From the Back Cover
Smart homes, home automation and ambient-assisted living are terms used to describe technological systems that enrich our living environment and provide means to support care, facilitate well-being and improve comfort. This handbook provides an overview of the domain from the perspective of health care and technology. In Part 1, we set out to describe the demographic changes in society, including ageing, and diseases and impairments which lead to the needs for technological solutions. In Part 2, we describe the technological solutions, ranging from sensor-based networks, components, to communication protocols that are used in the design of smart homes. We also deal will biomedical features which can be measured, and services that can be delivered to end-users as well as the use of social robots. In Part 3, we present best practices in the field. These best practices mainly focus on existing projects in Europe, the USA and Asia, in which people receive help through dedicated technological solutions being part of the continuum of the home environment and care. In Part 4, we describe the preconditions to successful ambient-assisted living, including policies, the roles of professionals and organisational needs, design aspects and human factors, the needs of users, laws, business cases, and education.
Joost van Hoof serves as the head of the Fontys Centre for Health Care & Technology, which is a cooperation between 5 Institutes of Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven and Venlo, The Netherlands. Together with Dr. Eveline Wouters, he was a co-editor of a Dutch handbook on smart living and health. Dr. van Hoof has an engineering background in building physics and services. Dr. van Hoof also works with ISSO, the Dutch Building Services Research Institute in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He serves as board member of TVVL, the Dutch Association for Building Services Engineers TVVL (Dutch Technical Association for Building Services) and the Herman Bouma Fund for Gerontechnology Foundation. For his work, Dr van Hoof won various (inter)national awards, including the REHVA Young Scientist Award 2011 by the Federation of European Heating and Air-Conditioning Associations, and the 2010 BJ Max Prize. He is a board member of various ISI journals on building, technology and health care.
George Demiris is the Alumni Endowed Professor in Nursing at the School of Nursing and Biomedical and Health Informatics, at the School of Medicine, University of Washington. He is the Graduate Program Director of Biomedical and Health Informatics in the School of Medicine and the Director of the Clinical Informatics and Patient Centered Technologies Program at the School of Nursing. His research interests include the design and evaluation of home based technologies for older adults and patients with chronic conditions and disabilities, smart homes and ambient assisted living applications and the use of tele health in home care and hospice.
Eveline Wouters, PhD, MD, MSc, is medical doctor and professor of Health Innovations and Technology with the Institute of Allied Health Professions of Fontys University of Applied Sciences. The research focus is on technology development, acceptance and implementation of technology in health care, from the point of view of patients, family and health care professionals. In this, she works together with technological faculties. Together with Dr. Joost van Hoof, she was a co-editor of a Dutch handbook on smart living and health. Dr. Wouters has written several other textbooks, book chapters and many peer-reviewed articles on a diversity of health related subjects.
