Activity I.1 - To develop the hypotheses which will form the basis for the identification of the IONIS target users (e.g. cognitive deficiencies) through an approved methodology

This activity aimed at elaborating the hypotheses which will form the basis for the identification of the IONIS target users (e.g. cognitive deficiencies) through an approved methodology. We investigated some hypotheses which can lead to cognitive impairment and of early dementia stages in elderly people. These can be members of our family, close relatives, friends, neighbors or any other person with whom we have contact in our daily life. Also, starting from the available scientific literature, we have studied methods to identify cognitive impairment and early dementia symptoms.

Activity I.2 - Development of the documentation needed to structure the end-user involvement activities through analytical methods.

This activity had as objective to elaborate the documentation needed to structure the end-user involvement activities through analytical methods. During this activity we have employed shadowing techniques to involve the IONIS users in our user-centered approach. The idea was to observe the users in their daily activities and to document the observed activities as well as the barriers which the users are facing in their daily life. The observer, part of the end-user organization (CITST in Romania) was allowed to ask questions and to stimulate the user in communicating during his actions.

Dissemination and Management

CITST participated at the kick-off meeting in Geneva which aimed at defining the strategy of a successful project implementation. Also, CITST was the main contributor of the poster presented at the conference “9th Alzeheimer Conference – ASK 2017” which took place in Slovenia on the 21st October 2017.

Activity II.1 - Elaboration of analytical methods and their implementation for engaging the IONIS.

The activity had as objective to study and elaborate the methodology of engaging the IONIS users using analytical methods in the process of developing and testing the platform. Taking in account that the project deploys technologies for a category of elderly people more vulnerable than the average elderly, their engagement needs a special care for preparing the surveys which are the basis of the analytical methodology.

Activity II.2 - Implementation of the survey with at least 20 IONIS target users.

The activity had as objective to implement and analyze the survey with the target users of the IONIS project. A number of 20 primary users of the IONIS platform were included in the survey organized by CITST in Romania. At the survey their informal caregivers were also present (a number of 9). It is worth mentioning that some elderly people didn’t have a caregiver, and some had the same caregiver. So, a total number of 29 respondents, primary and secondary users of the IONIS project, were included in the survey in Romania. In general, the selected elderly people scored lower in the MMSE test than in the previous year when they were engaged in the preliminary shadowing activities. The memory decline has an impact on the daily activities and sometimes leads to frustration because these persons, as it comes out from the survey, frequently can’t find usual objects like glasses, keys, wallet etc. Those classified as persons with early dementia have difficulties in orientation and also forget events and important places.

Activity II.3 - Design of the IONIS Architecture.

The activity had as objective to design the IONIS platform architecture. CITST contributed together with the other IONIS consortium partners to this task. It started from the IONIS functionalities and from the architecture outlined in the project proposal. Some supplementary arguments for the development of the final architecture of the IONS project took in account the following aspects: (1) the need of an architecture which exploits the expertise of all partners from the project consortium and their competitive advantages; (2) the need of attaining commercial viability; (3) implementing GDPR and ethical constrains; (4) ensuring modularity and extensibility; (5) implementation of a robust data transfer mechanism.

Activity II.4 - Studies regarding the IONIS platform components available off the shelf (including suppliers, prices etc.).

The activity involved a comprehensive analysis of the devices and the sensors available on market. Choosing the adequate ones was based on inerrability, interoperability, availability and price criteria. Based on the data found and on the previous experiences of the consortium partners, a set of sensors and devices was chosen. These will be tested during the first pilot- studies of the project. Besides the devices which will be acquired from third part users, the platform will integrate also components developed by the project partners. These are the components for indoor positioning and object localization (developed by WUT) and the gateway for data collection from EXYS.

Activity II.5 - Dissemination: webpage, participation at the AAL forum 2018.

The activity was dedicated to dissemination activities: (a) the project webpage update and creating links between the IONIS page maintained by CITST and the IONIS pages maintained by the project partners; (b) participation at the 2018 AAL forum with a presentation poster and at the Seniors Fair at Romexpo, Bucharest; (c) dissemination through scientific publications.

Activity III.1 - Implementation of the conjoint analysis with a minimum of 20 IONIS users and interpretation of the results.

