Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems
Older adults’ preferences to remain independent in their own homes along with the high costs of nursing home care have motivated the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies which aim at improving the safety, health conditions and wellness of the elderly. This paper reports hands-on...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2015-06-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/6/14487 |
| _version_ | 1828358570098294784 |
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| author | Athanasios Dasios Damianos Gavalas Grammati Pantziou Charalampos Konstantopoulos |
| author_facet | Athanasios Dasios Damianos Gavalas Grammati Pantziou Charalampos Konstantopoulos |
| author_sort | Athanasios Dasios |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Older adults’ preferences to remain independent in their own homes along with the high costs of nursing home care have motivated the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies which aim at improving the safety, health conditions and wellness of the elderly. This paper reports hands-on experiences in designing, implementing and operating UbiCare, an AAL based prototype system for elderly home care monitoring. The monitoring is based on the recording of environmental parameters like temperature and light intensity as well as micro-level incidents which allows one to infer daily activities like moving, sitting, sleeping, usage of electrical appliances and plumbing components. The prototype is built upon inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware (e.g., various sensors, Arduino microcontrollers, ZigBee-compatible wireless communication modules) and license-free software, thereby ensuring low system deployment costs. The network comprises nodes placed in a house’s main rooms or mounted on furniture, one wearable node, one actuator node and a centralized processing element (coordinator). Upon detecting significant deviations from the ordinary activity patterns of individuals and/or sudden falls, the system issues automated alarms which may be forwarded to authorized caregivers via a variety of communication channels. Furthermore, measured environmental parameters and activity incidents may be monitored through standard web interfaces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T03:31:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3f5605e74eb34ee7b454d13b7995b3e5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T03:31:44Z |
| publishDate | 2015-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-3f5605e74eb34ee7b454d13b7995b3e52022-12-22T02:14:56ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202015-06-01156144871451210.3390/s150614487s150614487Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living SystemsAthanasios Dasios0Damianos Gavalas1Grammati Pantziou2Charalampos Konstantopoulos3School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras GR-26335, GreeceSchool of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras GR-26335, GreeceDepartment of Informatics, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Athens GR-12243, GreeceDepartment of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Piraeus GR-18534, GreeceOlder adults’ preferences to remain independent in their own homes along with the high costs of nursing home care have motivated the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies which aim at improving the safety, health conditions and wellness of the elderly. This paper reports hands-on experiences in designing, implementing and operating UbiCare, an AAL based prototype system for elderly home care monitoring. The monitoring is based on the recording of environmental parameters like temperature and light intensity as well as micro-level incidents which allows one to infer daily activities like moving, sitting, sleeping, usage of electrical appliances and plumbing components. The prototype is built upon inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware (e.g., various sensors, Arduino microcontrollers, ZigBee-compatible wireless communication modules) and license-free software, thereby ensuring low system deployment costs. The network comprises nodes placed in a house’s main rooms or mounted on furniture, one wearable node, one actuator node and a centralized processing element (coordinator). Upon detecting significant deviations from the ordinary activity patterns of individuals and/or sudden falls, the system issues automated alarms which may be forwarded to authorized caregivers via a variety of communication channels. Furthermore, measured environmental parameters and activity incidents may be monitored through standard web interfaces.http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/6/14487ambient assisted livingsmart homeelderlymonitoringwireless sensor networkArduinoZigBeeXBee |
| spellingShingle | Athanasios Dasios Damianos Gavalas Grammati Pantziou Charalampos Konstantopoulos Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems Sensors ambient assisted living smart home elderly monitoring wireless sensor network Arduino ZigBee XBee |
| title | Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems |
| title_full | Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems |
| title_fullStr | Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems |
| title_short | Hands-On Experiences in Deploying Cost-Effective Ambient-Assisted Living Systems |
| title_sort | hands on experiences in deploying cost effective ambient assisted living systems |
| topic | ambient assisted living smart home elderly monitoring wireless sensor network Arduino ZigBee XBee |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/6/14487 |
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