E-health environments are extremely complex and challenging to manage, as they are required to cope with an assortment of patient conditions under various circumstances with a number of resource constraints. E-health devices usually indicate a piece of equipment with the mandatory capabilities of communication and some optional capabilities of sensing, actuation, data capture, data storage and data processing. The devices would collect various kinds of information and provide it to the information and communication networks for further processing and would operate in a dynamic environment, which would require unobtrusive monitoring and interacting with the inhabitants (i.e., patients) while they perform their activities of daily living (ADL). The devices should be able to recognise abnormal events as well as slowly emerging shifts in behaviour, and able to inform associated users (caregivers, healthcare professionals, family) appropriately and timely, in order to provide a feeling of safety and comfort for all involved parties. This chapter describes an e-Health Home Caring Environment designed to cater to patients with Mild Cognitive Impairments (MCI), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and seniors with frailty conditions. It details the required software and hardware technological innovations to design an affordable, easy-to-install smart “caring home” cognitive environment, which “senses” intuitively the wishes and “learns” the needs of the person living in the home. As a result, the environment provides unobtrusive daily support, notifying informal and formal caregivers when necessary and serving as a bridge to supportive services offered by the outside world.

Keywords: patient monitoring; home computing; health care; telemedicine; medical computing; diseases; cognition; geriatrics