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Many researchers and product developers are striving toward achieving ICT-enabled independence of older adults by setting up Enhanced Living Environments (ELEs). Technological solutions, which are often based on the Internet of Things (IoT), show great potential in providing support for Active Aging. To enhance the quality of life for older adults and overcome challenges in enabling individuals to achieve their full potential in terms of physical, social, and mental well-being, numerous proof-of-concept systems have been built. These systems, often labeled as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), vary greatly in targeting different user needs. This paper presents our contribution using SmartHabits, which is an intelligent privacy-aware home care assistance system. The novel system comprising smart home-based and cloud-based parts uses machine-learning technology to provide peace of mind to informal caregivers caring for persons living alone. It does so by learning the user&rsquo, s typical daily activity patterns and automatically issuing warnings if an unusual situation is detected. The system was designed and implemented from scratch, building upon existing practices from IoT reference architecture and microservices. The system was deployed in several homes of real users for six months, and we will be sharing our findings in this paper.

Independent living of older adults is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population. Especially those living with diseases like COPD, MCI or frailty, need more support in everyday life and this is by itself a big societal challenge with impact in multiple sectors. In this paper we present eWALL, an innovative open-source eHealth platform that aims to address these challenges by means of an advanced cloud-based infrastructure. eWALL is designed in an innovative manner and achieved technical breakthroughs in eHealth platforms, while prioritizing user and market needs that are often abandoned and are the major reason for technically sound solutions that fail. We consider this as an opportunity and we aim to change the eHealth systems’ experience for older adults and break the barriers for the penetration of ICT solutions.

A cross-domain initiative Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is utilizing ICT technologies and increasing autonomy of the elderly by building Enhanced Living Environments (ELEs). Affordable in-house devices that can be combined with highly available, infinitely scalable cloud services can deliver novel applications and user experience. Cost reduction and efficiency of the smart-home has become one of the imperatives of the countries around the world. Low cost (of-the-shelf) devices facilitate proliferation of smart services and make them more accessible to a broader audience. In this paper we present the proof-of-concept pilot solution developed to investigate the possibility to replace the expensive home-gateway server with much cheaper and energy efficient home sensing internet gateway based on the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B device.

The IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) has been recognized as a reference next-generation network architecture for offering multimedia services over an Internet Protocol (IP)-based infrastructure. One of the key benefits of the IMS is efficient and flexible introduction of new services and access to third-party application providers, thanks to standard interfaces and standardized service capabilities. To support novel media-rich applications across a wide range of user devices and access networks, IMS must support negotiable quality of service (QoS) for IP multimedia sessions. In this article, we describe the application-level QoS signaling as specified by the 3GPP and propose some enhancements based on advanced QoS parameter matching and optimization functionality to be included along the signaling path. We outline various signaling flow scenarios and discuss them in the context of a case study involving an IMS-supported 3D virtual environment, featuring a treasure-hunt-like game.

The biggest challenges in the area of AAL service development is heterogeneity. Possible solution to accommodate dynamic behavior of AAL system needs and diversity of system requirements is to use higher level of system abstraction by using ontology. We describe a development methodology, structure, format selection and evaluation of a proposed AAL ontology building on top of well established ontologies. We give further details on the AAL cloud system utilizing this ontology as an underlying ontology-based data model. In the case study we discuss how the AAL ontology enables service creation and orchestration and discuss needed and planned future work.

This paper discusses current status and recent advancements of 3D graphics on mobile platforms and describes open issues concerning its usage in different applications. We have treated two particular application fields. Firstly, we deal with problems of visualization of complex data structures on mobile devices. The implementation of a 3D visualization renderer on the Symbian platform for mobile devices is written as a C++ application and based on the DieselEngine&reg ; ; as a rendering engine. 3D visualization of data is generated in the form of a Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) file meaning that actually any kind of 3D content written in VRML file format can be rendered on such a device. It was the result of a project the objective of which was to provide a user interface on a mobile platform displaying visualization of hierarchical Grid monitoring data. Secondly, we describe the system that brings face animation to embedded platforms. Face animation is considered to be one of the toughest tasks in computer animation today and its delivery to mobile platforms brings possibilities for development of new innovative and attractive services for the mobile market.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardized architectural framework for the provision of multimedia services over a packet based next generation network (NGN). We present an overview of IMS, with emphasis on use of IMS application servers and enablers for service delivery, and show how an innovative prototype service can be designed and developed based on principles of service composition and reuse of common service enablers and content resources. The prototype service, dubbed LocalNote, may be described as a location triggered messaging service enhanced with presence. It allows the originating user to create a location-based ldquosticky noterdquo in form of a SMS message, to be delivered to the recipient user(s) upon entering a designated geographical area. The service is based on a new application server in IMS and it also makes use of the presence, location, and location context enablers, as well as a map content server.

