Capacity Building in Robotics & Autonomous Systems in India/ IRAS-HUB
Our Objective
Our objective is to achieve Intelligent Personal Assistant to Support Independent Living of Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (IPASIL). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurocognitive disorder in the spectrum of cognitive aging, as an intermediate status between normal aging and dementia. The cognitive deficits in MCI do not interfere with the capacity for independence in everyday activities. Rather, the individual usually functions at a suboptimal level, with everyday tasks becoming more effortful owing to the engagement of compensatory strategies to maintain independence. The criterion of independent functioning represents the key distinction between the mild and major neurocognitive disorders and relies on an insightful report by the individual and/or a family member, and a level of good judgment from the clinician.
Frequently, reported problems for people with MCI include remembering appointments, planning and doing shopping, preparing food, paying bills, and keeping track of day and night. A fundamental part of helping individuals to stay at home safely for as long as possible is understanding the unique challenges that older adults with self-reported cognitive decline and their caregivers experience, so that such challenges can be addressed. Furthermore, policies are moving towards supporting the aging in place that is becoming a popular trend especially after Covid-19 pandemic.
This proposal advances the state of the art of personal assistant technologies that aim to support people suffering from MCI. The refinement of cognitive rehabilitation support technologies, the adoption of conversational agents in digitally mediated interactions, the rise of unprecedented physiological and activity acquisition systems exploiting wireless sensing for elderly healthcare, the emergence of emotion and affective monitoring platforms, and the general increase of ubiquitous technologies with capabilities for the objective tracking of activities with unprecedented levels of unobtrusiveness, are called to radically change perspectives on cognitive health, among many others.
While all these technologies advance, such as personal tracking devices, including physiology sensors, gas sensors, camera-based tracking platforms with cognitive and affective computing features, societies have witnessed how artificial intelligence-equipped smart home settings harnessing the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile-based tracking capabilities have permeated our lives in recent years. No research to date, however, has successfully addressed integrative systems that leverage a multiple approach specifically for MCI. Digital assistive technology is expected to support both the person with MCI (not only in physical performance but also to improve well-being) and their family carer especially in the landscape of policies and recommendations fostering well-being and independence.
The IPASIL project focuses on 3 research directions that, together, will integrate and reshape how personal technologies contribute to the support of cognitive impairment delivered:
Sensing and data acquisition technologies, covering a wide range of modalities, of a wide range of obtrusiveness levels, in order to capture any sign of cognitive capability worsening in all its domains (memory, cognition, emotion and activity)- Artificial intelligence models to integrate, process and identify trends or patterns that represent concerning indicators of MCI. This research line faces the challenge of fusing data from a multi-source, ecological and highly-resolved acquisition contexts to derive significant features for the quality of life and the pathology of interest, presented in an understandable manner for both the clinician and patient stakeholders (end user and/or caregivers).
- Recommendation systems and outputs of clinical relevance for the support of the independent living of MCI patients, with the user and clinical context in mind during the design process. Outputs will significantly contribute to the clinical practice, and be aligned with personalized care and support solutions that are to be deployed in remote health contexts (at home) or within healthcare facilities.