My PHD Blog

After thinking about the definition of smart homes and smart buildings, see this blog entry, I started to think about other terms that are likely to be used in this field. So, how about assisted living?
"The Assisted Living Federation of America defines assisted living as a long-term care option that combines housing, support services and health care, as needed. Assisted living is designed for individuals who require assistance with everyday activities such as meals, medication management or assistance, bathing, dressing and transportation". (Definition from http://www.alfa.org/alfa/Assisted_Living_Information.asp ) It appears that this is a sort of generally accepted definition so this will do for now.

The Merriam Webster website defines assisted living as "a system of housing and limited care that is designed for senior citizens who need some assistance with day-to-day activities but are not sufficiently incapacitated to require care in a nursing home and that usually includes private quarters, meals, personal assistance, housekeeping aid, monitoring of medications, and nurses' visits". Obviously this is not the right definition for me as I am not working with the elderly so I need to steer clear of definitions that go off in that particular direction; this said however, I will be looking at systems that are used for elderly to gain inspiration for what could be useful for younger people.

Another thing that I have found is that assisted living can mean a single dwelling or indeed a collection of dwellings in one location that can be supervised by both medical and non-medical staff to ensure that the individuals who live there can be cared for in their own homes rather than in care homes. Again I am not looking at a system that can be used in multiple dwellings, but it may be that the final system could easily be converted for this purpose.

I need to decide what various terms mean in respect to this project. For example a smart home is defined as "a home equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by phone or computer." if you use the phrase "Define smart home" in Google. Is this right? Yes, in some contexts this is right; however this is not really right for my thesis. "A dwelling incorporating a communications network that connects the key electrical appliances and services, and allows them to be remotely controlled, monitored or accessed." is closer as it does not state which devices are accessible as the first one does but states that the "key electrical appliances" are available. This is the definition in a fact sheet on the housingcare.org website entitled "Smart Home - A Definition". This is a document that was put together by the Department of Trade & Industry in the UK.

PC Magazine say that it is a "A home that is highly automated. It is entirely networked not only for computers, A/V entertainment and security, but also for heating, air-conditioning and lighting control. A smart house should have Ethernet outlets in every room. Although Wi-Fi is ubiquitous, and there are many appliances that are Wi-Fi only; connecting computers together via Ethernet is faster and more secure.". This is understandable as this is a computer magazine therefore it is going to veer towards the technological side. But again this is not really what I am aiming for.

Interestingly, a smart building is defined as "At the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupants productive (e.g. illumination, thermal comfort, air quality, physical security, sanitation, and many more) at the lowest cost and environmental impact over the building lifecycle." by the Institute for Building Efficiency on their web site. Closer to what I want. So perhaps I need to be looking at smart buildings rather than smart homes? Are smart homes going to be thought of as a rich man's gadget playground? I must admit that this is how I have perceived them for a long time. I do not want something that can open the curtains or blinds in the morning to welcome the inhabitant to the bright / rainy / snowy / foggy new day. Unless it serves a purpose. I think that the "Unless it serves a purpose" is going to be extremely important and will be a useful yardstick. Or perhaps metrestick as we are supposed to be metric now. Funnily enough, yardstick is acceptable to the dictionary but there is no such thing as metrestick! There's my answer then

So, how do I see a smart home / building in this context? How about "A home that has been designed to assist the users, by means of appropriate technology, to live safer and more enjoyable lives. Key appliances can be monitored, accessed and remotely controlled to ensure that the users have an improved quality of life."

I am not sure about the last bit of that, I need to work on it but it seems about right for now.

My son sent me this link. Nothing whatsoever to do with the PhD but I liked it. An amusing way to show different programming languages.

While looking at the news on the University web site I came across an article on a system called RITA. This stands for RESPONSIVE INTERACTIVE ADVOCATE. The idea is to create a system with a friendly avatar and voice that can be interacted with for help with many different things, from healthcare to just having a conversation to help alleviate loneliness. An interesting idea but I can see that some may have problems with using technology to take over from the human touch. However, with the money being cut so drastically I think people will have to accept that things have to change.Your comments are welcome.

