simple goals and means to long-term processes with multilevel goals and complex methods. It is suggested that, although such a system may have complex innate architecture, the main source of its development is interactions with the system's environment via feedback loops.

The mechanism of joint synthesis is suggested to be a basis for such development. Indeed, because no innate criterion for the construction of goals is used, there are no constraints for the complication of goals. An appropriate means can be constructed for any goal because goals and means are constructed together,. As a result, the system is, in principle, able to adapt to any condition of training. It is suggested that the system can use blackboard architecture with flexible elements, then the formation and/or changes in elements can be considered as learning. The key component of the models above is the functional proximity that determines the possibility of the interaction between modules. It can be supposed that, in the hypothetical system, functional proximity can be dynamically changed in regard with the complexity and diversity of the system's components. The increase in the duration of goal-directed process may result from alterations in something similar to AL in the models above.

It can be suggested that the system should be able to create and use something similar to symbols. The generation of symbols may be performed as follows: because means in the system are constructed along with goals the system should be able to describe input and/or output information caused by these means in the terms consistent with goals and to prescribe a label associated with a goal to a sequence of such descriptions, thus creating symbols. The advantage of this method is that such symbols are grounded in the ongoing activity and therefore they can be used to construct novel goals and means through the involvement of symbols in the system's blackboard. Of course, this mechanism of symbolization can be gradual like changes in the duration of goal-directed processes. That is, at the beginning, the system will prescribe labels for the short sequences of ongoing states and gradually to for the longer and more complex ones.

It seems that the gradual increase in complexity and duration of goal-directed activities is a mechanism underlying human maturation. Indeed, in babyhood, the goal-directed activities of infants can be described as very short-term with primitive means but the activities of adults are long-lasting often life-ranging processes with very complex, hierarchical means and developed language. Therefore, the imitation of gradual human growth may be an effective way to achieve the human complexity of goal-directed activity and intelligence.

Of course, emphasis on the joint synthesis does not imply that other methods cannot be used within the given approach. For example, the criterion of minimal construction costs permits the system to synthesize a goal and means in any situation but if the minimum of costs found by the system is too local then the goal and means synthesized may be inappropriate to the situation. This mechanism seems to be an explanation for the fact that people sometimes are unable to solve simple problems, though their knowledge and skills are sufficient to find the right solution. To avoid similar difficulties an AI system may use the goals and means constructed jointly as a seed point in some cases and afterwards searches for goals and methods that are more suitable.

### **6. Conclusion**

340 Intelligent Systems

Similarly, it is not necessary that the joint synthesis is the only way to create full-scale

Though the joint synthesis seems appropriate to construct local projects like the models above, I will concentrate on the construction of general artificial intelligence. In my position, the construction of general AI should be a consequence of gradual changes within a system associated with its temporal functioning and complication, i.e. a result of a shift from short – term processes with simple goals and means to long-term processes with multilevel goals and complex methods. It is suggested that, although such a system may have complex innate architecture, the main source of its development is interactions with the system's

The mechanism of joint synthesis is suggested to be a basis for such development. Indeed, because no innate criterion for the construction of goals is used, there are no constraints for the complication of goals. An appropriate means can be constructed for any goal because goals and means are constructed together,. As a result, the system is, in principle, able to adapt to any condition of training. It is suggested that the system can use blackboard architecture with flexible elements, then the formation and/or changes in elements can be considered as learning. The key component of the models above is the functional proximity that determines the possibility of the interaction between modules. It can be supposed that, in the hypothetical system, functional proximity can be dynamically changed in regard with the complexity and diversity of the system's components. The increase in the duration of goal-directed process may result from alterations in something similar to AL in the models

It can be suggested that the system should be able to create and use something similar to symbols. The generation of symbols may be performed as follows: because means in the system are constructed along with goals the system should be able to describe input and/or output information caused by these means in the terms consistent with goals and to prescribe a label associated with a goal to a sequence of such descriptions, thus creating symbols. The advantage of this method is that such symbols are grounded in the ongoing activity and therefore they can be used to construct novel goals and means through the involvement of symbols in the system's blackboard. Of course, this mechanism of symbolization can be gradual like changes in the duration of goal-directed processes. That is, at the beginning, the system will prescribe labels for the short sequences of ongoing states

It seems that the gradual increase in complexity and duration of goal-directed activities is a mechanism underlying human maturation. Indeed, in babyhood, the goal-directed activities of infants can be described as very short-term with primitive means but the activities of adults are long-lasting often life-ranging processes with very complex, hierarchical means and developed language. Therefore, the imitation of gradual human growth may be an effective way to achieve the human complexity of goal-directed activity and intelligence.

Of course, emphasis on the joint synthesis does not imply that other methods cannot be used within the given approach. For example, the criterion of minimal construction costs permits the system to synthesize a goal and means in any situation but if the minimum of costs found by the system is too local then the goal and means synthesized may be inappropriate to the situation. This mechanism seems to be an explanation for the fact that

and gradually to for the longer and more complex ones.

artificial intelligence.

above.

environment via feedback loops.

Since the advent of first computers, the idea of construction of artificial intelligence similar to that of human beings has driven the work of thousands of brilliant scientists and engineers. However, the result of their activity seems unsatisfactory as compared to, for example, advances in computer hardware. One of the most fundamental reasons for this situation may be that the mechanisms of human intelligence are unclear. Though the imitation of human intelligence is not a necessary characteristic of artificial intelligence, obviously a particular view on human intelligence is a very important heuristic. Therefore, an incorrect understanding of human intelligence can be a serious obstacle to construct intelligent systems. Intelligence is a characteristic of goal-directed systems and two classes of such systems can be easily derived from observations of animals and human beings. In my opinion, the classes that underlie most approaches to the construction of artificial intelligence are not sufficient to explain human activity. A broader classification of goal-directed activities suggests such processes can be described as a two-dimensional structure rather than a one-dimension one. In such structure there is a cell where in my opinion, humans can be located i.e., humans are goal-directed systems that synthesize arbitrary goals and means together. Though the idea of joint synthesis seems contradictory to some aspects of everyday experience, it is consistent with psychological evidence. In addition, there is neural evidence favoring this supposition. Simple computer models demonstrate that the idea of joint synthesis can be applied to simulate goal-directed activity. I suggest that the idea of joint synthesis can be a useful method to advance research in the construction of intelligent systems.

#### **7. Appendix**

Model 1 p2=3\*10-6 ; p3=0,99; p4=0,001 Model 2 p1=1; p4=2; p5=0, 3; p6=0,98; p7=0,5; p8=0,3; p9=0,8; p10=0,8

#### **8. References**

**16**

**Innovative Intelligent Services for**

**Older Adults and Their Caregivers**

Anelia Mitseva1, Sofoklis Kyriazakos2, Antonis Litke3, Paolo Barone4, Alessandro Mamelli4, Nikolaos Papadakis3 and Neeli R. Prasad2

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

**1.2 Understanding the unmet needs of the end-user groups of ISISEMD services**

According to the 2009 World Alzheimer Report, the number of people with dementia in Europe is conservatively anticipated to increase by 40% over the next 20 years mainly due to the increase in the ageing population (ALZ, 2009). This means that, due to limited resources,

**1. Introduction**

**1.1 European pilot project ISISEMD**

connectivity, hardware failures, human errors, etc.

**Supporting Cognitively Impaired**

*1North Denmark EU-Office/Aalborg Municipality, 2Center for TeleInFrastructure/Aalborg University,*

> *3Converge ICT Solutions, 4Hewlett Packard Italy,*

> > *1,2Denmark 3Greece 4Italy*

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

Anelia Mitseva1, Sofoklis Kyriazakos2, Antonis Litke3, Paolo Barone4, Alessandro Mamelli4, Nikolaos Papadakis3 and Neeli R. Prasad2 *1North Denmark EU-Office/Aalborg Municipality, 2Center for TeleInFrastructure/Aalborg University, 3Converge ICT Solutions, 4Hewlett Packard Italy, 1,2Denmark 3Greece 4Italy*

#### **1. Introduction**

342 Intelligent Systems

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Luria, A.R. (1966). Higher cortical functions in man. Tavistock. Publications, Andover, Hants. Luria, A.R. (1973). *Foundations of neuropsychology*. Moscow State University Press (in Russian). Luria, A.R. (1982). Variants of the "frontal" syndrome. In Luria A.R, Homskaya E.D. (eds.), *Functions of the frontal lobes of the brain*, pp. 8-48, Nauka ( in Russian). Miller, B.T. & D'Esposito, M. (2005). Searching for ''the top'' in top-down control. *Neuron*,

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#### **1.1 European pilot project ISISEMD**

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.

