Pattern Clustering Approach for Activity Recognition in Smart Homes

In recent years, studies in activity recognition have shown an increasing amount of attention among other researchers. Activity recognition is usually performed through two steps: activity pattern clustering and classification processes. Clustering allows similar activity patterns to be grouped together while classification provides a decision-making process to infer the right activity. Although many related works have been suggested in these areas, there is some limitation as most of them are focused only on one part of these two processes. This paper presents a work that combines pattern clustering and classification into one single framework. The former uses the Self Organizing Map (SOM) to cluster activity data into groups while the latter utilizes semantic activity modelling to infer the right type of activity. Experimental results show that the combined method provides higher recognition accuracy compared to the traditional method of machine learning. Furthermore, it is more appropriate for a dynamic environment of human living.