Raspberry Pi Assisted Safety System for Elderly People: An Application of Smart Home

Abstract

Nowadays, the care of elderly peoples is a significant problem and needs more time and attention from the caregivers. In the elderly population, accidental fall is a common cause of injury due to the weakness or any other disease such as high temperature and blood pressure. Moreover, in developing countries, the use of natural gas for older adults is widespread for room heating. The use of a gas heater in a room can be hazardous, especially at night and it has reportedly said to turn OFF the gas heater while going to sleep. However, it is ignored quite often that results in many deaths not only to the elderly but to all age groups. To cope with these issues and to provide a safer environment, especially to the older people where the caretaker can be informed well on-time, a raspberry Pi assisted cost-effective safety system is proposed. The 3-axis accelerometer of gas and flame sensors are used to detect an event when accidental fall occurs precisely, or any gas leakage or flame is detected. The caretaker will be informed using a mobile app or text alert to take action immediately. Results demonstrate that the modules for fall and gas/open flame detection accurately detected true events by 92% and 95% respectively. The primary purpose of the proposed system is to provide a reliable, cost-effective, and efficient method for the safety of the elderly population.