#### **1.2 Understanding the unmet needs of the end-user groups of ISISEMD services**

According to the 2009 World Alzheimer Report, the number of people with dementia in Europe is conservatively anticipated to increase by 40% over the next 20 years mainly due to the increase in the ageing population (ALZ, 2009). This means that, due to limited resources,

Innovative Intelligent Services

**2. ISISEMD service platform – a short overview**

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 345

The overall architecture of ISISEMD is composed in such a way that on one hand it fulfils the service requirements, and on the other hand it addresses the reality to make the different systems (also identified as x-Servers) to be integrated into a whole with a web-portal functioning as a common entry point for the ISISEMD system. The portal is the actual single point of entrance into the ISISEMD system and is the component responsible for the management of the users as well as the association of users with services and other users. It contains various functional sub-components such as a User Management module, an Authentication and Authorisation module, a Logging module, and a Reporting module. At the user side, the central unit is a computer with a touch screen, which is called Carebox.

High level architecture of ISISEMD platform is presented on the figure below.

Fig. 1. High level architecture of the ISISEMD service platform

ISISEMD services for cognitively impaired adults include (Table 1): home and personal safety observations; reminders and prompts for basic daily activities – pre-defined reminders exist but there is also the possibility to set up and show personalised "free text reminders"; services for cognitive stimulation (Memory Lane shows a picture slide show on the Carebox and Brain Games that can be played on the Carebox); video communication service with care-givers; location service when the person is out of the home with the help of a simple GPS device called Lommy; emergency contact button in the home (Help button on

ISISEMD services for the formal (FCG) and informal care-givers (ICG) include: alerts, notifications, and alarm services which are distributed by mobile phone or email; an overview of daily activities shown on the portal; video-call service for communication with the elderly;

the Carebox touch screen) and outside the home (panic button on the GPS device).

there will be a significant challenge for the social care providers to meet their needs when the illness progresses. Currently, this group of citizens lives in the community and is being taken care of by their families which exposes them to care stress, social isolation, reduced employment and in many cases also leading to health deterioration. There are many types of dementia and for each person the disease develops individually. In general this group of older adults lacks structure of the day, their abstract thinking is drastically reduced, there are risks for home incidents from fire or a food forgotten on the cooker or they can get lost outside their home. All these risks prevent them to live independently and their family caregivers suffer a lot of stress and reduced quality of life. Their Quality of Life (QOL) can be maintained or increased and care stress can be reduced if intelligent technology services give the family care-givers a helping hand to notify about risks in the home or provide support information to the elderly person (EP) about the current day and time, upcoming appointments, etc. ISISEMD services have been initially designed for three main end-user groups – the older adults with mild dementia or mild cognitive impairments, their informal care-givers (partners, closest family, neighbours) and the formal carers.

The holistic approach of the ISISEMD services has a big potential for a positive impact but this requires "a smart system" with very high level of autonomous operation and intelligence of the services so they provide the exact type of home support needed for the specific dyad "elderly-family care-giver", with minimum interaction from the elderly and care-givers part. At the same time, the technology and the services must be "invisible" for the users and require very little or no user interaction at all.

The major contribution of ISISEMD project is that it aims at improving quality of life of fragile user groups by offering home support technology services in a holistic way, fulfilling most of their un-met needs. It involves all relevant end-user groups in the whole process of design, validation and assessment of the intelligent services in real-life conditions and in diverse regional settings. In this way it advances the developments one step closer in understanding the challenges that accompany the process of introducing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services to older adults with mild cognitive impairments living in the community and their care-givers. Last but not least, it shares hands-on experiences and best practices.

#### **1.3 Chapter outline**

The challenges listed above were addressed by introducing intelligence in almost all of the services, in data and profile management, in the networking and in the integration and optimisation process. In this chapter we describe the final outcome of 30-month efforts, presented as follows: Section 2 presents a short overview of ISISEMD services. Section 3 focuses on highlighting the intelligent features in the service functionalities. Section 4 describes how ISISEMD project advances State-of-the-Art for intelligent systems and the advantages of ISISEMD system in comparison with other systems. Section 5 gives details how the services were piloted in real-life. Qualitative technical evaluation, service validation and user evaluation for satisfaction and acceptance were carried out and outcome from them is presented in Sections 6, 7 and 8 respectively. The positive impact from the use of the services is depicted with examples of "success stories" and users' statements in Section 9. The chapter is concluded in Section 10.

#### **2. ISISEMD service platform – a short overview**

344 Intelligent Systems

there will be a significant challenge for the social care providers to meet their needs when the illness progresses. Currently, this group of citizens lives in the community and is being taken care of by their families which exposes them to care stress, social isolation, reduced employment and in many cases also leading to health deterioration. There are many types of dementia and for each person the disease develops individually. In general this group of older adults lacks structure of the day, their abstract thinking is drastically reduced, there are risks for home incidents from fire or a food forgotten on the cooker or they can get lost outside their home. All these risks prevent them to live independently and their family caregivers suffer a lot of stress and reduced quality of life. Their Quality of Life (QOL) can be maintained or increased and care stress can be reduced if intelligent technology services give the family care-givers a helping hand to notify about risks in the home or provide support information to the elderly person (EP) about the current day and time, upcoming appointments, etc. ISISEMD services have been initially designed for three main end-user groups – the older adults with mild dementia or mild cognitive impairments, their informal

The holistic approach of the ISISEMD services has a big potential for a positive impact but this requires "a smart system" with very high level of autonomous operation and intelligence of the services so they provide the exact type of home support needed for the specific dyad "elderly-family care-giver", with minimum interaction from the elderly and care-givers part. At the same time, the technology and the services must be "invisible" for

The major contribution of ISISEMD project is that it aims at improving quality of life of fragile user groups by offering home support technology services in a holistic way, fulfilling most of their un-met needs. It involves all relevant end-user groups in the whole process of design, validation and assessment of the intelligent services in real-life conditions and in diverse regional settings. In this way it advances the developments one step closer in understanding the challenges that accompany the process of introducing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services to older adults with mild cognitive impairments living in the community and their care-givers. Last but not least, it shares hands-on

The challenges listed above were addressed by introducing intelligence in almost all of the services, in data and profile management, in the networking and in the integration and optimisation process. In this chapter we describe the final outcome of 30-month efforts, presented as follows: Section 2 presents a short overview of ISISEMD services. Section 3 focuses on highlighting the intelligent features in the service functionalities. Section 4 describes how ISISEMD project advances State-of-the-Art for intelligent systems and the advantages of ISISEMD system in comparison with other systems. Section 5 gives details how the services were piloted in real-life. Qualitative technical evaluation, service validation and user evaluation for satisfaction and acceptance were carried out and outcome from them is presented in Sections 6, 7 and 8 respectively. The positive impact from the use of the services is depicted with examples of "success stories" and users' statements in Section 9.

care-givers (partners, closest family, neighbours) and the formal carers.

the users and require very little or no user interaction at all.

experiences and best practices.

The chapter is concluded in Section 10.

**1.3 Chapter outline**

The overall architecture of ISISEMD is composed in such a way that on one hand it fulfils the service requirements, and on the other hand it addresses the reality to make the different systems (also identified as x-Servers) to be integrated into a whole with a web-portal functioning as a common entry point for the ISISEMD system. The portal is the actual single point of entrance into the ISISEMD system and is the component responsible for the management of the users as well as the association of users with services and other users. It contains various functional sub-components such as a User Management module, an Authentication and Authorisation module, a Logging module, and a Reporting module. At the user side, the central unit is a computer with a touch screen, which is called Carebox. High level architecture of ISISEMD platform is presented on the figure below.

Fig. 1. High level architecture of the ISISEMD service platform

ISISEMD services for cognitively impaired adults include (Table 1): home and personal safety observations; reminders and prompts for basic daily activities – pre-defined reminders exist but there is also the possibility to set up and show personalised "free text reminders"; services for cognitive stimulation (Memory Lane shows a picture slide show on the Carebox and Brain Games that can be played on the Carebox); video communication service with care-givers; location service when the person is out of the home with the help of a simple GPS device called Lommy; emergency contact button in the home (Help button on the Carebox touch screen) and outside the home (panic button on the GPS device).

ISISEMD services for the formal (FCG) and informal care-givers (ICG) include: alerts, notifications, and alarm services which are distributed by mobile phone or email; an overview of daily activities shown on the portal; video-call service for communication with the elderly;

Innovative Intelligent Services

**3.1 Home safety services**

and/or motion detectors.

captured by other sensors.

**3.1.1 Cooking monitor service**

deliver the services.

focus on the intelligent features of the service platform.

