Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6.1 Personalisation/customisation
Overall, personalisation/customisation features of the services were highly appreciated by
the regional care providers and the end-users because they give possibility for them to map
precisely the services to the exact needs of the dyad “elderly-informal care-giver” and fitting
the support services in the care-giving and coping strategies.
6.2 Robustness of the equipments and connectivity
Carebox: we experienced some issues with the Touch-screen computer due to high touch
sensitivity and they have been resolved by context-aware solution. Some few cases related
to hardware failures that required replacement of the computer were mainly due to the fact
that such device has been designed in “consumer electronic” segment that is not intended to
run 24x7 in highly reliable environment. Unstable internet connections were reasons for
false alarms and freezing of Carebox screen but they were alleviated by applying more
sophisticated filters on bypassing false alarm triggering conditions.
GPS device: we used a simple GPS device called Lommy that is in general very robust and
has been already in use in different contexts. The only few issues were the connector for
charging the Lommy as it was difficult for use by elderly people; LED indicators, blinking
with different colours, were confusing for the elderly and their care-givers; in two of the
regions, that had hilly and mountain landscape, problems with the coverage were
experienced.
Sensors and RAck MOnitoring System (RAMOS): The type used was Ramos Mini C. It is a
very robust device. It is meant to be used both in home and industrial environments. The
only one issue was Ramos and Ethernet failures during the installation and then fixed in the
installation process. Overall, the problems with RAMOS and sensor devices were related to
setup, configuration, placement, and installation, which is more about practical issue than
the robustness.
Overall, the equipments to be used when offering ICT services for home support to elderly
must be robust and “invisible” i.e. placed in those areas of the home where they are difficult
to reach. This will prevent un-wanted disconnections or damages due to some every day
activities such as cleaning, dusting, etc. It is best if the wires, RAMOS, routers are hidden in
or behind cupboards or in a box. On the contrary, it is best if the Carebox (the Touch screen
for the end users) is placed in a kitchen or living room or close to a TV, to make it easer for
the elderly to see it and refer to it. It is even more important the equipments and the
integrated services to be extensively tested in conditions as close to the real-life operation as
possible before installing it in the homes. In this way, specific local issues can be discovered
and eliminated. For example we experienced some hardware problems in only one region
that were not common to the other three regions.
6.3 Scalability
During the ISISEMD pilot operation, it has been shown that the current architecture of
ISISEMD portal and X-Server have been able to handle between 30 and 40 end users
concurrently. In the future, it would be good to study and make some prediction on
ISISEMD's users growth and traffic volume, such that network dimensioning and
simulation can be done, and finally to decide the best network architecture.
