Assisted Living

Background

The population of most advanced economies are living longer thanks to improvements in medicine and general quality of life. This trend raises challenges and opportunities, from the need of tools and services that enable people to remain active, productive and independent for longer, to a rise in the need of health and social care services.

The proliferation of powerful and cheaper technologies enable products and services for older and vulnerable people that are both useful and cost effective.  However, few people have benefited from assisted living technologies to date, and many are not aware or do not have access to these solutions. Likewise, many organisations and carers are under pressure to do more with less, but they have not adopted digital technologies in a meaningful way.

Solution

Assisted Living 1The IoT Factory, we have developed a service platform that allows for the installation non-intrusive connected devices in residential settings and using advanced analytics to identify and respond to real-time events, to detect unsafe or unhealthy behaviours.

Different sensors can be connected to capture data depending on specific needs, including:

  • Measurement of environmental conditions, from humidity to temperature, noise, CO2, etc.
  • Detection of accidents and risks such as falls, fire, intrusion and motion.
  • Monitoring of long-term conditions, sleep patterns, and consumption of medications, food and water.
  • Measuring the consumption of utilities such as water, gas and electricity.

The information captured by the sensors is transmitted through a broadband or mobile connection to a central location where it is safely stored and immediately analysed.  If the data suggests an emergency situation, then an alarm is raised and issued to relevant people or services. Otherwise, the sensor data is continuously analysed to identify trends that may suggest potentially unsafe or unhealthy behaviours.

 

Key characteristics

  • The integrated solution, not a standalone product.
  • A scalable platform that supports large volumes of sensor data, and integration with multiple systems.
  • Vendor agnostic, cost-effective, consumer-driven, and aimed to the mass market.
  • Secure, with a robust ethical framework, code of conduct, and data-privacy protection.

Benefits

  • Earlier and faster detection of accidents and risks.
  • Facilitate independent living for longer.
  • Increase efficiency of carers.
  • Facilitate better and safer running of homes.
  • Better health prevention, and associated reduction in the demand for health services.
  • Enable wellbeing through socialisation and participation.