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Health smart homes aim at assisting disabled and the growing number of elderly people which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is forecasted to reach 2 billion by 2050. Of course, one of the first wishes of this population is to be able to live independently as long as possible for a better comfort and to age well. Independent living also reduces the cost to society of supporting people who have lost some autonomy. Nowadays, when somebody is loosing autonomy, according to the health system of her country, she is transferred to a care institution which will provide all the necessary supports.
Autonomy assessment is usually performed by geriatricians, using the index of independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) (Katz & Akpom, 1976), which evaluates the person’s ability to realize different tasks (e.g., doing a meal, washing, going to the toilets...) either alone, or with a little or total assistance. For example, the AGGIR grid (Autonomie Gérontologie Groupes Iso-Ressources) is used by the French health system. In this grid, seventeen activities including ten discriminative (e.g., talking coherently, find one’s bearings, dressing, going to the toilets...) and seven illustrative (e.g., transports, money management, ...) are graded with an A (the task can be achieved alone, completely and correctly), a B (the task has not been totally performed without assistance or not completely or not correctly) or a C (the task has not been achieved). Using these grades, a score is computed and, according to the scale, a geriatrician can deduce the person’s level of autonomy to evaluate the need for medical or financial support.