During this activity, 20 primary (elderly with MMSE score between 19 and 27) and secondary users were involved for classifying the platform functionalities depending on the users’ preferences. A good consensus was attained between the primary and secondary users. With respect to the seven main functionalities, both the persons in need of care and the caregivers expressed almost similar appraisals, with the modest difference of the functionality reminders, which scored much higher (3rd) for the persons in need than for the caregivers (5th), trumping both the disorientation detection and the finding objects. The main conclusion regarding the reminders functionality is that both elderly and their caregivers evaluated the email alternative as the least useful with almost the same levels of consensus. Also, both groups valued visual messages with approximately the same ‘strength’, but the elderly found the voice messages as being the most useful.

Activity III.2 - Piloting the integrated IONIS platform with 10 primary users and 10 secondary users.

During this activity, the INCARE platform was tested by 21 users from Romania, from which 11 elderly people (MMSE score between 19 and 27) and 10 informal caregivers. The users’ engagement showed positive and negative aspects of the platform. A few examples are shown below. The activity bracelets tested by primary users in Romania were FitBit Charge 2 and Xiaomi Mi Band 2. A 7000 steps goal per day was set for each user. The general attitude was very positive with the users feeling motivated to be more active. Several users of the FitBit bracelets also liked the continuous pulse monitoring capability. Some also appreciated the watch capability of both FitBit and Mi Band. On the caregiver’s side, they were able to check the activity of the primary users on the tablet or smartphone interface. They appreciated to be able to also check the history of the activity in between visits. They said that they are feeling more relaxed when seeing that the elderly are keeping active and not sitting all day in bed or in front of the TV. Also, knowing that they can check how active the elderly was is helping with spotting signs of depression or other illnesses.

Activity III.3 - Hardware and software contributions at development of the IONIS platform for outdoor use.

During this activity, we proposed a hardware architecture and component design for outdoor monitoring. The implementation proposed will be taken account for future developments and for bringing the IONIS product on the market. For a fast project implementation, a commercial device (smartwatch) with a GPS positioning module was used. Specifically, the King Wear K88 Heart Rate Smartwatch was selected due to its multiple functionalities which allow also fall detection and heart rate measurements.

Activity III.4 - Contributions at modeling, analysis and data interpretation.

During this activity, several algorithms for indoor localization based on WiFi signals were designed and tested. This functionality is implemented in the IONIS platform by using indoors the same smartwatch as the one used outdoors. The developed algorithms are employing neural networks. Freely available training data sets were used for algorithm development. Own sets are currently acquired within the IONIS project.

Activity III.5 - Dissemination, webpage, participation at 2019 AAL forum.

During this activity the following disseminatin activities were attained: (1) Elaboration of three articles submitted to scientific conferences (Springer Proceedings and ISI Proceedings); (2) Two work meetings of the project: 17-18 June, Warsaw, Poland; 9-10 November, Nova Gorica, Slovenia; (3) Oral presentation of the IONIS platform and a poster during the 2019 AAL forum, 23-25 September 2019, Aarhus, Denmark; (4) Presentation of the IONIS system during the „Montessori Senior method in practice” conference, 51-16 June 2019, Warsaw, Poland; (5) Presentation of the IONIS system during the conference ASK 2019 – Letna konferenca o demenci, 8-9 November 2019, Nova Gorica, Slovenia; (6) Website update.

Activity IV.1

As part of this activity, we have developed the exit strategy for the end-users participating in the IONI pilots. The aim was to prevent any negative effects which might occur because of the finalization of the pilots. Thus, we took into account both primary and secondary users but also tertiary stakeholders as follows:

• • Exit strategy for the primary and secondary end-users.
• • Exit strategy for the end-user organizations.
• • Exit strategy for business partners and solution developers.

In addition, we also take into account data handling after the end of the project.

Activity IV.2

Within this activity, we implemented the developed exit strategy to the IONIS pilot participants. These had an overall positive attitude towards the devices integrated in the IONIS platform which they found to be very useful. All pilot participants have stated that their activity level has improved following the use of an activity monitoring bracelet. In addition, positive feedback was obtained also for health monitoring. However, sleep monitoring was found to be more useful for the secondary users than for the primary once. All users were interested to participate in further pilots. Some of the users were interested to keep the devices until they appear on the market. They were also interested to rent some of the more expensive devices. Especially the sleep sensor for which there is also a monthly administration fee was considered for renting rather than for purchasing.