**3. Intelligence in the service platform**

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 347

The table above gives an overview of the ISISEMD services. In the following sections we

One of the advantages of the ISISEMD system is the hidden intelligence in the provided services. The basic idea is to abstract the services and make them transparent so the end users cannot actually realise the system complexity as they may not have much knowledge on ICT and this is not expected either. Drawing on this, the services act and pro-act in such a way that they are to define any critical circumstances that might occur before these actually happen and thus, they try to anticipate any consequences (e.g. the relatives of a person will receive a notification if the person is cooking for longer time than expected, anticipating thus a possible danger of having a fire in the home). This intelligence is possible to implement through a high-end home automation system identified as the Ecosystem.

Home safety services consist of sensors for monitoring the safety in the home environment. They function through sending email/sms to care-givers, posting alarms or notification messages on the web portal in cases of alarm events from the intelligent front door sensor, cooking monitor, fridge door sensor, fire/smoke sensor, flood detection sensor, bed sensors

The Ecosystem part of the Carebox technically consists of a virtual machine that runs a local instance of an Ecosystem Domotics server, which is a reduced set of services and processes tailored for the specific requirements. This server is responsible for monitoring and responding to events from the various input sensors in the patient's home. A special ISISEMD-specific service installed on each Domotics module is responsible for relaying those events up to the central X-Server hub process on the portal-side of the server to be evaluated and acted upon if required. Through this fact, a delegation of intelligence is possible to the first level of reaction so as to increase the efficiency of the whole system.

An example of domotic service operation is explained by the control of the home cooker the event is triggered by the fact that the person turns on the cooker. This activates an event of setting the appropriate timers that will monitor the duration of the cooker being on. Alert messages will be issued accordingly and the measures will be taken in such a way that will prohibit an accident and preventing fires, etc. Respective workflows are triggered by events

Elderly person is staying at home alone and the home is equipped with the aforementioned home automation services for preventing the events that have been mentioned. The services are pre-configured and running in the background without disturbing his daily life. Whenever the events that trigger the services are activated, the workflows will start-up to

The purpose of having installed a cooking monitor in the elderly peoples' homes is significant for the safety of receiving an alarm in case of having forgotten to turn off the

lifestyle pattern information over a period of time and remote doctor service. The added value for the informal care-givers relies on the fact of reducing the care stress towards an elder person and of being able to have the ability to receive information about potentially dangerous situations for their relative. This gives the feeling of safety for the beloved people and to be able to use the services without having any extensive knowledge on ICT - for instance a relative who takes care for the partner can be also a senior citizen. More details for the characteristics of the end-user groups and the added value for them from using the ICT services are provided in (Mitseva et al., 2009).

Table 1. List of ISISEMD services

Similarly, the ISISEMD platform adds value to the social care providers. They can unobtrusively monitor some activities that take place in homes and outdoors through general purpose, off-the-shelf devices. They have the ability to save travel time for performing unnecessary homes visits to the clients and to communicate remotely with the elderly clients using video-call service, and in this way, there is more time for care for more clients.

The table above gives an overview of the ISISEMD services. In the following sections we focus on the intelligent features of the service platform.

### **3. Intelligence in the service platform**

One of the advantages of the ISISEMD system is the hidden intelligence in the provided services. The basic idea is to abstract the services and make them transparent so the end users cannot actually realise the system complexity as they may not have much knowledge on ICT and this is not expected either. Drawing on this, the services act and pro-act in such a way that they are to define any critical circumstances that might occur before these actually happen and thus, they try to anticipate any consequences (e.g. the relatives of a person will receive a notification if the person is cooking for longer time than expected, anticipating thus a possible danger of having a fire in the home). This intelligence is possible to implement through a high-end home automation system identified as the Ecosystem.

#### **3.1 Home safety services**

346 Intelligent Systems

lifestyle pattern information over a period of time and remote doctor service. The added value for the informal care-givers relies on the fact of reducing the care stress towards an elder person and of being able to have the ability to receive information about potentially dangerous situations for their relative. This gives the feeling of safety for the beloved people and to be able to use the services without having any extensive knowledge on ICT - for instance a relative who takes care for the partner can be also a senior citizen. More details for the characteristics of the end-user groups and the added value for them from using the ICT

Service type Service name Validation status

Cooking monitor

Smoke/ Fire detection alarm Kitchen/Bathroom flood detection Fridge door alarm Leaving bed during night for long time Wake up sensor Intelligent front door

To Do List,

touch screen Cognitive stimulation Brain Games Validated during the

Medication Manager

Outdoor positioning

Panic button with outdoor position Fall alarm outdoor

Similarly, the ISISEMD platform adds value to the social care providers. They can unobtrusively monitor some activities that take place in homes and outdoors through general purpose, off-the-shelf devices. They have the ability to save travel time for performing unnecessary homes visits to the clients and to communicate remotely with the elderly clients

using video-call service, and in this way, there is more time for care for more clients.

givers Videophone

support Lifestyle Pattern

Calendar, Time/Date Validated during the Help/Contact request on the real-life pilot operation

Memory Lane real-life pilot operation

Remote Doctor Demo evaluation

Validated during the real-life pilot operation

Partially validated during the real-life pilot operation

Not validated during the real-life pilot operation

Validated during the real-life pilot operation

Partially validated during the real-life pilot operation

services are provided in (Mitseva et al., 2009).

Home safety

Structure of the day and contact to informal caregivers in case of emergency

Communication with care-

Communication with health and care professionals

Outdoor safety

Professional care-givers

Table 1. List of ISISEMD services

Home safety services consist of sensors for monitoring the safety in the home environment. They function through sending email/sms to care-givers, posting alarms or notification messages on the web portal in cases of alarm events from the intelligent front door sensor, cooking monitor, fridge door sensor, fire/smoke sensor, flood detection sensor, bed sensors and/or motion detectors.

The Ecosystem part of the Carebox technically consists of a virtual machine that runs a local instance of an Ecosystem Domotics server, which is a reduced set of services and processes tailored for the specific requirements. This server is responsible for monitoring and responding to events from the various input sensors in the patient's home. A special ISISEMD-specific service installed on each Domotics module is responsible for relaying those events up to the central X-Server hub process on the portal-side of the server to be evaluated and acted upon if required. Through this fact, a delegation of intelligence is possible to the first level of reaction so as to increase the efficiency of the whole system.

An example of domotic service operation is explained by the control of the home cooker the event is triggered by the fact that the person turns on the cooker. This activates an event of setting the appropriate timers that will monitor the duration of the cooker being on. Alert messages will be issued accordingly and the measures will be taken in such a way that will prohibit an accident and preventing fires, etc. Respective workflows are triggered by events captured by other sensors.

Elderly person is staying at home alone and the home is equipped with the aforementioned home automation services for preventing the events that have been mentioned. The services are pre-configured and running in the background without disturbing his daily life. Whenever the events that trigger the services are activated, the workflows will start-up to deliver the services.

#### **3.1.1 Cooking monitor service**

The purpose of having installed a cooking monitor in the elderly peoples' homes is significant for the safety of receiving an alarm in case of having forgotten to turn off the

Innovative Intelligent Services

Fig. 2. Workflow for service "cooking monitor"

**3.1.3 Fridge door service**

SMS.

**3.1.4 Bed service**

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 349

This service monitors the door of the refrigerator. Once the elderly person opens the refrigerator door, the system will wait for it to be closed after a certain predefined time

Letting a caregiver know if the door has been forgotten open for too long – by email or

 The following parameter can be adjusted: Time duration, since the fridge door was opened, after which to send an alert to a caregiver that the fridge door has probably

If there is an alarm situation, the system shows a blinking message on the top line of the Carebox and is "telling" to the elderly that the fridge door has been opened for too long and he/she needs to react. This notification is repeated periodically on the Carebox until the

Alarm is triggered if an elderly has left the bed for a long time during the night. Furthermore, this service allows a caregiver to be notified about disturbances or significant alterations in the patient's sleep pattern. From the service page, a caregiver can view whether the elderly person is in the bed or not, the last time the patient sat or slept on it, and

period. If it is not closed in the specified amount of time, an alert will be issued:

The open, close or alarm events will be posted on the portal

been forgotten open (specified in minutes).

event "fridge door closed" is detected by the system.

the last time the elderly person got up from the bed.

cooker. If an elderly has forgotten to turn off the cooker, a care-giver will be able to view the current status displayed on the portal when logging in. For instance, on the service page on the portal, it will be displayed if an elderly has "started cooking", "cooking on" or "not cooking" and the last time when this event took place will also be illustrated. If for instance the cooker has been on for a while or for too long, the system will send the information containing an alert message (email/sms) to the care-giver. At the same time, at elderly's home, a voice message will be played to the elderly person from the Carebox, and a blinking message will turn up on the top part of the Carebox screen to warn him/her about the forgotten activity. The duration for cooking before receiving an alert is to be adjusted depending on the "life style pattern" of the specific elderly person. For example, the time for the duration of a cooker being turned on for a while can be adjusted before it is to trigger an alarm to care-givers. The voice and text message for cooking for a while is a prompt for the elderly to react, defined as first level reaction. Then if the system detects that there is no response from the elderly, an alarm could be sent to care-giver for example that the cooker has not been turned off for more than a pre-defined period of time – this is characterised as the second level reaction. All these events, communicated as cooker on, cooker off, message for cooking for a while or for too long, are posted on the message board on the web portal for overview purpose of the daily activities. The workflow for this service is depicted on Figure 2 below.