As a standardized NGN architecture, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) defines standard service capabilities and interfaces, as well as a common IP-based infrastructure, which enable operators to introduce new services in an efficient and flexible way. In order to exploit the capabilities offered by an IMS operator, multimedia application developers face a business challenge to create applications which can run on a variety of user devices, and possibly adapt to various network conditions and user preferences. Our goal was to identify common generic functionality related to session-level QoS signaling for advanced multimedia applications and to design a high-level application programming interface (API), which invokes this functionality. The paper describes the Dynamic Service Adaptation model on which the proposed API is based, the API specification, and its implementation in Java. A prototype multimedia application featuring a 3D networked game provides an example of using the API.

As a result of the evolution of computer and networking technologies, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has proposed the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a key element in the UMTS architecture supporting multimedia services in the packet switched domain. Extending the IMS with support for location based services (LBS) will enable enhanced services and offer new revenues to the system. Connecting the IMS core network with a real positioning system providing support for LBS is an open issue. This paper addresses this issue and presents the design and implementation of an IMS Location Server (ILS) connecting the IMS with a positioning system. From the IMS perspective, ILS serves as a service enabler for LBS in the mentioned subsystem. In order to demonstrate proof-of-concept in enhancing IMS-based services, a Location-aware Push-to-Talk (LaPoC) prototype service has been developed. The service has been integrated with the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System (MPS). This paper also gives the results of performance measurements including traffic load analysis and session establishment time.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has proposed the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a key element in the next-generation network (NGN) converged architecture supporting multimedia services. Extending the IMS towards provisioning support for location based services (LBS) will enable enhanced services and offer new revenues to the system. However, conveying location information in the IMS and connecting the IMS with a real positioning system are still open issues. This paper presents the design and implementation of an IMS Location Server (ILS) integrating IMS with a positioning system. From the IMS perspective, the ILS serves as a service enabler for LBS. Considerable work has been done by the IETF in the area of location information transport based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This paper proposes some improvements in this area. In order to demonstrate proof-of-concept in enhancing IMS-based services, a Location-aware Push-to-Talk (LaPoC) prototype service has been developed. The service has been integrated and tested with the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System (MPS). The paper also gives the results of performance measurements including traffic load analysis and session establishment time.

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is a key element in the next-generation network (NGN) converged architecture supporting multimedia services. Extending the IMS towards provisioning support for location based services (LBS) will enable enhanced services and offer new revenues to the system. However, conveying location information in the IMS and connecting the IMS with a real positioning system are still open issues. This paper presents the design and implementation of an IMS Location Server (ILS) integrating IMS with a positioning system. From the IMS perspective, the ILS serves as a service enabler for LBS. In order to demonstrate proof-of-concept in enhancing IMS-based services, two service scenarios have been implemented: Location-aware Messaging (LaM), and Location-aware Push-to-Talk (LaPoC). Some work has been done by the IETF in the area of location information transport based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This paper proposes improvements in this area, primarily related to reducing the necessary amount of signaling with the specification of a new type of location filter. We have conducted measurements in a laboratory environment in order to illustrate our proposed solution and verify the benefits compared to existing solutions in terms of traffic load and session establishment time. Furthermore, we present a case study integrating the ILS with the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System (MPS).

Most current Grid monitoring systems provide a visual user interface. With recent advances in multimedia capabilities in user terminals, there is a strong trend towards interactive, multi-modal and multi-platform visualization. In this paper we describe a multi-platform visualization architecture and a Web based service built upon it, which provides a view of the monitored Grid hierarchy, and the values of selected monitoring parameters for different Grid sites. We demonstrate the application on four platforms: a desktop Personal Computer (PC), a handheld PC, a Java-enabled new-generation mobile phone, and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled mobile phone.

This paper discusses the current status and recent advancements of 3D graphics on mobile platforms and describes an application that is used for 3D visualization of data on such platforms. The implementation of a 3D visualization renderer on the Symbian platform for mobile devices is written as a C++ application and based on the diesel engine as a rendering engine. 3D visualization of data is generated in the form of a VRML (virtual reality modelling language) file so this application can also be considered as a VRML browser. This means that actually any kind of 3D content written in VRML file format can be rendered on such a device. The implementation was tested on the Sony Ericsson P800 mobile device. The results of a project, whose main objective is to provide a user interface on a mobile platform displaying the visualization of the hierarchical grid monitoring data, are also presented in this article.