Computer Vision News - December 2016

We had the opportunity to speak with Stylianos (Stelios) Asteriadis , Mirela Popa and Dario Dotti , some of the developers behind the upcoming application ICT4LIFE . The project provides services for integrated care by employing user-friendly ICT tools, in order to improve the quality of life for patients with Parkinson's , Alzheimer's , and other dementias. The team is based at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands , in the Data Science and Knowledge Engineering Department (DKE). Asteriadis works as an assistant professor; Popa is a researcher in Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, and Human-Computer Interaction; Dotti is a PhD candidate at the university. Ordinarily, a doctor diagnoses a patient with dementia or Parkinson’s according to general symptoms, but the conclusions on the different symptoms are very generic. Because symptoms can manifest differently in each person, the generalizations of different symptoms limit the degree to which doctors can assist people with these diseases, especially when they live by themselves. Today, in the era of big data, technology is at a mature stage with advanced techniques such as sensor technology in assisted living and data. The ICT4LIFE development team are using these technologies to provide more personalized diagnoses and to diagnosis patients at earlier stages. Using data analytics, the system learns the behaviors or habits of a person in their home in order to infer patterns. The team assured us that they do this taking special care to respect the person’s privacy. They decided to use small sensors and choose proper placement so that the system wouldn’t disturb a person’s daily life. Then, the system is ready to alert caregivers or doctors of irregular behavior which may indicate gradually forthcoming deteriorations. For example, a person with Alzheimer’s commonly suffers from depression too. If the system recognizes the normal 22 Computer Vision News Application ICT4Life - Life Improvement for Elderly Application “ Improving the quality of life for patients with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other dementias ” From left to right: Stylianos (Stelios) Asteriadis, Mirela Popa and Dario Dotti of the ICT4Life team