A Pervasive System for Enabling Older Adults to Cope with Depression by Motivating them to Socialize

Abstract

We report on the design of a home-based ubiquitous computing system that helps elders to prevent and reduce the onset of depression by managing their social lifestyle with the family members. We propose that through a Social Calendar, elders are encouraged to socialize by receiving invitations and suggestions generated by the system when it detects that in the last two weeks the communication patterns with one or more of their children have been altered, or that it has detected those elders may have a symptom of depression.