Depending on the preferences of the regional care provider and the family care-givers, the cooking monitoring service can work with either one of the three installations - one temperature sensor, with two temperature sensors or with a power relay. In case of two temperature sensors, a threshold for temperature difference can be adjusted from the web portal.

#### **3.1.2 Smoke/fire detection service**

The purpose of the smoke/fire alarm is to send information for smoke or fire alarm to the web portal. Furthermore, the system notifies the elderly person on the Carebox about the dangerous situation. At the same time it notifies the caregivers by SMS or email. If caregiver accesses this service, a care-giver can see if a fire alarm is in progress, the last time when a fire alarm may have occurred, and if so, the care-giver can view the time when it ended (i.e. it was reset). All these events are posted on the web portal in the list with recent events so the care-giver can see them. If there is event "smoke/fire alarm ON", at the same time the system shows a blinking message on the top line of the Carebox and is "telling" to the elderly person that there is smoke/fire detected in the home and he/she needs to react. This notification is repeated periodically on the Carebox until the event "smoke/fire alarm OFF" is detected by the system. Improvement suggested during the real-life pilot operation for the smoke/fire alarm service was to send one additional SMS - initially the service was designed to send one SMS in case of "alarm on" event but there was a need for similar notification SMS for "alarm off" event and this was implemented. This was needed because of some cases with false alarms during the test period and also due to the fact that very often more than one relative receives SMS alarms but depending on their agreement, one is to react in case of incident. The second SMS was to inform all of them that there is no more danger.

Fig. 2. Workflow for service "cooking monitor"

#### **3.1.3 Fridge door service**

348 Intelligent Systems

cooker. If an elderly has forgotten to turn off the cooker, a care-giver will be able to view the current status displayed on the portal when logging in. For instance, on the service page on the portal, it will be displayed if an elderly has "started cooking", "cooking on" or "not cooking" and the last time when this event took place will also be illustrated. If for instance the cooker has been on for a while or for too long, the system will send the information containing an alert message (email/sms) to the care-giver. At the same time, at elderly's home, a voice message will be played to the elderly person from the Carebox, and a blinking message will turn up on the top part of the Carebox screen to warn him/her about the forgotten activity. The duration for cooking before receiving an alert is to be adjusted depending on the "life style pattern" of the specific elderly person. For example, the time for the duration of a cooker being turned on for a while can be adjusted before it is to trigger an alarm to care-givers. The voice and text message for cooking for a while is a prompt for the elderly to react, defined as first level reaction. Then if the system detects that there is no response from the elderly, an alarm could be sent to care-giver for example that the cooker has not been turned off for more than a pre-defined period of time – this is characterised as the second level reaction. All these events, communicated as cooker on, cooker off, message for cooking for a while or for too long, are posted on the message board on the web portal for overview purpose of the daily activities. The workflow for this service is depicted on

Depending on the preferences of the regional care provider and the family care-givers, the cooking monitoring service can work with either one of the three installations - one temperature sensor, with two temperature sensors or with a power relay. In case of two temperature sensors, a threshold for temperature difference can be adjusted from the web

The purpose of the smoke/fire alarm is to send information for smoke or fire alarm to the web portal. Furthermore, the system notifies the elderly person on the Carebox about the dangerous situation. At the same time it notifies the caregivers by SMS or email. If caregiver accesses this service, a care-giver can see if a fire alarm is in progress, the last time when a fire alarm may have occurred, and if so, the care-giver can view the time when it ended (i.e. it was reset). All these events are posted on the web portal in the list with recent events so the care-giver can see them. If there is event "smoke/fire alarm ON", at the same time the system shows a blinking message on the top line of the Carebox and is "telling" to the elderly person that there is smoke/fire detected in the home and he/she needs to react. This notification is repeated periodically on the Carebox until the event "smoke/fire alarm OFF" is detected by the system. Improvement suggested during the real-life pilot operation for the smoke/fire alarm service was to send one additional SMS - initially the service was designed to send one SMS in case of "alarm on" event but there was a need for similar notification SMS for "alarm off" event and this was implemented. This was needed because of some cases with false alarms during the test period and also due to the fact that very often more than one relative receives SMS alarms but depending on their agreement, one is to react in case of incident. The second SMS was to inform all of them that there is no more

Figure 2 below.

**3.1.2 Smoke/fire detection service**

portal.

danger.

This service monitors the door of the refrigerator. Once the elderly person opens the refrigerator door, the system will wait for it to be closed after a certain predefined time period. If it is not closed in the specified amount of time, an alert will be issued:

If there is an alarm situation, the system shows a blinking message on the top line of the Carebox and is "telling" to the elderly that the fridge door has been opened for too long and he/she needs to react. This notification is repeated periodically on the Carebox until the event "fridge door closed" is detected by the system.

#### **3.1.4 Bed service**

Alarm is triggered if an elderly has left the bed for a long time during the night. Furthermore, this service allows a caregiver to be notified about disturbances or significant alterations in the patient's sleep pattern. From the service page, a caregiver can view whether the elderly person is in the bed or not, the last time the patient sat or slept on it, and the last time the elderly person got up from the bed.

Innovative Intelligent Services

out of the home (see above description).

inactive (see above description), specified in minutes.

to receive alerts if the patient leaves the home.

temporary solution was found for the special cases.

**3.2 Carebox for the end-user**

kind of device are multiple:

to them

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 351

Time duration of inactivity that determines when the system decides that the patient is

Time duration after which the system will issue an alert if the elderly is considered

 The start and end times of the "night time" period. These two times tell the service what time is considered to be "night time", i.e. the period during which the care-giver wants

During the pilot operation, there were some cases when bed sensors could not be used – for example the elderly sleeps on a folding sofa and a bed sensor cannot be installed or if the elderly does not want to have a bed sensor installed due to some health problems. In this case, the current settings of this service cannot allow for optimal operation during the night period. Therefore, one of the suggestions for improvement was for the intelligent front door service to work without considering information from the bed sensor during the night. However, the final solution could not be implemented by the end of the project; instead a

The only visible interface toward the ISISEMD platform for the elderly persons is the touch screen-enabled device installed in their homes. The motivations behind the selection of such

1. First of all, it is very difficult for people with cognitive impairments to learn how to interact with new technologies: since they tend to forget what they already know, it would not be effective at all introducing in their life new elements that are not familiar

2. In addition, for the same reason described above, the need for direct interaction between them and the system must be reduced to the minimum, if not eliminated 3. Finally, in the cases where such interactions cannot be eliminated, they must be

The touch screen-enabled device selected for providing the ISISEMD services for the end

1. The shape, dimensions and aspect of the device are indeed identical to the ones of a television set, an appliance whose diffusion, in the last fifty years, has reached almost every home (at least in the developed countries). This means that it can be introduced in

2. The device can provide different interaction levels; the level for each end-user can be configured (at any time and remotely) by a care-giver based on the level of impairment.

3. The touch screen modality is currently the simplest and more intuitive technology available to interact with a computing system, which requires a very low level of

 Acts as the collector for all the messages that must be shown to the end-user. Running an intelligent software module, it makes decisions on when a message must be

In the simplest configuration, no interaction possibilities at all are provided

performed in the simplest and more intuitive modality possible

user can fulfil the above-mentioned requirements in the way that:

the elderly persons' homes in a natural manner

From a functional perspective, the device plays several roles:

training and cognitive capabilities

The service can send the following alerts:

The following three parameters can be adjusted:

Example of these parameters is when the system raises an alarm if the patient is in bed for longer than 10 hours, and also in case the patient left the bed between 10pm and 6am for longer than one hour (specified as 60 minutes). Since very often the elderly person takes a nap in the afternoon, it was suggested by the regional partners that additional time period of afternoon sleep is defined, similar to the night-time sleep period. However, this could not be implemented in the time frame of the project.

#### **3.1.5 Intelligent front door service**

This service monitors the status of the elderly's front door and monitors the presence of the elderly in the home with the help of motion detection (and bed sensor information if such a sensor is installed). On the main service page a care-giver can see the status of the front door, as well as the last times it was opened or closed and the last time a movement was recorded in the home.

