One-class classification-based real-time activity error detection in smart homes

Abstract

Caring for individuals with dementia is frequently associated with extreme physical and emotional stress, which often leads to depression. Smart home technology and advances in machine learning techniques can provide innovative solutions to reduce caregiver burden. One key service that caregivers provide is prompting individuals with memory limitations to initiate and complete daily activities. We hypothesize that sensor technolo- gies combined with machine learning techniques can automate the process of providing reminder-based interventions. The first step toward automated interventions is to detect when an individ- ual faces difficulty with activities. We propose machine learning approaches based on one-class classification that learn normal activity patterns. When we apply these classifiers to activity pat- terns that were not seen before, the classifiers are able to detect activity errors, which represent potential prompt situations. We validate our approaches on smart home sensor data obtained from older adult participants, some of whom faced difficulties performing routine activities and thus committed errors.