Obtrusiveness Considerations of AAL Environments

Ambient assistive living (AAL) environments offer great opportunities for supporting ageing population. At the same time, the presence and use of robotic, smart home and other related technologies in the living environments, unless harmonically integrated, can negatively impact the users of AAL environments. Obtrusiveness is often used as an umbrella term to describe all possible negative implications of AAL technologies in the daily lives of their users. An AAL system can be potentially obtrusive in many different ways, not only for its elderly users but also for its secondary users, i.e. the formal and informal caregivers of the elderly and the medical staff monitoring their health. In this chapter, we assume as a starting point a holistic definition of obtrusiveness that takes into account both dimensions related to the design and deployment of the technology, and dimensions related to primary users’ perceptions, needs and psychology. We then review several aspects of each dimension in the context of AAL environments. The use of wearable sensors and robot presence in the peri-personal space, the ease of use of interaction media, the collection and management of data, the interruption of daily routine and personal relations, and the price of the product are all subjects of concern and attention when it comes to the elderly people. On the other hand, precise clinical measurements that guarantee sound medical decisions are related to secondary user requirements. Issues of daily routine, usability and sustainability are also related to secondary users. When examining the various dimensions of obtrusiveness, it becomes obvious that they might conflict each other, especially when considering the requirements of different groups of users. Moreover, several dimensions of obtrusiveness are subjective and experienced by the users differently based on their self-perception of need, self-concept and familiarization with the technology.