The PRIO
project
Aim: To
generate an
intelligent, interactive partner agent (PRIO) for the
elderly and the visually impaired.
Brief description
In this project, we
are developing a software agent capable of interacting
with its user in an intelligent way, and thereby help
the user with various daily tasks, such as (for example)
accessing information, contacting relatives or
caretakers etc.
Background and
motivation
The
fraction of elderly people in the developed world is
increasing rapidly. For example, the fraction of people
above the age of 80 will rise from around 5% of the
population to around 12% of the population in 2050. This
increase is already putting strong pressure on health
and elderly care systems, particularly since the
working-age population is in (relative) decline. Thus,
strong efforts are being made to develop a variety of
technological tools, which will be able to provide
assistance in simple tasks that do not require human
intervention, thus giving caretakers more time to focus
on their primary tasks, namely to provide support and
comfort for elderly people.
Detailed description
Partner
agents constitute a special
case of the more general
concept of software agents,
i.e. intelligent, autonomous
computer programs. A partner
agent's function is to
interact with its user in
various (mostly
non-critical) tasks. In this
particular project, the
agent is intended both to
help its primary user (e.g.
an elderly person) and to
function as an easily
accessible and reliable
communication hub for
communication between the
primary user, the user's
relatives, and caretakers
(such as home service
personnel or the staff at a
nursing home).
In the project, we are using
various methods from the
wide fields of machine
learning and artificial
intelligence in order to
build an intelligent partner
agent, focusing on ease of
use (for the primary user,
which typically is an
elderly person without much
experience of computers or
mobile phones).
More information will be
added to this page in the
Autumn of 2015.
Participants
Mattias Wahde
Last update:
20150804, 08.00