Intelligent Supportive Environments for Older Adults
Speaker
Alex Mihailidis
Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)
Description
Older adults constitute the fastest growing population group in Canada. As such, finding ways of supporting older adults who wish to continue living independently in their own homes, as opposed to moving to a long-term care facility, is a growing social problem. However, the goal of “aging-in-place” is becoming increasingly difficult as more older adults are living alone in their homes (often in rural areas), and as the proportion of this population with a cognitive disability such as dementia increases. It has been hypothesized, however, that through the careful placement of technological support, such as computer vision aided artificially intelligent systems, these difficulties can be reduced, and older adults will be able to continue living safely in their own homes longer.
This presentation will focus on the application of artificial intelligence and computer vision in the development of an intelligent supportive environment to support aging-in-place. It will provide an overview of some of the technologies currently under development in the Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab at the University of Toronto. Specifically, two systems will be discussed-an intelligent environment that provides prompting to older adults with dementia during the completion of various activities; and an intelligent emergency response system that recognizes if a person has fallen and then calls for assistance.
Speaker's Bio
Alex Mihailidis, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and the Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (U of T). He has been conducting research in the field of pervasive computing and intelligent systems in health for the past eight years, having published or submitted over 30 journal and conference papers in this field. He has specifically focused on the development of intelligent systems for elder care and wellness and adaptive tools for nurses and clinical applications. He currently holds several major research grants from internationally recognized funding agencies to support this work (including NSERC, both the Canadian and American Alzheimer Associations, and Intel Corporation). His research has been completed through collaborations with other researchers in this field from Canada and the United States, and with various industrial partners. Dr. Mihailidis has also recently accepted an invitation from CRC Press to be a co-editor of a new text book entitled “Pervasive computing in healthcare”.
Speaker's Website
http://www.ot.utoronto.ca/iatsl/
Host
Chris Atkeson