Relevance and perspectives of AAL in Brazil

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Abstract

Population aging has been taking place in many countries across the globe and more recently in emerging countries. In this context, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) has become one focus of attention, including methods, products, services, and AAL software systems that support the everyday lives of elderly people, promoting mainly their independence and dignity. From the perspective of computer science, efforts are already being dedicated to adequately developing AAL systems. However, in spite of its relevance, AAL has not been properly investigated in emerging countries, including Brazil. Thus, the contribution of this paper is to present the main perspectives of research in AAL, in particular in the area of software engineering, considering that the Brazilian population is also subject to the aging process. The main intention of this paper is to raise the interest of Brazilian researchers, as well as government and industry, for this important area.

Highlights

► We present the main perspectives of research in software engineering for the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) field in Brazil. ► AAL field has provided important support for global population aging and could also be essential for population aging in Brazil. ► AAL field has required the development of AAL systems, needing considerable effort from software engineering research area.

Introduction

Population aging is an unprecedented phenomenon caused by rising life expectancy and declining birth rates. It is a global phenomenon, but it is observed that countries are at very different stages of the aging process; however, according to the United Nations (United Nations, 2002), countries that started the process later will have less time to adjust to it. Another important statement is that there is no perspective of the global population ever being young again and, as a consequence of this scenario, population aging has caused and will cause profound implications for many facets of human life (United Nations, 2002). Driven by demographical and societal changes, mainly in most industrialized countries, considerable effort has been devoted by researchers from diverse research areas, from medical science to computer science and engineering, aimed at enhancing the quality of life, health improvement, and independence of elderly people in the context of our modern information society. In this scenario, the Brazilian population is also currently aging, together with the inevitable aging of the global population. This process will affect numerous aspects, with the most severe impact being on the Brazilian public health system and social security system. It is very important to note that these systems are currently needed to assist the majority of the Brazilian population. Thus, it is necessary to find ways to motivate and assist older people to stay active, to promote societal inclusion, and, finally, to help people stay independent for as long as possible.

In this context, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) constitutes a fundamental research domain that has received significant attention, mainly in Europe. AAL has arisen as a philosophy that includes methods, products, and services that provide considerable support for the everyday life of people with specific needs (elderly as well as disabled people) to live longer independently in their familiar residential environments (AAL Joint Programme, 2011a, Broek et al., 2010). Recognizing the challenges in this relatively new topic of research, efforts have been aligned mainly via research projects and joint programs in Europe (AAL Joint Programme, 2011a, AAL Open Association, 2011, ALFA, 2011). Furthermore, from the perspective of computer science, efforts have been concentrated on the development of AAL systems aimed at supporting the AAL philosophy. As good examples of AAL systems, we can find systems for activity monitoring, systems for detection of situations of helplessness, and systems for remotely tracking vital signs (e.g., heart rate, pulse, and blood pressure). In order to facilitate the development of such systems, several initiatives have proposed and used AAL platforms in recent years, such as UniversAAL (UniversAAL, 2011, Wichert, 2010), OASIS (OASIS, 2011), and OpenAAL (OpenAAL, 2011). In general, these platforms aim at exploring ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and other key technologies to develop suitable AAL systems that explicitly address openness, interoperability, adaptivity, and quality assurance (Antonino et al., 2011). The research area of AAL could certainly make contributions to the Brazilian scenario, too; however, it has not been widely investigated by Brazilian researchers and, as a consequence, there is a lack of research contributions that would make this a strategic research area in Brazil. Furthermore, computer science in Brazil has also not given enough attention to AAL, having launched only a few isolated, although interesting initiatives (Copetti et al., 2009, Rodrigues et al., 2012). There is also a lack of work in the software engineering area that could provide better ways and encourage the community, including industry, to develop AAL systems for the Brazilian and the international markets.

