Experience in Evaluating AAL Solutions in Living Labs

• Main Authors: Juan Bautista Montalvá Colomer, Dario Salvi, Maria Fernanda Cabrera-Umpierrez, Maria Teresa Arredondo, Patricia Abril, Viveca Jimenez-Mixco, Rebeca García-Betances, Alessio Fioravanti, Matteo Pastorino, Jorge Cancela, Alejandro Medrano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-04-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: ambient assisted living; living lab; verification and validation; evaluation guidelines
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/14/4/7277

Ambient assisted living (AAL) is a complex field, where different technologies are integrated to offer solutions for the benefit of different stakeholders. Several evaluation techniques are commonly applied that tackle specific aspects of AAL; however, holistic evaluation approaches are lacking when addressing the needs of both developers and end-users. Living labs have been often used as real-life test and experimentation environments for co-designing AAL technologies and validating them with relevant stakeholders. During the last five years, we have been evaluating AAL systems and services in the framework of various research projects. This paper presents the lessons learned in this experience and proposes a set of harmonized guidelines to conduct evaluations in living labs.