An efficient k-anonymous localization technique for assistive environments

  • Authors:
  • Francesco Buccafurri;Gianluca Lax

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Cal., Italy;University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Cal., Italy

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

In health assistive environments the possibility of knowing patient's position can be very important, since may represent a valid support to medical activities and assistance strategies. However, we cannot assume in general that the utility of having precise information about patients' location is stronger than the right of keeping private the access to some place and, more in general, the exact movements that patients do in the environment. Thus, besides the standard precise localization issue, we consider also the issue of providing approximate non-deterministic answers about patients' positions in such a way that privacy is protected but they can be anyway found with a small number of attempts. The solution enforces the general concept of k-anonymity, which we adapt in our context in a way different from the classical one. An important aspect of our technique is that it is strongly efficient and implementable via very cheap devices, which is a very relevant issue in pervasive environments where wireless devices with limited processing capability and power have to be utilized.