With the increasing elderly population, attention has been drawn to the development of applications for habit assessment using activity data from smart environments that can be implemented in care facilities. In this paper, we introduce a novel habit assessment method based on information of human activities. First, a recognition system tracks the user's activities of daily living by collecting data from multiple object sensors and ambient sensors that are distributed within the environment. Based on this information, the activities of daily living are expressed using Fourier series representation. The durations and sequence of the activities are represented by the phases and amplitudes of the harmonics. In this manner, each sequence is represented in a form that we refer to as a behavioral spectrum. After that, signals are clustered to find habits. We also calculate the variability, and by comparing the explained variance, the types of habits are found. For an evaluation, two datasets (young and elderly population) were used, and the results showed the potential habits of each group. The outcomes of this study can help improve and expand the applications of smart homes.
Keywords: activity recognition system; distributed sensors; elderly support; habit assessment.