Low cost smart homes for elders

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy and the consequent aging of the general population pose, nowadays, major challenges to modern societies. Most elderly people have the usual problems related to old age, like health chronic problems and sensory and cognitive impairments. Besides that, in today’s modern societies, where families have less and less time to look after for their old relatives, the isolation of the elderly is a real concern and a very current problem, which is enhanced if the elders live alone. To solve or, at least, mitigate that problem, it was developed a smart home for elders that is presented and described in this paper. The developed assistive home system, which is based on available technology, can ensure the quality of life, safety and well-being of all older adults that want or desire to live in the comfort of their home, near to their friends and in their neighborhood, instead of living in elder care centers. The proposed solution can record and analyze the elders’ daily routines in order to alert (e.g., e-mails or text messages) the family members and/or social agents (e.g., doctors and caregivers) whenever an unusual situation occurs or when the elder is in danger, provide real-time audio and video when necessary and some comfort features, such as, automatic lighting and temperature control. The relevant events are recorded and maintained in a cloud database, which can be accessed through a dedicated website or by an Internet of Things (IoT) Application Programming Interface (API). Although this type of solution/service is focused in the elderly population, anybody can use it. The developed solution provides comfort and safety to elders and, at the same time, an easier way of monitoring all important events.