An integrated home-based self-management system to support the wellbeing of older adults

Abstract

With an ageing population and the constant need towards improving the quality of life for older people in our society, there comes an urgent challenge to support people where they live in an environment that adapts to their needs as they age. While much research on ubiquitous sensor systems and telehealth devices focuses on this need, many of these solutions operate at less than full capacity, and with little scope at present to assess everyday aspects of wellbeing. They focus on detecting sudden critical physiological and behavioural changes and offer few mechanisms to support preventative actions. The challenge of predicting changes and prompting positive preventative intervention measures, aiding the avoidance of severe physical or mental harm, has not adequately been addressed. This paper discusses our experiences of designing, deploying and testing an integrated home-based ambient assisted living (AAL) system for older adults, consisting of ambient monitoring, behaviour recognition and feedback to support self-management of wellness, in addition to providing feedback on home security and home energy. It offers a complete system overview of an AAL solution in smart environments and discusses our lessons learned with the goal of assisting other researchers in the field in designing and deploying similar environments.