Quality of Life Support System for People with Intellectual Disability

People with intellectual disabilities encounter several problems regarding the interaction with their environment in terms of their daily needs, activities and communication. The proposed project aims to contribute to optimizing the opportunities provided to the people with intellectual impairment in order to cope with particular everyday issues, by developing an appropriate, fully functional, interactive support system.

The integrated system will provide various stimuli, facilitate information, serve entertainment, creative activities and training through specialized learning programs, and, on the other hand, it will allow the recognition of emergency situations along with relevant notices towards the responsible care givers. The proposed system will exploit the internet by integrating multiple and different types of operations with the expected result of providing an affordable and user-friendly solution, tailored to the users’ needs. In particular, the system will be in the form of a flexible, extensible, fixed platform that receives signals from computers, smart mobile devices and wearable sensors, such as smart clocks, or embedded in smart communication devices (e.g. GPS). The sensors will serve the detection of health-related emergencies, through the measurement of critical biomedical signals and parameters, namely, heart rate, body temperature, etc., but also exceptional circumstances in which the person appears to be disoriented or lost, through the monitoring of location data, such as the coordinates.

In addition, the smart devices, i.e. mobile phones and tablets, apart from phone communication (call, text messages) through voice function and calling for help through the emergency button will also support the capability of automatic alerts to care givers in cases of recognition of emergency. Similarly, apart from the direct communication with health carers and family members in order to provide assistance, automated support of the system through voice menu of instructions / updates will also be incorporated, as well as entertainment potentialities, by means of a simple functional menu and exploiting voice commands and speech recognition capabilities. Moreover, reminders related to the medication of the disabled people will be sent through the proposed platform to the healthcare givers, and / or their relatives.

Furthermore, from PCs, people will interact with the internet through a variety of specialized applications tailored to be used by people with intellectual disabilities. From such applications, the system will have access to information and entertainment services, exploration of natural landscapes, monuments and attractions, as well as creative and training suggestions, such as virtual lessons, according to their preferences, interests and mood.

Additionally, another important goal of the project is to enhance and improve the sociability of people with intellectual disabilities by supporting their communication with people with similar interests through specialized social networks.