Have a look at this page

OK, you are probably wondering why this is called MALCOLM and, no, I am not yelling the name out for some perverse reason. MALCOLM stands for:
Mapping Assisted Living Capability Over La Manche which I am sure you know that La Manche is the name the French give to what we in the UK call The English Channel.

So, what is it all about then and why am I writing about it? Well, the important bit is the "assisted living" bit. I am going to an event in October that is talking about a project, called MALCOLM that, and I quote from the website, "will map the assisted living capabilities* in the coastal regions either side of the Channel. The mapping will be conducted using a standardised methodology so that direct comparisons can be made between the regions.

*For the purpose of this project, we define Assisted Living as the development and use of sensor and information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate the remote delivery of care and support to people to improve their quality of life and allow them to live as independently as possible in the lowest intensity care setting, consistent with their needs and wishes."

As the project is looking at assisted living systems I think that I can make some very useful connections, hence the travel along the south coast of England to Maidstone in Kent to attend. The website for information is to be found here

The event is taking place on the 16th October, I will put some more info up here as I find it and will, hopefully, remember to write up the day once I have been.

Today I received some dates for seminars that I should attend. These are to do with the School of Computing Research Seminars and the University of Portsmouth, (UoP), Computing Seminars. They are the first things in my diary! According to my supervisor I need to go and get ready to present stuff in them myself...... As a couple of the ones that are already filled have Professors as speakers I think that this may be a bit daunting. I reckon it is quite likely that I will be ready to do this and I think that this will be a good training ground for me as I learn how to lecture and then stand up at conferences and extoll the virtues of our work...
Yes, lecturing. I will have to run lectures sometimes, this sounds a bit scary at the moment, but as I am self-funding this doctorate, any cash flow is greatly received! (Perhaps I should put a "Donate using PayPal" button here. Only joking. )

I attended the SIHI conference on Wednesday, fantastic speakers and fascinating topics. Well worth going to if you are in this field.
One thing that I find very worrying is the lack of joined up thinking in the NHS. This was highlighted time and again throughout the day and it is amazing that we have got this far without all the bits of the NHS able to talk to the others easily. I know it is a huge organisation but still, it seems to me to be a disgrace.

Spoke to Professor Jeremy Wyatt about the topic of my PhD and he tells me that not enough quality research has been done in the field. Now there is a real challenge for me I think. Next year I will hopefully have a poster at the conference as I should be a year into the doctorate and should be starting to get papers published. How scary is that?

I have been looking around for themes for the blogging platform that I am using here, Serendipity. It appears that, on the whole, there is very little activity in creating themes for this platform. Why? Not sure, is it due to the success of the others such as Wordpress? I think I will have a go at creating a couple of themes myself, I know a reasonable amount of CSS and suchlike, (after all, my degree is in web technologies, (first class by the way ) ), so it can't be that hard can it?

It seems a shame that this is not being pushed as a great little blogging system. I assume that it is too much hard work for people and they want to be led by the hand as you are with Wordpress.

I am attending / helping setup a conference at Portsmouth University on the 10th of September entitled "Informatics to deliver integrated care", (sounds a bit dry, but then I suspect that all of the conferences I will have papers at will be similar), run by SIHI. SIHI stands for Southern Institute for Health Informatics. Is that pronounced Sy Hy? maybe See Hee? No idea, I will find out on the tenth I suppose.

September 1st - only a month to go now.
How to fill my time as the boys go back to school? Well, that is quite easy I think. I have to do a review of the current work that has been done in the area of my subject so I have to gather all the relevant info I can. I have made a start already and found very little in my specific area. This is a bit scary, does this mean that others know that it is not worth working here? Does it mean that I have been searching for the wrong terms and when I get it right there is a ton of stuff and I can't get a new angle on it? Let's hope not.

On a totally off topic note, is it a coincidence that the latest release of an extremely popular computer game called Minecraft is released the day that the kids go back to school? Ha ha ha





I found a blog while looking for a suitable domain name for this site, entitled I Hate My PhD Hopefully I won't be feeling like this is a couple of years!