Exploiting Bluetooth Low Energy smart tags for virtual coaching

Many smart applications and devices have been developed to monitor the health status of people with special needs, substitute them in accomplishing daily life activities, alert the caregivers, and recognize risky situations. However, less effort has been spent designing smart solutions to empower and support their self-efficacy and help them learn to cope with daily life challenges. The key approach to support self-efficacy is “enabling the persons to do something” or “coaching” them towards the acquisition of behaviors they need. This paper follows such a direction by presenting a low-cost (<150 $), non-intrusive, and ubiquitous virtual coaching system to support people in acquiring new behaviors. The system exploits Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) smart tags to transform objects of daily life into smart objects. Simultaneously, a smartwatch application monitors the object usage according to the user’s needs, and it incrementally guides her/him in the acquisition of the target behavior.