On Smart-Care Services: Studies of Visually Impaired Users in Living Contexts

Smart care technology is any sensor based technology used to aid and support human independent living. Such technologies offer new potential and can give rise to new problems for making the technology accessible to users. In this work we focus on integrated services for people with visual impairment. Web based information services have already been adapted for people with varying degrees of disability. What is needed now is a service oriented architecture that integrates information services with smart care technology such as sensor devices that generate data for input, processing, storage and query. The main new challenge we identified here is that users may be living in a perplexing contexture - a chain of barriers affecting their ability to live independently. Contexts such as mobility dependencies must therefore be recorded and used, indoors and outside. Users should be monitored during their interactions with services, and the meaning of their behaviour inferred in order to refine the services. Moreover, by giving a set of user scenarios, we present a higher level view of users' needs than single service invocation; alternatives and follow-on services might be suggested and previous interactions built upon. Management of the architecture must allow for incorporation of new technology and upgrade of services. Technology for smart care is developing rapidly; its usefulness, and acceptance, requires a dynamic and flexible architecture to support ease of management and use.