Analysis of Human Behavior, in Everyday-Life Contexts, for the Development of New Technologies, in Support of the Improvement of Life Quality and Wellbeing

Analysis of Human Behavior in Everyday-Life Contexts for the Development of New Technologies in Support of the Improvement of Life Quality and Wellbeing INTRODUCTION: The present research project fits into a Eureka program supported by the Italian region Marche, the University of Macerata and MAC srl, a company based in Recanati, Italy. MAC designs, develops and produces cutting-edge electronic systems and devices by placing final users’ needs at the core of its actions and striving for a higher quality of life characterized by trust and safety. The present research builds on a conceptual and methodological framework that Mr. Luigi Mandolini (CEO of MAC) has developed and validated over the years and that underlies all of the company’s projects. With a U-turn on the traditional view that people need to adapt to technological advancements, innovations and their surrounding environment by merely reacting to the various inputs coming from machines, a new approach places the human being at the center of the picture, with technology serving humans by providing the right products or services for users and their environments. Both the University of Macerata and MAC – each from its own perspective – agree that studying human beings and human behavior is the starting point of research and inspiration for innovation. Both partners constantly commit themselves to bridging the gap between humanities and technologies, as the technical side cannot be separated from the human side. Domotics and smart home technology are in close touch with the final users’ minds and ways of perceiving, paying attention, understanding, learning, remembering and communicating. Studying these thought processes from the perspective of lifespan can help develop smart devices. The analysis of human behaviors in real everyday-life situations starts from the assumption that people who act on indoor devices (related to temperature, lighting, sound, etc.), at home and in offices alike, all too often are not entirely conscious of the functioning of these systems and cannot actually achieve well-being as intended. Actively interacting with a device in order to adapt technology to one’s specific needs at a given time can result in non-negligible physical and cognitive efforts in weaker subjects. Precisely for this reason, such systems should “interpret” users’ behaviors based on the latter’s perceptions of thermal, luminous, acoustic, etc. comfort and/or discomfort in everyday-life indoor environments. OBJECTIVES: Starting from a review of the theoretical framework and business evaluation, the following research question was developed: “Is it possible to create the best comfort possible (at thermal, luminous, acoustic level among others) in an indoor environment with minimized activity by final users, at any time?”. The present project focuses on a vision of technology meant to favor users’ well-being and comfort, especially more vulnerable subjects, notably non-self-sufficient older people. With final users in mind, regarded as sensors leading research and development of smart devices, the final aim is understanding human beings and human development over the course of life, to develop systems that can make the interaction between humans and machines as simple and effective as possible, and to provide people with special needs with adequate comfort (in terms of temperature, lighting, sound, etc.) inside their everyday-life environments. METHODS AND RESERARCH PHASES: A constructivist theoretical paradigm was adopted, with a vision of the researcher as an active participant and broker of understanding and re-structuring of life constructions that are typical of the subjects of investigation. The first step of the research project has been assessing the state of the art. Information and data have been collected through bibliographic and online research. Sources addressed the notions of Domotics and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). The research project subsequently evolved over four phases. In the first phase, field observations in multiple indoor environments, both public and private (homes, offices, universities, etc.), were carried out in Italy and abroad (Europe and US), aimed at detecting behaviors (directed towards oneself and one’s environment), physical reactions and occurrences of verbal communication which can be interpreted as display of sensations of heat and/or cold as perceived by people in their everyday-life environments. Later in the research, specific field observations with focus on ageing were carried out in five different healthcare centers (nursing homes and rehabilitation centers) located in the Marche region (Italy), in order to detect behaviors (directed towards oneself and one’s environment), physical reactions and occurrences of verbal communication that can be interpreted as display of any discomfort at thermal (hot / cold) and luminous level as perceived by senior residents inside these facilities. In the third phase, interviews were conducted with different representatives of healthcare professions, namely doctors, social educators, physiotherapists, nurses, nursing assistants and psychologists, who are all familiar with ageing and work in Central Italy. The aim of the interviews was collecting information and opinions based on the professionals’ first-hand experience in relation to their professional environments and the senior people with whom they interact on a daily basis. To understand whether the single behaviors detected during generic indoor environments could be deemed as unambiguous or ambiguous, questionnaires including a frequency scale were administered in the provinces of Macerata and Fermo (Marche region, Italy) to a randomized sample of common people from five age groups, in order to determine the frequency of the detected behaviors (directed towards oneself and one’s environment), physical reactions and occurrences of verbal communication that can be interpreted as a display of some sort of thermal (hot / cold) discomfort as experienced by a number of individuals in their daily life. Questionnaire data was finally compared and contrasted with checklist data in order to gain an insight into the perceptions of the people that had been previously monitored. CONCLUSIONS: The goal of the present research project is providing an accurate picture that shows – in the most naturalistic way possible – what happens in the daily lives of people from different age groups in relation to indoor comfort. The totality of collected data can be used to plan devices that can enhance well-being and improve the quality of life of all individuals, including weaker groups, notably non-self-sufficient senior people. The strengths of the present research lie in the fact that it is centered on the human being in its entirety and complexity, and that an analysis in the field of human behavior has been carried out in everyday-life environments, in a constant effort to make humanities and technologies interact and communicate. Starting from thermal comfort, it is crucial to consider further developments and a wider scope of application of the methods tested in this project, also crossing over to other domains.