Wireless Alert Technology for Elderly Care at Home

Ambient Assistance uses the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to monitor elderly people at home, improving their quality of life through wearable sensors, audio-video technology, and ubiquitous computing. Social isolation, a critical issue for seniors, poses a greater risk to mortality than obesity or physical inactivity, threatening the health and independence of adults over 65. While commercial solutions exist, they are costly and often disregard user context and caregiver needs. This article presents a system that prioritizes user autonomy by notifying the elderly adult before caregivers. It supports various devices and provides a platform for exploring wearable sensors for the elderly, with the aim of reducing social isolation by reassuring loved ones when the user is in a safe area. The system offers caregivers contextual alerts, real-time visualization, and two-way communication when the elderly person leaves a designated safe zone. Our study consisted of two phases: laboratory tests to validate system components and interfaces, followed by a 2-year longitudinal study with an elderly participant and their caregiver, analyzing long-term usage patterns and real-world effectiveness. Our technological findings demonstrate the system’s robustness and efficiency. We achieved an \(80\%\) uptime over the 2-year period, with an average notification delay of less than 2 s. The system successfully integrated with various IoT devices, including smartwatches, door sensors, and motion detectors. Key challenges included minimizing false alarms, which were reduced to less than \(1\%\) using MapReduce-based data processing algorithms, and ensuring seamless operation in diverse network conditions. Although promising, the limitations of the study require further research with a larger sample size. This project contributes to the field of ambient assistance by offering a distributed lambda architecture and a technologically advanced approach to combating social isolation among the elderly. Balances the needs of both seniors and their caregivers while prioritizing system reliability, adaptability, and security.