Data quality oriented taxonomy of ambient assisted living systems

The objective of this paper is to present a novel taxonomy of ambient assisted living (AAL) systems that can be used to describe the AAL systems from a data quality perspective. AAL is an active multi-disciplinary research field that has contributed with many solutions to meet the specific needs of the elderly people. Most of these developments involve experts from different domains. A common terminology to communicate will help to identify and address data quality issues detrimental to the performance of AAL systems in their entirety during the concept development, development and post development phases of participating AAL products. The taxonomy was developed using an inductive approach based on a literature survey and our experience in developing the CareStore AAL platform. The taxonomy has ten dimensions that can be used to describe task oriented dedicated AAL systems that are intended to provide specific assistance to elderly for impairments in body function or limitation in participation of activities. We evaluated the taxonomy by applying it on two commercial AAL systems, Tunstall iVi intelligent pendant and Maricare Elsi Smart floor. We found the taxonomy to be useful to explain the characteristics of the evaluated AAL systems from a data quality perspective.