A Multifunctional Platform for Elders’ Assisting to Live Alone

Abstract

Living well demands for many facilities in order to assist the people suffering from different disease, especially for those who are unattended by a nurse. The houses of elder people that prefer to live alone require the equipment with such facilities that we think will help them to carry on with their life on their own. According to the recent statistics the prevalence of dementia is increasing as a trend with a sharp curve. Where the observations has shown that belonging to this group are mostly the people of middle or greater age, so 25%–30% of people of age 85 years old or older suffer from this disease. In order to make more enjoyable their life we have thought to build a multifunctional platform that will assist them during the day. Another purpose of this platform will be the notification of their relatives mostly their children, so the platform will show them that they parents or relatives are in good health. So they can be notified if something unusual and bad happened to them and this will be achieved through a non invasive system. The platform LAB (Living Alone Better) that we are proposing is a multifunctional application. The main features of it is to remember them to take their medicines, when it is time to have their meals and as well to notify them to attend the visits to their doctors when it is scheduled beforehand, in the day and the hour when the appointment is fixed. Beside it they can do some physical training by following the instructions said by voice of a trainer. Through the interaction with the platform they can interact as well with their friends, they can read or hear the paper headlines in their own language being the news local or from a larger region of interest from the continent of world wide. Also in case of any home incidence they can dial the emergency number by just pressing a button and a registered voice call with their data and geo-location will part toward the hospital as well a sms which will be sent in automatic to their family members. In this sms is written the information regarding the incidence when it happens in real time. By reading their location the platform will be able to connect them to their nearest friends. So they can hang out together to a near place of interest that can be: a green space, a museum, a theatre, some bars or restaurant and the system could tell them about the weather conditions and the forecast for their zone. Also it will show the shortest path to follow or the nearest bus station or train that they can catch to reach a destination. For their entertainment they can listen to the radio, or hear some music from a predefined list, also some brain training games are implemented in the platform. This platform is designed to be very simple in use without any complexity added, so it can help the elder people to use it and live better even that those have preferred to live alone. Using such platform is a necessity also in our country as the middle age is increasing.