1、外文翻译外文文献:Increasing an individuals quality of life via their intelligent homeThe hypothesis of this project is: can an individuals quality of life be increased by integrating “intelligent technology” into their home environment. This hypothesis is very broad, and hence the researchers will investiga
2、te it with regard to various, potentially over-lapping, sub-sections of the population. In particular, the project will focus on sub-sections with health-care needs, because it is believed that these sub-sections will receive the greatest benefit from this enhanced approach to housing. Two research
3、questions flow from this hypothesis: what are the health-care issues that could be improved via “intelligent housing”, and what are the technological issues needing to be solved to allow “intelligent housing” to be constructed? While a small number of initiatives exist, outside Canada, which claim t
4、o investigate this area, none has the global vision of this area. Work tends to be in small areas with only a limited idea of how the individual pieces contribute towards a greater goal. This project has a very strong sense of what it is trying to attempt, and believes that without this global direc
5、tion the other initiatives will fail to address the large important issues described within various parts of this proposal, and that with the correct global direction the sum of the parts will produce much greater rewards than the individual components. This new field has many parallels with the fie
6、ld of business process engineering, where many products fail due to only considering a sub-set of the issues, typically the technology subset. Successful projects and implementations only started flow when people started to realize that a holistic approach was essential. This holistic requirement al
7、so applies to the field of “smart housing”; if we genuinely want it to have benefit to the community rather than just technological interest. Having said this, much of the work outlined below is extremely important and contains a great deal of novelty within their individual topics. Health-Care and
8、Supportive housing:To date, there has been little coordinated research on how “smart house” technologies can assist frail seniors in remaining at home, and/or reduce the costs experienced by their informal caregivers. Thus, the purpose of the proposed research is to determine the usefulness of a var
9、iety of residential technologies in helping seniors maintain their independence and in helping caregivers sustain their caring activities.The overall design of the research is to focus on two groups of seniors. The first is seniors who are being discharged from an acute care setting with the potenti
10、al for reduced ability to remain independent. An example is seniors who have had hip replacement surgery. This group may benefit from technologies that would help them become adapted to their reduced mobility. The second is seniors who have a chronic health problem such as dementia and who are recei
11、ving assistance from an informal caregiver living at a distance. Informal caregivers living at a distance from the cared-for senior are at high risk of caregiver burnout. Monitoring the cared-for senior for health and safety is one of the important tasks done by such caregivers. Devices such as floo
12、r sensors (to determine whether the senior has fallen) and access controls to ensure safety from intruders or to indicate elopement by a senior with dementia could reduce caregiver time spent commuting to monitor the senior.For both samples, trials would consist of extended periods of residence with
13、in the smart house. Samples of seniors being discharged from acute care would be recruited from acute care hospitals. Samples of seniors being cared for by informal caregivers at a distance could be recruited through dementia diagnosis clinics or through request from caregivers for respite. Limited
14、amounts of clinical and health service research has been conducted upon seniors (with complex health problems) in controlled environments such as that represented by the “smart house”. For example, it is known that night vision of the aged is poor but there is very little information regarding the o
15、ptimum level of lighting after wakening or for night activities. Falling is a major issue for older persons; and it results in injuries, disabilities and additional health care costs. For those with dementing illnesses, safety is the key issue during performance of the activities of daily living (AD
16、L). It is vital for us to be able to monitor where patients would fall during ADL. Patients and caregivers activities would be monitored and data will be collected in the following conditions.Projects would concentrate on sub-populations, with a view to collecting scientific data about their conditi
17、ons and the impact of technology upon their life styles. For example: Persons with stable chronic disability following a stroke and their caregivers: to research optimum models, types and location of various sensors for such patients (these patients may have neglect, hemiplegia, aphasia and judgment
18、 problems); to research pattern of movements during the ambulation, use of wheel chairs or canes on various type of floor material; to research caregivers support through e-health technology; to monitor frequencies and location of the falls; to evaluate the value of smart appliances for stroke patie
19、nts and caregivers; to evaluate information and communication technology set up for Tele-homecare; to evaluate technology interface for Tele-homecare staff and clients; to evaluate the most effective way of lighting the various part of the house; to modify or develop new technology to enhance comfor
20、t and convenience of stroke patients and caregivers; to evaluate the value of surveillance systems in assisting caregivers.Persons with Alzheimers disease and their caregivers: to evaluate the effect of smart house (unfamiliar environment) on their ability to conduct self-care with and without promp
21、ting; to evaluate their ability to use unfamiliar equipment in the smart house; to evaluate and monitor persons with Alzheimers disease movement pattern; to evaluate and monitor falls or wandering; to evaluate the type and model of sensors to monitor patients; to evaluate the effect of wall color fo
22、r patients and care givers; to evaluate the value of proper lighting.Technology - Ubiquitous Computing:The ubiquitous computing infrastructure is viewed as the backbone of the “intelligence” within the house. In common with all ubiquitous computing systems, the primary components with this system wi
23、ll be: the array of sensors, the communication infrastructure and the software control (based upon software agents) infrastructure. Again, it is considered essential that this topic is investigated holistically.Sensor design: The focus of research here will be development of (micro)-sensors and sens
24、or arrays using smart materials, e.g. piezoelectric materials, magneto strictive materials and shape memory alloys (SMAs). In particular, SMAs are a class of smart materials that are attractive candidates for sensing and actuating applications primarily because of their extraordinarily high work out
25、put/volume ratio compared to other smart materials. SMAs undergo a solid-solid phase transformation when subjected to an appropriate regime of mechanical and thermal load, resulting in a macroscopic change in dimensions and shape; this change is recoverable by reversing the thermo mechanical loading
26、 and is known as a one-way shape memory effect. Due to this material feature, SMAs can be used as both a sensor and an actuator. A very recent development is an effort to incorporate SMAs in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) so that these materials can be used as integral parts of micro-sensors
27、 and actuators. MEMS are an area of activity where some of the technology is mature enough for possible commercial applications to emerge. Some examples are micro-chemical analyzers, humidity and pressure sensors, MEMS for flow control, synthetic jet actuators and optical MEMS (for the next generati
28、on internet). Incorporating SMAs in MEMS is a relatively new effort in the research community; to the best of our knowledge, only one group (Prof. Greg Carman, Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles) has successfully demonstrated the dynamic properties of SMA-based MEMS. Here,
29、 the focus will be to harness the sensing and actuation capabilities of smart materials to design and fabricate useful and economically viable micro-sensors and actuators.Communications: Construction and use of an “intelligent house” offers extensive opportunities to analyze and verify the operation
30、 of wireless and wired home-based communication services. While some of these are already widely explored, many of the issues have received little or no attention. It is proposed to investigate the following issues: Measurement of channel statistics in a residential environment: knowledge of the ind
31、oor wireless channel statistics is critical for enabling the design of efficient transmitters and receivers, as well as determining appropriate levels of signal power, data transfer rates, modulation techniques, and error control codes for the wireless links. Interference, channel distortion, and sp
32、ectral limitations that arises as a result of equipment for the disabled (wheelchairs, IV stands, monitoring equipment, etc.) is of particular interest.Design, analysis, and verification of enhanced antennas for indoor wireless communications. Indoor wireless communications present the need for comp
33、act and rugged antennas. New antenna designs, optimized for desired data rates, frequency of operation, and spatial requirements, could be considered.Verification and analysis of operation of indoor wireless networks: wireless networking standards for home automation have recently been commercialized. Integration of one or more of these systems into th
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