HomeTL: A visual formalism, based on temporal logic, for the design of home based care

The demands of introducing a more practical means of managing and monitoring technology within the home environment to support independent living are increasing. Efforts have been made recently to address these concerns, however, they may be considered to be lacking in mathematical rigour or have not benefited from incorporating the needs and expectations of the healthcare professionals. In this paper, we present a prototype solution, referred to as HomeTL, which allows healthcare professionals to establish the conditions/rules within which technology in the home should operate. The HomeTL concept is based on previous work in the area of visual notation and linear temporal logic. A visual editor for HomeTL has been developed and is presented in this paper. Following a description of the methodology and the prototype developed, results from a usability study, conducted on three computer scientists specializing in the area of healthcare management, are presented. The initial results based on this survey are positive and show that the topic deserves further investigation.