Simulated Data to Estimate Real Sensor Events: A Poisson-Regression-Based Modelling

Automatic detection and recognition of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) are crucial for providing effective care to frail older adults living alone. A step forward in addressing this challenge is the deployment of smart home sensors capturing the intrinsic nature of ADLs performed by these people. As the real-life scenario is characterized by a comprehensive range of ADLs and smart home layouts, deviations are expected in the number of sensor events per activity (SEPA), a variable often used for training activity recognition models. Such models, however, rely on the availability of suitable and representative data collection and is habitually expensive and resource-intensive. Simulation tools are an alternative for tackling these barriers; nonetheless, an ongoing challenge is their ability to generate synthetic data representing the real SEPA. Hence, this paper proposes the use of Poisson regression modelling for transforming simulated data in a better approximation of real SEPA. First, synthetic and real data were compared to verify the equivalence hypothesis. Then, several Poisson regression models were formulated for estimating real SEPA using simulated data. The outcomes revealed that real SEPA can be better approximated (R ² _pred = 92.72%) if synthetic data is post-processed through Poisson regression incorporating dummy variables.