**4.3 Supporting community involvement of people with different living functions by using a daily life database**

If we can detect changes in walking pace and other changes in daily life, what is the best way to use this information? One way is to provide services that support community involvement according to changes in living function.

To understand the living conditions and living function of the elderly, we interviewed elderly participants at home and collected data on their living conditions as a technological element for providing tailored support for community involvement. We developed a system to describe daily life data in terms of relationships between elements such as community involvement, experience, emotions, people, things, and activities related to community involvement [8]. We included elements and experiences used to describe daily life in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. **Figure 7** shows an example of graphically represented life data of an elderly person at one time point. The plot represents the overall life structure. Such graphic representation allows an understanding of the entire life structure,

**133**

**Figure 7.**

*Example of graphical representation of life structure data.*

*Living Function-Resilient Society in the Centenarian Era: Living Safety Technology Based…*

including the relationships between individual elements, the use of graphic structure analysis, and numerical representation of the degree of similarity between individual graphic structures and searching on life data. Using this method, we have

The use of graphic representation of daily life allows calculation of the degree of similarity between individual graph structures and identification of those who have a similar life structure. **Figure 8** shows the life structures of 20 elderly people and plots the degree of similarity between them. It reveals groups concentrated at the top left corner of the graph, where the life structures have a degree of similarity, along with one person at the right edge (G15) and one at the bottom edge (G10), both substantially different from the others. The placement of G15 indicates that that person mostly feels happy about community involvement but sometimes feels sad, angry, or worried about it. The placement of G10 indicates that the person has mostly negative feelings such as loneliness, sadness, and anger. Such graphical representation allows us to identify elderly people with a different life structure from the majority who might therefore require interventions to support them in changing

For example, when we design an intervention to improve living conditions, by using a life structure distance space (or life structure manifold), we can identify people with similar life structures and encourage them to become involved in community activities, instead of putting together people with very different life structures. If a person's life structure later changes, we can again encourage community involvement with people with more similar life structures. This is a scientific approach to changing people's life structure step-by-step to bring it closer to what they want or by revising goals. We think that this approach will lead to a data-based scientific approach (life design methodology) to process design to achieve a desir-

**Figure 9** shows the output of software that has read the life structure data of an 80-year-old woman and has searched for elderly persons with similar life structures

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85422*

their living conditions.

able life structure.

developed a life database of more than 70 elderly people.

#### *Living Function-Resilient Society in the Centenarian Era: Living Safety Technology Based… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85422*

including the relationships between individual elements, the use of graphic structure analysis, and numerical representation of the degree of similarity between individual graphic structures and searching on life data. Using this method, we have developed a life database of more than 70 elderly people.

The use of graphic representation of daily life allows calculation of the degree of similarity between individual graph structures and identification of those who have a similar life structure. **Figure 8** shows the life structures of 20 elderly people and plots the degree of similarity between them. It reveals groups concentrated at the top left corner of the graph, where the life structures have a degree of similarity, along with one person at the right edge (G15) and one at the bottom edge (G10), both substantially different from the others. The placement of G15 indicates that that person mostly feels happy about community involvement but sometimes feels sad, angry, or worried about it. The placement of G10 indicates that the person has mostly negative feelings such as loneliness, sadness, and anger. Such graphical representation allows us to identify elderly people with a different life structure from the majority who might therefore require interventions to support them in changing their living conditions.

For example, when we design an intervention to improve living conditions, by using a life structure distance space (or life structure manifold), we can identify people with similar life structures and encourage them to become involved in community activities, instead of putting together people with very different life structures. If a person's life structure later changes, we can again encourage community involvement with people with more similar life structures. This is a scientific approach to changing people's life structure step-by-step to bring it closer to what they want or by revising goals. We think that this approach will lead to a data-based scientific approach (life design methodology) to process design to achieve a desirable life structure.

**Figure 9** shows the output of software that has read the life structure data of an 80-year-old woman and has searched for elderly persons with similar life structures

**Figure 7.** *Example of graphical representation of life structure data.*

*Internet of Things (IoT) for Automated and Smart Applications*

*The subject using the handrail (left) and motion data obtained (right).*

**4.3 Supporting community involvement of people with different living** 

community involvement according to changes in living function.

If we can detect changes in walking pace and other changes in daily life, what is the best way to use this information? One way is to provide services that support

To understand the living conditions and living function of the elderly, we interviewed elderly participants at home and collected data on their living conditions as a technological element for providing tailored support for community involvement. We developed a system to describe daily life data in terms of relationships between elements such as community involvement, experience, emotions, people, things, and activities related to community involvement [8]. We included elements and experiences used to describe daily life in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. **Figure 7** shows an example of graphically represented life data of an elderly person at one time point. The plot represents the overall life structure. Such graphic representation allows an understanding of the entire life structure,

**functions by using a daily life database**

*Results of 15-month monitoring of walking pace as a health indicator.*

**132**

**Figure 5.**

**Figure 6.**

#### **Figure 8.**

*Visualization of life structure patterns (life structure distance space or life structure manifold).*

#### **Figure 9.**

*Software to support life design based on an enormous amount of life data and life geometric operations (digital crystal ball).*

and for things that make her happy. **Figure 10** shows a group of elderly people mapping the locations of little-known community involvement events. Currently, we are working with a community association and a local elderly care management center to provide the participants with advanced support, tailored to their individual living conditions, in community involvement, by combining life design support technology and local maps and making good use of resources available in the local community.
