Analysis of human behavior in five healthcare centers for the development of new technologies and the improvement of life quality

The analysis of human behavior in everyday-life situations starts from the assumption that people who act on indoor devices too often are not entirely conscious of the functioning of these systems and cannot achieve well-being as intended, with nonnegligible physical and cognitive efforts in weaker subjects. Is it possible to create the best comfort possible in an indoor environment with minimized activity by final users at any time? This study aims at understanding vulnerable human beings and their development through the lifespan, detecting their actions in order to design a smart indoor device able to provide seniors with the ideal comfort level, that cannot be achieved autonomously inside private and institutional environments. Five healthcare centers located in Italy took part in this project between 2016 and 2017 and a total of 75 field observations have been carried out in order to gather information about behaviors of people that live in. Findings highlighted that both men and women seem to act, physically react, and voice their discomfort more in relation to cold, and women appear extremely sensitive to the temperature and choose more carefully the right clothes based on indoor and outdoor temperatures. A huge gap seems to exist between the perceptions of senior people and those of their caregivers. This suggests that technological innovations should improve the quality of life of human beings through a process of customization to target response, especially in relation to vulnerable categories, and place themselves within an evolutionary framework all along the course of life.