Building Intelligence and Human Service Infrastructures as Enabler for Self-Determined Living in the Old Age

Abstract:
This paper focuses on applications of Building Intelligence (BI) in combination with a network of human carers as a common basis for a self-determined and independent living for elderly people. After a short introduction and the definition of the problem statement we describe our proposed solution. It bases on a technical infrastructure which on the one hand consists of an infrastructure for direct assistance at home including a user-driven interaction and training framework. A key role of the proposed concept plays a service network of human helpers who are directly included into the system and provide their services context sensitively depending on the end user's needs. This is the reason why on the other hand the home infrastructure is connected to a cloud based platform for case management and the involvement of care-giving stakeholders. A novelty is that besides caring professionals, relatives and volunteers also providers with existing service infrastructures are involved (infrastructure reuse). Goal of the overall, user-centric solution is the improvement of the elderly’s self-determination while guaranteeing an optimal skill-grade mix of the helpers. At the end of the paper we refer to the related work in the field and discuss the results and future directions of our research.