Summary

Objectives: To many people, home is a sanctuary. With the maturing of smart home technologies, many people with cognitive and physical disabilities can lead independent lives in their own homes for extended periods of time. In this paper, we investigate the design of machine learning algorithms that support this goal. We hypothesize that machine learning algorithms can be designed to automatically learn models of resident behavior in a smart home, and that the results can be used to perform automated health monitoring and to detect anomalies. Methods: Specifically, our algorithms draw upon the temporal nature of sensor data collected in a smart home to build a model of expected activities and to detect unexpected, and possibly health-critical, events in the home. Results: We validate our algorithms using synthetic data and real activity data collected from volunteers in an automated smart environment. Conclusions: The results from our experiments support our hypothesis that a model can be learned from observed smart home data and used to report anomalies, as they occur, in a smart home.