Too far away from home to watch out for your elderly parents? Why not have their house do it for you? That's what researchers at the University of Virginiahad in mind when they built a network of sensors for the home to monitor daily activities of senior citizens. Take a tour of such a home on tonight's "Tech Live."
"It's an assistive tool to the caregivers, particularly the informal caregiver, the adult child who has a parent living alone and who would want to make sure their parent is alive, living well, and performing all the tasks necessary for their well-being every day," said Majd Alwan, a research professor at the University of Virginia.
Designed by the university's Medical Automation Research Center (MARC), the smart house monitors virtually every movement of the person living there and alerts doctors or family members when it detects potential problems.
"The care assessor would receive a report that would list all their clients and they could quickly assess who in the latest batch of reports had issues that need addressing," said university lab specialist Steve Kell.
The smart house system has a computer that synthesizes the data from the sensors and sends it through the Internet to a central monitoring system.
"The data acquisition and communications module collects bits and pieces of information from the suite of sensors, logs it into a log file, and sends the file to a remote location where the data can be analyzed," said Alwan.
The smart house system has a computer that synthesizes the data from the sensors and sends it through the Internet to a central monitoring system.
MARC is currently testing the system in a house in Charlottesville, Virginia. The system records events such as the refrigerator door opening, water running, and the stove heating up, and can conclude that a resident is preparing a meal. Motion detectors record how quickly someone walks, as well as when and where.
The system tells the people living in the house if they're eating right, if their weight is getting out of hand, if their sleep is being disrupted, if they're getting up more during the night to go to the bathroom. "And I know that at the same time this is happening, it's providing information to my caregivers," Kell said, explaining how the system works.
Developers say the system is not intrusive, adding that they're not using sensors like cameras or microphones. Rather, the smart house consists of sensors small enough to hide. They're placed above doorways, under floors and bedposts, and behind refrigerators.
Roberta Allen, 72, says she'd consider having her home made into a smart house. "You don't even know it's there," Allen said. "But you feel a comfort that it is going to let someone know if something happens to you."
If a person falls, the system would alert a caretaker or son or daughter that the senior could be injured. The amount of sensors in the home would depend on the needs of the elderly person. There is tremendous flexibility in terms of the system's invasiveness, said Beverly Turner, a clinical research coordinator. "You can either add or remove sensors as needed."
In addition to the information that the smart house system could provide caretakers and adult children, researchers at the university also want senior citizens to take advantage of the technology by checking their own data. Researchers have designed a system that allows the person being monitored to log on to a website to check their monitored patterns of living. The site requires a password and provides graphs that show how many times a day the person ate or took a shower.
Researchers say they want the elderly person to be in control. Roberta Allen wants that too, but she also wants to feel safe while living alone. "I was on a ladder yesterday, and if I fall who is going to know? If there are sensors everywhere, then I'm covered and I can do exactly what I want."
System designers say a basic system could be commercially available within a couple of years at a cost beginning around $300.