Analyzing correlation of resident activities based on infrared sensors

Smart environment enriches resident´s lives by assisting the residents in many situations via recognition of their activities. Some equipment such as video camera are often used for collecting the resident activity information. However, the data so collected also include extra information not necessary for assisting resident´s lives. Many people feel uncomfortable with these privacy related data. To protect the privacy, it is better to use only simple sensors like infrared sensor, pressure sensor, and so on. Data related to privacy can be greatly reduced if we use these simple sensors. On the other hand, information for recognizing the resident activities is also limited. The goal of this research is to validate the potentiality of using only simple sensors to correctly analyze resident life styles and activities. For this purpose, we conducted experiments in several ordinary Japanese families. This paper reports some results we obtained in analyzing correlations between members in the same family. Results show that even if we use infrared sensor alone, it is possible to understand some normal activity patterns.