Data Acquisition, Validation and Processing in Smart Home Environments

In this chapter we study the sensor, database, and data processing infrastructure needed to support Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) in smart home environments. AAL refers to unobtrusive systems placed within people’s own homes to enable them to live independently. It consists of common sensors such as presence sensors and contact sensors that are found in home alarm systems along with resource usage sensors. Ambient sensors are chosen over body-worn sensors to reduce the impact and stigma of health care devices in the home and deal with issues of poor compliance associated with body-worn sensors. The aim of AAL is to trigger alerts indicating critical events such as a fall and indicate deviations in routine, which may indicate declining health without any input from the user.