A Support System for Context Awareness in a Group Home Using Sound Cues

Objectives: In a group home, caregivers should be aware of the inhabitant’s real-time situation. The aim of our study is to facilitate the awareness of an inhabitant’s situation by means of enhanced sound cues. Methods: We propose an audio notification system that indicates the real-time situation of persons in a group home environment using sound cues instead of visual surveillance. The notification system comprises a prediction and a notification function. The prediction function estimates a person’s real-time situation using a Bayesian network and sensed information; the notification function informs recipients of the predicted situation and the confidence level of the prediction by means of sound cues. We use natural sounds as sound cues. Results: As a first step to examine our system in a group home, we conducted operation and performance tests of each unit under a simple test environment. The correct prediction of the subject’s situation is approximately 90%; further, it is shown that the sound cues should be selected according to their environmental dependence. Conclusions: The results show that the method is useful for monitoring persons. As future study, we will conduct a field test on an implemented system and improve it for practical use in a group home.