An automatic approach to virtual living based on environmental sound cues

This paper presents a novel indoor and outdoor monitoring system based on sound cues that can be used for the automatic creation of a Life-Log, health care monitoring and/or ambient communication with virtual worlds. Basically, the system detects daily life activities (e.g., laughing, talking, traveling, cooking, sleeping, etc.) and situational references (e.g., inside a train, at a park, at home, at school, etc.) by processing environmental sounds, creates a Life-Log and recreates those activities into a virtual-world. It is easily extensible, portable, feasible to implement and reveals advantages and originality compared with other life-sensing systems. The results of the perceptual tests are encouraging and the system performed satisfactorily in a noisy environment, attracting the attention and curiosity of the subjects.