Line for current status also shows whether the system has assumed that the elderly is present in the home or not at this moment. The system makes this conclusion by monitoring the various sensors, such as cooking sensor, door activity sensor, fridge door activity sensor, motion detection activity sensor. Each time when an activity is detected by one of these sensors it assumes that the elderly is active and in the home. The service also monitors the bed status (if bed sensor is installed), so that if there is no activity but the elderly is sleeping then this too will indicate an elderly's presence in the home. If there is no activity on any of these sensors for a certain amount of time (customisable from the service screen in the web portal) then the system will report to care-givers that the elderly is absent from the home and will make notification accordingly. Alerts are sent if the front door has been opened for more than a certain amount of minutes, when an elderly is absent from the house for certain hours and if an elderly is assumed to be absent from home for too long time.

The front door alarm is a service that can be customised depending on the elderly life pattern. For this purpose, four parameters can be adjusted according to:

 Time duration after which the front door will issue an alert if it stays opened, specified in minutes.

During the pilot operation, there were some cases when bed sensors could not be used – for example the elderly sleeps on a folding sofa and a bed sensor cannot be installed or if the elderly does not want to have a bed sensor installed due to some health problems. In this case, the current settings of this service cannot allow for optimal operation during the night period. Therefore, one of the suggestions for improvement was for the intelligent front door service to work without considering information from the bed sensor during the night. However, the final solution could not be implemented by the end of the project; instead a temporary solution was found for the special cases.

#### **3.2 Carebox for the end-user**

350 Intelligent Systems

If an elderly person has been on the bed too long time (a case in which the care-giver

If an elderly person has left the bed too long time during a certain period of time (such

Time duration after which an alarm is issued, if an elderly is still in bed (specified in

Time duration, during "night time" (see next parameter) after which a care-giver

 The start and end times of the 'night time' period. These two times tell the service what time is considered to be "night time", i.e. the period during which the care-giver wants to receive alerts if the elderly leaves the bed for a certain time (see previous parameter).

Example of these parameters is when the system raises an alarm if the patient is in bed for longer than 10 hours, and also in case the patient left the bed between 10pm and 6am for longer than one hour (specified as 60 minutes). Since very often the elderly person takes a nap in the afternoon, it was suggested by the regional partners that additional time period of afternoon sleep is defined, similar to the night-time sleep period. However, this could not

This service monitors the status of the elderly's front door and monitors the presence of the elderly in the home with the help of motion detection (and bed sensor information if such a sensor is installed). On the main service page a care-giver can see the status of the front door, as well as the last times it was opened or closed and the last time a movement was

Line for current status also shows whether the system has assumed that the elderly is present in the home or not at this moment. The system makes this conclusion by monitoring the various sensors, such as cooking sensor, door activity sensor, fridge door activity sensor, motion detection activity sensor. Each time when an activity is detected by one of these sensors it assumes that the elderly is active and in the home. The service also monitors the bed status (if bed sensor is installed), so that if there is no activity but the elderly is sleeping then this too will indicate an elderly's presence in the home. If there is no activity on any of these sensors for a certain amount of time (customisable from the service screen in the web portal) then the system will report to care-givers that the elderly is absent from the home and will make notification accordingly. Alerts are sent if the front door has been opened for more than a certain amount of minutes, when an elderly is absent from the house for certain

The front door alarm is a service that can be customised depending on the elderly life

Time duration after which the front door will issue an alert if it stays opened, specified

hours and if an elderly is assumed to be absent from home for too long time.

pattern. For this purpose, four parameters can be adjusted according to:

assumes that the elderly might be experiencing difficulty or health issues).

as night time) and which might mean that elderly person has fallen down.

The service can send the following alerts:

The following three parameters can be adjusted:

should be alerted if the elderly is out of bed.

be implemented in the time frame of the project.

**3.1.5 Intelligent front door service**

recorded in the home.

in minutes.

minutes)

The only visible interface toward the ISISEMD platform for the elderly persons is the touch screen-enabled device installed in their homes. The motivations behind the selection of such kind of device are multiple:

The touch screen-enabled device selected for providing the ISISEMD services for the end user can fulfil the above-mentioned requirements in the way that:

From a functional perspective, the device plays several roles:

 Acts as the collector for all the messages that must be shown to the end-user. Running an intelligent software module, it makes decisions on when a message must be

Innovative Intelligent Services

safety

screen of an end user:

time)

of missing confirmation

which affects the set of messages to display.

**3.3 Knowledge and data management**

notifications can be divided into two main categories:

user in maintaining the structure of the day

in the previous section on domotic-related services.

create custom ones, so called "free text reminders"

One-time only at a specified date and time

Recurring only in specified date ranges

notifications are sent to the caregiver by SMS and email

individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice.

It can be selected the format for the notification: text, audio or both

disappearing from the screen and the interval among repetitions

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 353

services that are provisioned to all the end users (since they are strictly related to their safety) that require the delivery of notifications to them by means of the Carebox. Such

1. Messages coming from the domotic sensors, which are strictly related to the end-user

2. Messages configured by the care-givers on the web portal which should help the end

The configuration for messages of type 1 is made by the care-giver by accessing the "Domotic services" section of the web portal, and by filling the proper settings as described

The configuration for messages of type 2 is made by accessing the "To Do List" and "Calendar" section of the web portal. This section provides the caregivers with a huge set of possibilities for configuring and scheduling the prompt messages that must be shown on the

It is possible either to choose among a pre-defined set of commonly used messages or to

 It is possible to associate a sound to the message, to catch the end-user´s attention It can be defined how many times the message must be played and shown before

The system allows to configure every desired scheduling pattern for the message:

Recurring message (every day, once a week, once a month, once a year at the same

 It is possible for care-givers to specify, for each configured reminder, if a corresponding confirmation button must appear on the Carebox screen together with the message. If the message is not confirmed (e.g. the end user does not press the confirmation button),

 In case the reminder requires confirmation, the care-givers can define on the service page some rules for how and when they want to receive SMS or email messages in case

Every Carebox is constantly in communication with the server-side module handling the configuration of the reminders and updates in almost real time for every modification,

In general knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in

In ISISEMD platform knowledge is being used in order to assist the care-givers to take the appropriate decisions. Knowledge comprises the aggregated information gathered from

delivered and, based on several static and dynamic parameters - such as the user profile, the configuration made by the care-givers, the importance of the event to be notified, the surrounding context - what the proper formats for the delivery are (e.g. only text, text and audio message, text and sound, etc.)

The intelligent software module running on the device is constantly in communication with a central server module and is capable to enable/disable in real-time every single service provisioned, based on the configuration decided by a care-giver. Accordingly, it repaints the GUI elements displayed on the screen adding or removing them dynamically, for example by adding a new upcoming event in the list of "Next events". In addition to this, the module constantly considers the user context, leveraging the device equipment (e.g. the embedded web camera) or data coming from other devices (e.g. domotic sensors) and takes decisions based on the current situation.

Here follow some examples:

The layout of the GUI displayed on the Carebox and the related contents are strongly dependent on the settings made by the care-givers for each end-user. As already mentioned, the system is quite flexible, so that the care-givers can enable/disable at runtime a different set of services for each user depending on the level of cognitive impairments. Such configuration is made by accessing the web portal. Anyway, there is a core set of essential

 Allows the user to proactively use the platform by pressing a single "soft" button on the graphical user interface (GUI) to ask assistance from the care-givers. This can be accomplished by pressing with a finger on a help button which triggers the sending of notification messages in the form of SMS or email, or a button for receiving a video-

 Stimulates the cognitive capabilities of mild-dementia affected people by displaying information that helps them in maintaining the structure of the day (e.g. date and time) and the memories (e.g. slide show of personal pictures meaningful to them). Provides possibility to the elderly to confirm an activity by pressing a single "soft" button on

The intelligent software module running on the device is constantly in communication with a central server module and is capable to enable/disable in real-time every single service provisioned, based on the configuration decided by a care-giver. Accordingly, it repaints the GUI elements displayed on the screen adding or removing them dynamically, for example by adding a new upcoming event in the list of "Next events". In addition to this, the module constantly considers the user context, leveraging the device equipment (e.g. the embedded web camera) or data coming from other devices (e.g. domotic sensors) and takes decisions

 During the night time the system enters an energy saving mode by turning off the screen. Such modality is interrupted (the screen is displayed again) if movement is

 Multimedia alarm messages related to dangerous conditions in the home (e.g. a fire alarm or a cooker left on for a long time) are played on the device speakers and shown on the device screen on behalf of the domotic module. In this way, the elderly person can react to the situation (e.g. switching off the cooker) or, in case he/she does not within a pre-configured timeframe, alarm messages are sent to the care-givers and

 In case of external conditions that temporarily prevent the module to provide some of the functionalities (e.g. instable network connection), it changes the display layout showing proper notification messages which inform of the unavailability of one or more services. At the same time, a server side module is capable of detecting the error conditions and of alerting the proper actors (for example the service support team) to take action. As soon as the error conditions disappear, the module automatically

The layout of the GUI displayed on the Carebox and the related contents are strongly dependent on the settings made by the care-givers for each end-user. As already mentioned, the system is quite flexible, so that the care-givers can enable/disable at runtime a different set of services for each user depending on the level of cognitive impairments. Such configuration is made by accessing the web portal. Anyway, there is a core set of essential

returns in full-operation mode. Notifications are sent also to the care-givers.

detected in the surrounding by the context monitoring module

only text, text and audio message, text and sound, etc.)

