Description

The project will focus on research being conducted in the use of UbiComp and AmI, in healthcare through smart meeting rooms and in agriculture monitoring, fields of interest and expertise for the partners involved. Sensor networks are currently used in multiple ways in the healthcare sector. Applications cover tele-monitoring of patients’ state of health, tracking and monitoring the movements of patients and doctors, the drug administration and diagnostic applications. In the field of patients’ state of health, sensor networks are particularly useful for patients who are under medical observation. Sensors communicate gathered data to a router or a telecommunication device such as a smartphone, which further delivers the data through specific applications or Apps to nurses’ or doctors’ rooms in case there are dangerous changes of the state of health. It is also possible to carry out medication control via these sensors. Sensor networks and location-based services allow doctors to be quickly tracked in hospitals in case of emergency. The same principle is applicable to their patients. This research is therefore aimed at monitoring and care systems, primary focusing on the Elderly Care. Smart Meeting Rooms (SMR) are environments that should support efficient and effective interactions among their occupants. SMR is able to remember the past, enabling review of past events and the reuse of past information in an intuitive, efficient and intelligent way. SMR should be aware of emotional context, providing a better support to users. So far there is a significant set of devices able to infer human’s emotional state, however concrete applications of this in decision meeting context are yet at an early stage. Most of the existent approaches use conceptual models of emotions. Sensors and sensor networks are important components of precision agriculture which aim at “maximum production efficiency with minimum environmental impact”. Land over-exploitation, one of the major concerns of intensive agriculture, leads to problems such as soil compaction, erosion, salinity and the declining of water quality. Sensors and sensor networks play a critical role in measuring and monitoring the health of the soil and water quality at various stages, from pre- to post-production. In the field of animal tracking, the movement of herds, animals’ health and the state of the pasture can be controlled via sensor networks. So far a number of sensor network systems have been developed and trials and field experiments are under way. However, concrete applications are at an early stage. In precision agriculture, sensor networks can be used for plant/crop monitoring, soil monitoring, climate monitoring and insect-disease-weed monitoring. In the field of plant/crop monitoring, wireless sensors have been developed to gather, for example, data on leaf temperature, chlorophyll content and plant water status. Based on these data, farmers are able to detect problems at an early stage and implement real-time solutions. The health and moisture of soil is a basic prerequisite for efficient plant and crop cultivation. Sensors contribute to real-time monitoring of variables, such as: soil fertility, soil water availability and soil compaction. Further, sensor nodes which communicate with radio or mobile network weather stations provide climate and micro-climate data. Sensors registering the temperature and relative humidity can contribute to detect conditions under which disease infestation is likely to occur. The research topics proposed in this area will help to understand the potential benefits and usage of these applications.