Prospect of smart home-based detection of subclinical depressive disorders

Aging is associated with changing physical, social, emotional, and financial circumstances that are often new to the elder. The affective distress that stems from coping with them could play a negative effect on the health of seniors and lead to severe cases of depression, an emotional disorder that could lead to fatal consequences. The combination of novel methods of ambulatory detection of emotional states, body area networks providing information from numerous bodily parameters, and sophisticated pervasive technologies offers new possibilities in the detection of and intervention in cases of subclinical depression. In this paper we present the technical aspects and rationale behind systems that can use emotional valence monitoring to quantify prolonged emotional negativity and identify the activities associated with such negativity. We argue that this as a suitable mechanism to facilitate ambient-mediated self-regulation and remote peer-support.