GUI if elderly is able to interact with the system

conference session

based on the current situation. Here follow some examples:

relatives in form of SMS and email

delivered and, based on several static and dynamic parameters - such as the user profile, the configuration made by the care-givers, the importance of the event to be notified, the surrounding context - what the proper formats for the delivery are (e.g. services that are provisioned to all the end users (since they are strictly related to their safety) that require the delivery of notifications to them by means of the Carebox. Such notifications can be divided into two main categories:

The configuration for messages of type 1 is made by the care-giver by accessing the "Domotic services" section of the web portal, and by filling the proper settings as described in the previous section on domotic-related services.

The configuration for messages of type 2 is made by accessing the "To Do List" and "Calendar" section of the web portal. This section provides the caregivers with a huge set of possibilities for configuring and scheduling the prompt messages that must be shown on the screen of an end user:

	- One-time only at a specified date and time
	- Recurring message (every day, once a week, once a month, once a year at the same time)
	- Recurring only in specified date ranges

Every Carebox is constantly in communication with the server-side module handling the configuration of the reminders and updates in almost real time for every modification, which affects the set of messages to display.

#### **3.3 Knowledge and data management**

In general knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice.

In ISISEMD platform knowledge is being used in order to assist the care-givers to take the appropriate decisions. Knowledge comprises the aggregated information gathered from

Innovative Intelligent Services

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 355

being promoted as a standard through OASIS (BPEL). The work of the workflow management coalition WfMC (WFMC) with the resulting XPDL standard (XPDL) provides a higher level of abstraction of workflow and aims to provide a format for process design. The focus of BPEL, and most business-oriented workflow languages, is control flow. Extensive research on workflow control patterns has shown that all languages have limitations in terms of what can be easily expressed (AALST, 2003). This insufficient expressivity and lack of rigorous semantics to allow automated checks on correctness and completeness mean that

The scientific community has also conducted considerable research into information and data processing applications that have similarities to some of the ISISEMD applications. However, these languages and tools do not support the constructs needed in ISISEMD and are not designed for Business to Business (B2B) applications that require distributed management, and trust and security based on the emerging industry Web Service standards. Beyond this, comes research into intelligent, autonomous, goal-oriented and knowledgebased service infrastructures. These infrastructures include facilities for: dynamic negotiation, adaptation and configuration; intelligent scheduling, resource and service selection; and optimised job execution and management. The infrastructure itself is able to decide on how to react in case of unexpected situations using self-organisation, selfmanagement, etc. Of particular relevance to ISISEMD is the use of semantic service descriptions to facilitate autonomic discovery, composition and use of services, for example

ISISEMD makes heavy use of emerging web service standards, including the areas of semantic service descriptions, SLAs and agreements, workflow and orchestration, management, trust and security, and transport and messaging. A significant research element of the work includes determining exactly how to apply and extend these standards in order to support ISISEMD applications. A particular challenge is balancing the use of industry standards, which are the key to meeting business to business needs and hence exploitation of the ISISEMD results. The standards that ISISEMD consider and engage with are manifold. Competing proposals from industry vendors may eventually converge through consolidation, but whilst this has the potential to improve interoperability, it often

In particular, ISISEMD adopts WS-Convergence where possible and evaluate/build upon/adapt the standards used for management, in particular to enable distributed management of networks of services that deliver real time applications in inter-organisation value-chains. Moreover, it uses Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), for formally describing SLA terms and their relationships, including QoS attributes of e-care applications. In particular, we address the problem of mapping high-level business objectives to low-level resource provisioning policies in a more

Summarising the key features and comparing them with the existing solutions available in

BPEL and related languages are unlikely to be a suitable foundation for ISISEMD.

within an organisation as an approach to resource management.

does so at the expense of compromising the specification.

**4.2 Potentials of ISISEMD services and limitations**

the market, ISISEMD service platform has the following advantages:

automated, robust and verifiable way.

various sources (sensors, log data, events, etc) and is being considered in the service provisioning.

A dedicated service directly related with this is a Lifestyle pattern service. This service is not based on one workflow. It is a rather complex service that has to do with monitoring and logging the various events that happen in the domotics and Carebox environment of the elderly and in the sequel applying Business Intelligence in order to derive the patterns and the life style of the elderly. Based on this, important conclusions can be made for further optimisation of the home automations and care-giver strategies can be better adapted.

#### **3.4 System optimisation for real-life operation**

During the pilot operation, diverse interruptions of the normal system operation were observed due to some real-life factors, e.g. internet disconnection problems, high sensitivity of the touch screen, etc., all of them leading to generating false alarms or service unavailability. Therefore, additional layer of intelligence was introduced by fall back solutions and allowing for a higher tolerance to interruptions without jeopardising the safety of the end user. Also in case of planned technical maintenance operations, messages are sent to all care-givers and in case of portal or x- servers' unavailability, a notification is sent to the technical support team.

#### **4. Advancing state-of-the-art for intelligent systems**

#### **4.1 Service oriented architecture**

One of the major challenges for ISISEMD platform is the sustainability in the long-run, which can only be guaranteed if the technology can support a long term evolution, considering the user needs and the competition. Therefore, ISISEMD platform deploys a pure Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that ensures the service integrity and the extensibility of the platform.

Service level agreement (SLA)-based web service infrastructures are the key for driving automation and system dynamics for ISISEMD platform. Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) specifications and Web Services (WS)-Management only support a crude description of consumer-centric Quality of Service (QoS) properties not suitable to fully describe ISISEMD application requirements. However, the main challenge for ISISEMD is the specification of a QoS at the various levels in the value chain, including the ability to translate of high-level business objectives to low-level resource provisioning policies. Furthermore, well-defined metrics need to exist at all levels to allow monitoring and reporting of service usage against SLAs.

ISISEMD applications necessarily involve a network of services for their implementation. The application workflows involved, including both data and control flows, can be complex and require explicit support for e-care aspects and constraints.

The use of workflows for "programming in the large" to compose web services has led to significant interest in a standard workflow language within the web services stack. WS-BPEL (BPEL) has major industry support and was created through the agreed merge of their earlier web service composition languages WSFL and XLANG respectively. WS-BPEL and is

various sources (sensors, log data, events, etc) and is being considered in the service

A dedicated service directly related with this is a Lifestyle pattern service. This service is not based on one workflow. It is a rather complex service that has to do with monitoring and logging the various events that happen in the domotics and Carebox environment of the elderly and in the sequel applying Business Intelligence in order to derive the patterns and the life style of the elderly. Based on this, important conclusions can be made for further optimisation of the home automations and care-giver strategies can be better adapted.

During the pilot operation, diverse interruptions of the normal system operation were observed due to some real-life factors, e.g. internet disconnection problems, high sensitivity of the touch screen, etc., all of them leading to generating false alarms or service unavailability. Therefore, additional layer of intelligence was introduced by fall back solutions and allowing for a higher tolerance to interruptions without jeopardising the safety of the end user. Also in case of planned technical maintenance operations, messages are sent to all care-givers and in case of portal or x- servers' unavailability, a notification is

One of the major challenges for ISISEMD platform is the sustainability in the long-run, which can only be guaranteed if the technology can support a long term evolution, considering the user needs and the competition. Therefore, ISISEMD platform deploys a pure Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that ensures the service integrity and the

Service level agreement (SLA)-based web service infrastructures are the key for driving automation and system dynamics for ISISEMD platform. Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) specifications and Web Services (WS)-Management only support a crude description of consumer-centric Quality of Service (QoS) properties not suitable to fully describe ISISEMD application requirements. However, the main challenge for ISISEMD is the specification of a QoS at the various levels in the value chain, including the ability to translate of high-level business objectives to low-level resource provisioning policies. Furthermore, well-defined metrics need to exist at all levels to allow monitoring

ISISEMD applications necessarily involve a network of services for their implementation. The application workflows involved, including both data and control flows, can be complex

The use of workflows for "programming in the large" to compose web services has led to significant interest in a standard workflow language within the web services stack. WS-BPEL (BPEL) has major industry support and was created through the agreed merge of their earlier web service composition languages WSFL and XLANG respectively. WS-BPEL and is

provisioning.

**3.4 System optimisation for real-life operation**

**4. Advancing state-of-the-art for intelligent systems**

sent to the technical support team.

