JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

This thesis was part of smart kitchen project, it aimed to use current technology to facilitate senior citizens with mild dementia’s cooking process in the kitchen. As different senior citizens with mild dementia had different living habit and kitchen environment, smart kitchen had context aware and learning ability to adapt itself to fit senior citizens with mild dementia’s habit and living condition to assist their cooking activities. This research applied scenario based design method, its result worked with the other research of this smart kitchen project to build smart kitchen prototype, the prototype was created to accomplish the scenario of instructing senior citizens with mild dementia to complete coffee making process by the aid of remote guiding system operated by caretaker. This research developed a way to design steps and collect data elements of coffee making process for the cooking guiding system, so that remote caretaker can instruct senior citizens with mild dementia by taking advantage of it. Multiple cameras based visual surveillance system was designed to facilitate observation of cooking objects and senior citizens with mild dementia’s cooking condition in the kitchen. Audio and graphical assistance were applied to deliver instruction information to senior citizens with mild dementia. This smart kitchen prototype affirmed the feasibility of smart kitchen, and it also revealed the area for further improvement.