Sensor Data Simulation with Wandering Behavior for the Elderly Living Alone

The number of elderly people living alone has been increasing worldwide. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology has a high potential in protecting them from risks such as falls. This can be achieved by continuously monitoring the behavior of the residents in a smart home. To develop anomaly detection algorithms in such smart homes, we need a simulator to produce realistic sensor data over a long period of time. Unfortunately, however, existing simulators lack a high degree of reproducibility.In this study, we developed a novel behavioral simulator centered on wandering behavior. Users can easily and intuitively embed their knowledge in the simulator, keeping the exact definitions of target anomalies. Sensor data can be obtained from several types of sensors attached to the simulated home. We focus on simulating wandering behavior as an important anomaly, considering the degree of progress of dementia as a latent variable. We show that the proposed simulator is more usable than previous simulators from the view point of reproducibility.