**4.1 Service oriented architecture**

and reporting of service usage against SLAs.

and require explicit support for e-care aspects and constraints.

extensibility of the platform.

being promoted as a standard through OASIS (BPEL). The work of the workflow management coalition WfMC (WFMC) with the resulting XPDL standard (XPDL) provides a higher level of abstraction of workflow and aims to provide a format for process design. The focus of BPEL, and most business-oriented workflow languages, is control flow. Extensive research on workflow control patterns has shown that all languages have limitations in terms of what can be easily expressed (AALST, 2003). This insufficient expressivity and lack of rigorous semantics to allow automated checks on correctness and completeness mean that BPEL and related languages are unlikely to be a suitable foundation for ISISEMD.

The scientific community has also conducted considerable research into information and data processing applications that have similarities to some of the ISISEMD applications. However, these languages and tools do not support the constructs needed in ISISEMD and are not designed for Business to Business (B2B) applications that require distributed management, and trust and security based on the emerging industry Web Service standards.

Beyond this, comes research into intelligent, autonomous, goal-oriented and knowledgebased service infrastructures. These infrastructures include facilities for: dynamic negotiation, adaptation and configuration; intelligent scheduling, resource and service selection; and optimised job execution and management. The infrastructure itself is able to decide on how to react in case of unexpected situations using self-organisation, selfmanagement, etc. Of particular relevance to ISISEMD is the use of semantic service descriptions to facilitate autonomic discovery, composition and use of services, for example within an organisation as an approach to resource management.

ISISEMD makes heavy use of emerging web service standards, including the areas of semantic service descriptions, SLAs and agreements, workflow and orchestration, management, trust and security, and transport and messaging. A significant research element of the work includes determining exactly how to apply and extend these standards in order to support ISISEMD applications. A particular challenge is balancing the use of industry standards, which are the key to meeting business to business needs and hence exploitation of the ISISEMD results. The standards that ISISEMD consider and engage with are manifold. Competing proposals from industry vendors may eventually converge through consolidation, but whilst this has the potential to improve interoperability, it often does so at the expense of compromising the specification.

In particular, ISISEMD adopts WS-Convergence where possible and evaluate/build upon/adapt the standards used for management, in particular to enable distributed management of networks of services that deliver real time applications in inter-organisation value-chains. Moreover, it uses Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), for formally describing SLA terms and their relationships, including QoS attributes of e-care applications. In particular, we address the problem of mapping high-level business objectives to low-level resource provisioning policies in a more automated, robust and verifiable way.

#### **4.2 Potentials of ISISEMD services and limitations**

Summarising the key features and comparing them with the existing solutions available in the market, ISISEMD service platform has the following advantages:

Innovative Intelligent Services

the project (August 2011).

them.

deployment.

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 357

 Last but not least, the demo rooms were used as living labs because the improvements of the services were carried out in parallel with the pilot operation and in all cases the improvements were first applied and proofed in the demo machines, and then

In August 2010 the partners had a meeting to discuss experiences from the small scale pilot operation and how to make the transition to the full scale pilot operation more efficiently. In this way, the full pilot operation started in September 2010 and continued until the end of

To evaluate the effects of using the services in real-life, we followed overall assessment framework and carried out 15-month controlled study in the four European regions involving 71 elderly, 71 informal care-givers and around 15 formal care-givers, assessing baseline and final status of cognitive impairments, daily functioning and quality of life of the older adults. For the informal care-givers, quality of life and care stress were assessed. In the end of the controlled study, all groups were asked to evaluate their satisfaction and acceptability of the ICT services and their importance for care; the potential to promote independence and to increase feeling of safety. In three of regions, except in the region of

Significant results from the pilot operation were achieved even though the roll out of the pilots was more complicated than initially anticipated. There were a number of challenges to be addressed during the real-life pilot operation; some of those were not dependent on the consortium. The partners worked together and in many cases they were resolving technical issues in non-working hours/days based on good will and because of the eagerness to achieve a high impact. The whole process has been a positive learning experience for all of

The fact that most of the test users and their relatives are satisfied, feel safer and confident with ISISEMD services, is a significant result that is not measurable. Even somehow sceptical in the beginning, after giving them time to get used to the services, the elderly and their relatives accept the technology and can see the opportunities for positive impact. The relatives can better feel the difference by using the services in comparison with the elderly, because due to the disease, it is difficult for the elderly to think abstractly and understand it.

Technical evaluation was carried out to determine whether the system requirements were fulfilled by testing the services after the components of the system have been integrated into one system. The system evaluation had two aspects: *Functional evaluation* and *Non-functional evaluation*. The purpose of the *functional* tests were to evaluate all the functions that were enabled with the ISISEMD system. The *non-functional* evaluation included aspects such as e.g. scalability, reliability, flexibility. Non-functional requirements were validated based on qualitative and quantitative appropriate measures. More details about the overall assessment framework are presented in (Mitseva, 2010). In the next paragraphs we focus on the non-service specific evaluations which assess the readiness of the system for wider

**6. Outcome from technical evaluations - non-functional aspects**

Frederikshavn, the trial participants were split in intervention and control groups.

transferred to the home installations of the test users

On the other hand studying the competition, following points have to be considered:

#### **5. Pilot operation and user evaluations**

The pilot operation activities started with final testing of the integrated platform and the beginning of the real-life pilot operation. During 15 months (May 2010-August 2011) the pilots were used by the test users under realistic conditions – older adults in their homes; the professional care-givers in their work tasks, performing their daily work to care for the elderly; the informal care-givers/family, also in their everyday activities to care for the seniors. The services were first tested in a smaller scale, with a few end-users at three of the pilot sites for a period of 3-4 months, in order to identify if any major problems exist before the large scale testing with all users during the rest of the testing period. Small scale pilots were carried out in all of the regions, except in the region of Trikala, with 2-3 home installations in each of the regions.

Since the launch of the services, in three of the regions demo-rooms have been installed and in the fourth region the system was installed in the home of one of the formal care-givers. The demo-rooms existed in addition to the home installations and had the following goals:

 Different levels of interaction and easy interactive features, allowing the elderly to ask for contact&help, confirm actions, play cognitive stimulation games, receive video calls Highly customized and targeting all user groups involved in care provision for a person

Integrated system with open architecture that can be easily extended with new features

 Focuses on mild dementia persons in a holistic way, looking at all their needs (home and person safety, promote independence, prevent social isolation, increase quality of

 Maintain or increase quality of life not only to persons with mild dementia, but also for the relatives who suffer care stress and are also socially isolated because of caring for

 An end-to-end service approach should be addressed, so that this solution can be easily deployed. That includes: helpdesk, formal and informal care-givers, technicians, all

The "breakeven" requires a large number of installations in order to have affordable

The pilot operation activities started with final testing of the integrated platform and the beginning of the real-life pilot operation. During 15 months (May 2010-August 2011) the pilots were used by the test users under realistic conditions – older adults in their homes; the professional care-givers in their work tasks, performing their daily work to care for the elderly; the informal care-givers/family, also in their everyday activities to care for the seniors. The services were first tested in a smaller scale, with a few end-users at three of the pilot sites for a period of 3-4 months, in order to identify if any major problems exist before the large scale testing with all users during the rest of the testing period. Small scale pilots were carried out in all of the regions, except in the region of Trikala, with 2-3 home

Since the launch of the services, in three of the regions demo-rooms have been installed and in the fourth region the system was installed in the home of one of the formal care-givers. The demo-rooms existed in addition to the home installations and had the following goals: Demonstration of the services to potential test participants and their relatives – they were able to see, and experience the system before deciding to join the controlled study

and were convinced that it is very user friendly and also aesthetically acceptable In these demo rooms, the formal care-givers were able to try in reality the system and provide final feedback to technical partners for usability and functionality and

 Potential end-users were introduced to the services and training was provided to them Personnel from care-giver organisations gained hands-on experience with the services and became more confident in usage of the system and learnt how to report technical

On the other hand studying the competition, following points have to be considered:

with mild dementia or cognitive impairments and the person himself

Able to offer additional services with disease progression

in the future

the dementia relative

accessible through a single entity

**5. Pilot operation and user evaluations**

installations in each of the regions.

suggestions for improvement

problems

life, etc)

service cost

 Last but not least, the demo rooms were used as living labs because the improvements of the services were carried out in parallel with the pilot operation and in all cases the improvements were first applied and proofed in the demo machines, and then transferred to the home installations of the test users

In August 2010 the partners had a meeting to discuss experiences from the small scale pilot operation and how to make the transition to the full scale pilot operation more efficiently. In this way, the full pilot operation started in September 2010 and continued until the end of the project (August 2011).

To evaluate the effects of using the services in real-life, we followed overall assessment framework and carried out 15-month controlled study in the four European regions involving 71 elderly, 71 informal care-givers and around 15 formal care-givers, assessing baseline and final status of cognitive impairments, daily functioning and quality of life of the older adults. For the informal care-givers, quality of life and care stress were assessed. In the end of the controlled study, all groups were asked to evaluate their satisfaction and acceptability of the ICT services and their importance for care; the potential to promote independence and to increase feeling of safety. In three of regions, except in the region of Frederikshavn, the trial participants were split in intervention and control groups.