This paper aims at presenting the main perspectives of research in AAL for the computer science area, and more specifically for software engineering, in Brazil. To do so, we draw on our extensive experience in both the AAL and software engineering research areas. First of all, we present an overview of AAL, its relevance to modern society, and its development status. This will provide a background from which AAL research in Brazil could be developed. Then, considering the specificities that we have identified in the Brazilian scenario, we will discuss the main research directions in software engineering, as well as challenges and requirements regarding their development. This paper thus intends to get the attention of researchers by identifying important open research directions; furthermore, this paper expects to stimulate the Brazilian industry and government; the ultimate goal is to make AAL a reality in Brazil.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we present an overview of population aging. In Section 3, we present an overview of AAL, which includes AAL systems and AAL platforms. In Section 4, we present those perspectives of research in software engineering for the AAL field that we have identified as being relevant in Brazil. In Section 5, we discuss the results, lessons learned, and limitations of this work and, finally, we present our conclusions in Section 6.

Section snippets

General context: population aging

According to the United Nations Population Fund (2011), the world's population has reached 7 billion in October of 2011 and will continue to experience rapid growth, reaching 10 billion by the middle of this century. In parallel, according to demographic studies carried out by the United Nations (United Nations, 2002), the global population will witness faster aging than in the last century; this is unparalleled in human history. In 1950, the percentage of the population above the age of 60 was

AAL: an overview

Since AAL is the main focus of this work, in this section, we present an overview of AAL, including a brief background, definition, and goals. Considering that Europe has been the main focus in AAL research, we also present AAL initiatives launched there and concrete results already achieved. Furthermore, since AAL systems are fundamental for enabling the realization of AAL concepts, we will discuss these. We also present mechanisms for developing such systems, i.e., AAL platforms and reference

Research perspectives in AAL in Brazil

In order to establish the perspectives of research in software engineering for the AAL field, we have first identified a set of forces (reasons) that compose the Brazilian scenario and could motivate the development of AAL. Furthermore, we have also identified a set of challenges, requirements, or necessities that should be dealt with in order to enable AAL to become an effective research topic. Thus, based on the Brazilian scenario and its challenges/requirements, in the context of this work

Discussion

We have observed the relevance of computer science and software engineering to the quality of life of elderly people. In this section, we discuss some issues related to this, which also includes lessons learned and limitations of this work.

Considering the current aging of the Brazilian population, AAL should be incorporated as a strategic area for Brazil, following examples of other countries that are ahead in the aging process. Furthermore, considering the deficiencies of the Brazilian public

Conclusions

Population aging is an inevitable process in all countries and regions around the world, including Brazil. Measures for dealing adequately with this situation must be taken, if we want to ensure dignified aging for ourselves, our parents, and our relatives. In this context, AAL has proposed solutions in that direction and, in particular, software engineering has provided important support for the development of AAL systems. The main contribution of this work is presentation of what we consider

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Brazilian funding agencies FAPESP, CNPq, and CAPES and partially supported by the OptimAAL-Project (Competence Platform for the development and introduction of AAL-Solutions), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the CESAR-Project (Cost-efficient methods and processes for safety relevant embedded systems), funded by the European ARTEMIS Joint Undertaking. We would also like to thank Sonnhild Namingha from Fraunhofer IESE for

Elisa Yumi Nakagawa is a Professor in the Department of Computer Systems at University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She received her BS degree in Computer Science in 1995 from the University of São Paulo, her M.S. degree in 1998 and her Ph.D. degree in 2006 in Computer Science and Computational Mathematics from the University of São Paulo. She conducted her Post-Doctoral in 2011–2012 in the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Germany. Her main research interests

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    Elisa Yumi Nakagawa is a Professor in the Department of Computer Systems at University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She received her BS degree in Computer Science in 1995 from the University of São Paulo, her M.S. degree in 1998 and her Ph.D. degree in 2006 in Computer Science and Computational Mathematics from the University of São Paulo. She conducted her Post-Doctoral in 2011–2012 in the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Germany. Her main research interests include software architecture, reference architecture, software engineering environment, software product line, and open source.

