Monitoring behavior in home using a smart fall sensor and position sensors

TLDR

The authors developed a system for remotely monitoring human behavior at home to improve security and quality of life, aiming to expand telecare to a larger elderly population currently confined to hospices. The system uses infrared position sensors and magnetic switches to monitor activity, a custom smart fall sensor for fall detection, RF wireless links for local communication, and application software that exploits data locally while transmitting it remotely via network.

Abstract

The authors developed a system for remotely monitoring human behavior during daily life at home, to improve the security and the quality of life. The activity was monitored through infrared position sensors and magnetic switches. For the falls detection the authors had to develop a smart sensor. The local communications were performed using RF wireless links to reduce the cabling and to allow mobility of the person. An application software performs data exploitation locally but it also performs remote data transmission through the network. This project aim at expanding the telecare solution to a larger population of elderly people who are presently forced to live in hospices.