Sustainable AAL technology for supporting seniors in independent living shared homes

Abstract

Purpose Affordable and sustainable housing for seniors is a major project in Canada and France alike (Bresson & Labit, 2020). While retirement homes and nursing homes have been developed to address this need and provide seniors with the necessary support as they age, the greater majority of the population lives on government-issued retirement and cannot afford living in such residential settings (Bresson & Labit, 2020). Driven by this need, unique models in France have been developed. The Ages Sans Frontières initiative (https://www.agessansfrontieres.fr/nos-etablissements/maison-partagee/les-maisons-partagees-de-brens/les-maisons-partagees-de-brens/) provides accessible and affordable shared seniors’ homes, where a group of 6 to 12 seniors in each shared home provide support for each other with a house keeper, present during working hours, who help them organize themselves, creating a sustainable and affordable self-support community. In this setting, seniors are able to support each other, despite their individual limitations or disabilities, through a community-focused approach. While shared housing for seniors is an ideal model in a world where retirement homes have become too expensive for most of the senior populations, the lack of continuous support in these shared homes is still a major problem that has been identified by seniors in the community. This project attempts to tackle this issue by developing an edge-based monitoring system capable to prevent and detect distress using motion sensors and a smart sound recognition sensor. This project explores four of the five Ps from the WHO-GATE 5P framework (World Health Organization, 2022), focusing on developing supportive technology (Products) for seniors in need (People), and to support service provision (Service Provision and Personnel) for shared seniors’ homes. For sustainable reasons, the number of sensors has been kept to a minimum: two motion sensors (in the bedroom & bathroom), a contact door on the front door and a smart sound sensor. These sensors can identify slow changes in a person’s habits to detect frailty, but also infectious respiratory diseases (e.g., recognizing cough and sneeze sounds). The technology for recognising the sounds of everyday life, developed at the Université de technologie de Compiègne (UTC), provides a unique way to identify critical sounds in the home (e.g., water running, glass breaking, coughing, etc.) as a rich information input for a reasoning system to create automated alerts in a shared living setting. The reasoning system is developed by the Research laboratory specialized in system analysis and architecture (LAAS CNRS), the human-computer interaction by the Research Institute of Computer Science (IRIT), and the interaction and clinical assessments coordinated by La Grave Gerontechnology Lab. The monitoring system is developed using edge computing technology, where no actual sound is recorded or leaves the device, while indicators are shared with relevant parties. This privacy-focused solution provides a sustainable and affordable solution for supporting seniors living independently, without the need for a complex IoT infrastructure. In addition, every six months, the ADL and IADL scales are evaluated, supplemented by focus groups carried out by the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse (CHU-T) and IRIT to measure acceptability and identify new needs within the shared senior house. This information, correlated with information from the sensors, provides a better understanding of the frailty and/or behaviour of seniors. Method While these technologies provide mechanisms for supporting independent living, their acceptance remains a major barrier due to lack of technology literacy and cognitive deterioration due to aging. In this project we will explore (1) alternative design solutions for the enclosure of the device, aimed at increasing acceptance, and (2) the deployment of these devices as part of a longitudinal study in retirement homes in Canada. Devices will be deployed in six retirement homes in Canada, which will collect data continuously for 12 months. Data will come from a combination of sound recognition IoT device (microphone and Raspberry Pi board), in addition to smart home sensors capable of identifying activities of daily living. Each apartment will be equipped with door contact sensors, motion sensors, temperature sensors, and air quality sensor. Through the integration of our technological ecosystem, this project will enable us to further develop a sustainable and affordable system for detecting activities of daily living. Expectations This partnership will advance the development of sustainable and affordable solutions for supporting independent living through the new concept of shared homes. Our team expects to improve and optimize the overall acceptance of this technology in the Canadian setting.