Significant results from the pilot operation were achieved even though the roll out of the pilots was more complicated than initially anticipated. There were a number of challenges to be addressed during the real-life pilot operation; some of those were not dependent on the consortium. The partners worked together and in many cases they were resolving technical issues in non-working hours/days based on good will and because of the eagerness to achieve a high impact. The whole process has been a positive learning experience for all of them.

The fact that most of the test users and their relatives are satisfied, feel safer and confident with ISISEMD services, is a significant result that is not measurable. Even somehow sceptical in the beginning, after giving them time to get used to the services, the elderly and their relatives accept the technology and can see the opportunities for positive impact. The relatives can better feel the difference by using the services in comparison with the elderly, because due to the disease, it is difficult for the elderly to think abstractly and understand it.

#### **6. Outcome from technical evaluations - non-functional aspects**

Technical evaluation was carried out to determine whether the system requirements were fulfilled by testing the services after the components of the system have been integrated into one system. The system evaluation had two aspects: *Functional evaluation* and *Non-functional evaluation*. The purpose of the *functional* tests were to evaluate all the functions that were enabled with the ISISEMD system. The *non-functional* evaluation included aspects such as e.g. scalability, reliability, flexibility. Non-functional requirements were validated based on qualitative and quantitative appropriate measures. More details about the overall assessment framework are presented in (Mitseva, 2010). In the next paragraphs we focus on the non-service specific evaluations which assess the readiness of the system for wider deployment.

Innovative Intelligent Services

**6.5 Integration/openness**

service/software developer.

**6.6 Manageability/flexibility**

users in general.

**of ISISEMD platform**

placement.

**6.4 Response time**

for Supporting Cognitively Impaired Older Adults and Their Caregivers 359

During the pilot operation, response time metric is highly related to the services that activate alarms, especially alarms through SMS which is very much dependent on the network operator and SMS service provider. In the beginning of the pilot operation, the SMS service was assigned to normal level but since we observed delays in the delivery, the SMS service level was changed. The problem related to SMS service has been solved by subscribing to highest (and more expensive) service level of the SMS service provider.

Integration of new hardware (especially sensors), requires some testing period in order to get the correct information reading as expected, e.g. by configuration and correct

Integration of new software modules both on server and client side have been easily done in ISISEMD system since the platform has been designed in such a way that the services provided to end-user can evolve by providing API (Application Programming Interface) to

The assessment of ISISEMD system for these two parameters show that the platform is very easy and flexible to manage, i.e. in terms of adding/deleting new users, new services, new home installations, and new regions/sub-regions, etc., since it has been designed to support all these requirements. Furthermore, a user manual book written in four different languages (English, Finnish, Danish and Greek) has been provided as a guideline to regions and end

We would like to argue for having carried out a good piece of work, overcoming a number of challenges, and that the final services meet the user expectations and acceptances at a high level supported by the outcome of the user evaluations. Overall, the care-givers were satisfied with the services and consider them important for providing care. Most of the users now state their wish for continuing to use the services after the project end. As suggested by the user feedback, there is even stronger need for service personalisation so they can

Based on the continuous user feedback during the pilot operation, the services were improved where possible. But due to the limited project lifetime and resources, not all additional features suggested by the end-users as improvements could be implemented. However, they can be used for further development of the service platform as a commercial product. Subsequently, we emphasize on some of the suggestions that can be considered as **"wish list for the commercial system"** by the regional partners and by the test persons. We are of the interpretation that the following suggestions could improve the intelligence of the

**7. Outcome from service validation of the common functionalities**

function in a more intelligent and autonomous way.

service platform in the next version of the system.

#### **6.1 Personalisation/customisation**

Overall, personalisation/customisation features of the services were highly appreciated by the regional care providers and the end-users because they give possibility for them to map precisely the services to the exact needs of the dyad "elderly-informal care-giver" and fitting the support services in the care-giving and coping strategies.

#### **6.2 Robustness of the equipments and connectivity**

Carebox: we experienced some issues with the Touch-screen computer due to high touch sensitivity and they have been resolved by context-aware solution. Some few cases related to hardware failures that required replacement of the computer were mainly due to the fact that such device has been designed in "consumer electronic" segment that is not intended to run 24x7 in highly reliable environment. Unstable internet connections were reasons for false alarms and freezing of Carebox screen but they were alleviated by applying more sophisticated filters on bypassing false alarm triggering conditions.

GPS device: we used a simple GPS device called Lommy that is in general very robust and has been already in use in different contexts. The only few issues were the connector for charging the Lommy as it was difficult for use by elderly people; LED indicators, blinking with different colours, were confusing for the elderly and their care-givers; in two of the regions, that had hilly and mountain landscape, problems with the coverage were experienced.

Sensors and RAck MOnitoring System (RAMOS): The type used was Ramos Mini C. It is a very robust device. It is meant to be used both in home and industrial environments. The only one issue was Ramos and Ethernet failures during the installation and then fixed in the installation process. Overall, the problems with RAMOS and sensor devices were related to setup, configuration, placement, and installation, which is more about practical issue than the robustness.

Overall, the equipments to be used when offering ICT services for home support to elderly must be robust and "invisible" i.e. placed in those areas of the home where they are difficult to reach. This will prevent un-wanted disconnections or damages due to some every day activities such as cleaning, dusting, etc. It is best if the wires, RAMOS, routers are hidden in or behind cupboards or in a box. On the contrary, it is best if the Carebox (the Touch screen for the end users) is placed in a kitchen or living room or close to a TV, to make it easer for the elderly to see it and refer to it. It is even more important the equipments and the integrated services to be extensively tested in conditions as close to the real-life operation as possible before installing it in the homes. In this way, specific local issues can be discovered and eliminated. For example we experienced some hardware problems in only one region that were not common to the other three regions.

#### **6.3 Scalability**

During the ISISEMD pilot operation, it has been shown that the current architecture of ISISEMD portal and X-Server have been able to handle between 30 and 40 end users concurrently. In the future, it would be good to study and make some prediction on ISISEMD's users growth and traffic volume, such that network dimensioning and simulation can be done, and finally to decide the best network architecture.

#### **6.4 Response time**

358 Intelligent Systems

Overall, personalisation/customisation features of the services were highly appreciated by the regional care providers and the end-users because they give possibility for them to map precisely the services to the exact needs of the dyad "elderly-informal care-giver" and fitting

Carebox: we experienced some issues with the Touch-screen computer due to high touch sensitivity and they have been resolved by context-aware solution. Some few cases related to hardware failures that required replacement of the computer were mainly due to the fact that such device has been designed in "consumer electronic" segment that is not intended to run 24x7 in highly reliable environment. Unstable internet connections were reasons for false alarms and freezing of Carebox screen but they were alleviated by applying more

GPS device: we used a simple GPS device called Lommy that is in general very robust and has been already in use in different contexts. The only few issues were the connector for charging the Lommy as it was difficult for use by elderly people; LED indicators, blinking with different colours, were confusing for the elderly and their care-givers; in two of the regions, that had hilly and mountain landscape, problems with the coverage were

Sensors and RAck MOnitoring System (RAMOS): The type used was Ramos Mini C. It is a very robust device. It is meant to be used both in home and industrial environments. The only one issue was Ramos and Ethernet failures during the installation and then fixed in the installation process. Overall, the problems with RAMOS and sensor devices were related to setup, configuration, placement, and installation, which is more about practical issue than

Overall, the equipments to be used when offering ICT services for home support to elderly must be robust and "invisible" i.e. placed in those areas of the home where they are difficult to reach. This will prevent un-wanted disconnections or damages due to some every day activities such as cleaning, dusting, etc. It is best if the wires, RAMOS, routers are hidden in or behind cupboards or in a box. On the contrary, it is best if the Carebox (the Touch screen for the end users) is placed in a kitchen or living room or close to a TV, to make it easer for the elderly to see it and refer to it. It is even more important the equipments and the integrated services to be extensively tested in conditions as close to the real-life operation as possible before installing it in the homes. In this way, specific local issues can be discovered and eliminated. For example we experienced some hardware problems in only one region

During the ISISEMD pilot operation, it has been shown that the current architecture of ISISEMD portal and X-Server have been able to handle between 30 and 40 end users concurrently. In the future, it would be good to study and make some prediction on ISISEMD's users growth and traffic volume, such that network dimensioning and

simulation can be done, and finally to decide the best network architecture.

**6.1 Personalisation/customisation**

experienced.

the robustness.

**6.3 Scalability**

the support services in the care-giving and coping strategies.