    Pablo Oliveira Antonino is Computer Scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Germany, since 2009, working with architectures of embedded systems. He received his M.S. degree in Computer Science from the Federal University of Campina Grande in 2009, a Bachelor in Computer Science at the Federal University of Paraiba in 2006, and a Technologists degree in Telecommunication Networks at the Federal Center of Technologic Education in 2004. He is also developing his PhD activities jointly at the Fraunhofer IESE and the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, on the field of architectures of safety-critical systems.

    Martin Becker is head of the Embedded Systems Development Department at Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Germany, since 2009. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in 1997 and his Ph.D. degree in 2004 from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Since 2004, he has been working for the Fraunhofer IESE in the applied research and technology transfer projects in the area of software product lines, component-based development, architecture-centric engineering, configuration support, and adaptive systems. Until 2009 he coordinated activities in the area of Ambient Intelligence Systems and Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). His main research interests are elicitation and sharing of architectural knowledge in variant-rich systems and variability management on the code level.

    José Carlos Maldonado received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering/Electronics in 1978 from the University of São Paulo (USP), in Brazil, his MS in Telecommunications/Digital Systems in 1983 from the National Space Research Institute (INPE), in Brazil, his D.S. degree in Electrical Engineering/Automation and Control in 1991 from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, and his Post-Doctoral at Purdue University, in the USA, in 1995–1996. He worked at INPE from 1979 up to 1985 as a researcher. In 1985 he joined the University of São Paulo where he is currently Full Professor and Director. He was also the President of the Brazilian Computer Society (2007–2011). His main research interests are related to software engineering, software testing and validation, experimental software engineering, software quality, software engineering education and training, web systems, and reactive and embedded systems.

    Holger Storf joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Germany, in 2007 and is a member of the Embedded Systems Development department. He graduated from the University of Heidelberg in 2007 with a “Diplom” in Medical Informatics with a focus on knowledge-based decision support in diagnosis and therapy.

    Currently, his field of research is the intelligent data processing layer in the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) domain, especially in the European projects Emergency Monitoring and Prevention EMERGE, ROSETTA, and CCE and the national projects ProAssist4Life and OptimAAL. He was chair at the PervaSense-Workshop (Situation Recognition and Medical Data Analysis in Pervasive Health Environments) at the Pervasive Health Conference in 2009–2012. He is a member of the GMDS and the VDE AAL workshop AG IT.

    Karina Villela is a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering in Kaiserslautern, in Germany. As part of her Alexander von Humboldt's fellowship at this institute, she defined a method for predicting adaptation needs in software product lines and proactively managing their evolving scope, which was applied in several Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) product lines. She is one of the authors of the book “Quality Criteria in the Ambient Assisted Living Context” published by the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies. She is the deputy head of the Fraunhofer Project Center for Software and Systems Engineering at the Federal University of Bahia, in Brazil. Her research interests are on product lines, variant-rich systems, and requirements engineering. She graduated in Computer Science from the Federal University of Bahia and received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.

    Prof. Dr. Dieter Rombach studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Karlsruhe and obtained his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern (1984), Germany. Since 1992 he has held the Software Engineering Chair in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern. In addition, he is the founding and executive director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE). He was also a guest professor at the University of Maryland and at NASA (1984–1986), a professor at the University of Maryland (1986–1991), and a professor at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland and project manager at the Software Engineering Labor (SEL) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (1986–1991). Prof. Rombach's research interests are in the area of software engineering, particularly in engineering-style methods for the development of software with predictable quality; quantitative methods for the measurement of software products and processes for the purpose of project management and quality assurance; languages, methods, and tools for the creation and management of development processes on the basis of explicit software process models; as well as empirical methods and their application for determining the effects of software development methods.

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