Purpose of this study was to determine feasibility of an information system that enables remote assistance between caretakers and elderly people suffering from dementia in a smart kitchen environment. Such system could alleviate stress experienced by caretakers by enabling provisioning of care giving between any combination of informal and formal caretakers, and by increasing mobility of caretakers. Second research problem was to evaluate benefits and drawbacks of using workflow technology to model cooking activities as workflow process models in smart kitchen environment. The research was conducted following the design science research framework. Scenario-based method and literature review were used to determine functional and technical requirements for the designed system. Quality function deployment method was used to choose technical solutions to be implemented. The designed system was evaluated by conducting a pilot test that is comparable to alpha test in software industry. Two external test participants evaluated the design following formative usability study guidelines. The pilot test confirmed that designed information system is feasible to be built from technical perspective. The most significant benefit of using workflow technology is ability to model and customize important daily activities such as preparing own meals to match individual needs of users and changing nature dementia. The most significant drawback of using workflow technology is demandingness of creating the models. The results of this study provide technical confirmation on ability to construct a supporting system for remote guidance of cooking activities. Also the study confirms that workflow technology is an viable candidate for powering such system.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:nbnfioulu-201305241339 |
Date | 27 May 2013 |
Creators | Sarni, T. (Tomi) |
Publisher | University of Oulu |
Source Sets | University of Oulu |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © Tomi Sarni, 2013 |
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