Supporting human activity performance using argumentation-based technology

Sammanfattning: The aim for the research presented in this thesis is to develop theories, methods and technology which can detect, represent and evaluate purposeful human activity based on information, which is inconsistent, incomplete and which includes information about an individual's needs, goals and motives. The purpose is to provide instruments to the fields of assistive technology and ambient assisted living, which have the potentials to advance the treatment of semantic information for the purpose of making decisions and reasoning about complex human activity in daily life. Furthermore, based on sound interpretations of activity and evaluation of activity performance, tailored recommendations can be provided to the individual. This is achieved by integrating theoretical models of human activity with formal argumentation theory, and in this way create a model for representing the knowledge. Also based on the activity-theoretical models of human activity and argumentation, a computational model for common-sense reasoning was built based on the notion of fragments of activity. Moreover, a calculus model for evaluating activity performance considering the so called activity fragments was developed. These theoretical models were forming a base for implementing an argument-based reasoner engine, which manages incomplete and inconsistent information. These results were implemented in a prototype system designed for aiding an individual in improving health in daily life, for the purpose of testing the theories and methodologies with potential users. Information obtained by the sensors of a mobile phone and by assessments done by the individual regarding priorities, goals and motives were used in the analysis. Preliminary results are fed into further development, and future work includes user studies over a longer period of time. Furthermore, assistive technology for monitoring human activities in different contexts such as mining and construction industries are also being developed and tested. Future work includes also the development of methods for reasoning about activities based on data-stream sources, and taking into account that human needs, goals and motives vary over time. Moreover, methods for automatic configuration of intelligent collaborative agents and for fusing of heterogeneous data sources for providing tailored services will also be developed and evaluated in the ambient assisted living context.